I am not one for making a New Years resolution. It may be my problem with executing the plans or my inability to create a worthwhile resolution but I have not seriously considered one in a decade. When it comes to resolutions, or plans to change your life I like to reference a Vanilla Sky quote that goes “every passing minute is a another chance to turn it all around”. Instead of waiting until the next calendar year I want to make the effort to make the change now.
However, I am breaking my own code but for 2010 I want to learn more about photography. I have taken a photo every day since October 2006, and some days are a chore, but I believe that if I know more about what I am doing I will be able to photograph the familiar and ordinary in a new and engaging way.
- I feel that it is time to take it to the next step and focus on composition, exposure and lighting. To learn the technical aspects of a photo and how it all goes together before I press the shutter.
- I have subscribed to more photography websites and will actually think about techniques I am reading.
- I will visit sites that are recommended by photography people I follow on Twitter and really give that link my attention.
- I will look at good photos and really examine them. Why do I like a certain photo? What are they doing that I can learn from? How is their photo so good?
- I want to learn more about products (and not just what Canon is offering).
- I want to get more involved with the Edmonton photo community, as there is a good base of users from #yegphoto that I could learn from.
Where does this ultimately lead me? I do not think photography will be anything more than a hobby for me but knowing more will only aid this hobby. If there is a weekend course or a seminar I will make more of an effort to seek them out and attend.
In December I did a round of head shots at work for the company Christmas video, and it got me thinking. Will I approach people on the street to take their photo? Maybe not. However working towards that is something that interests me. Approaching someone on the street, getting some information about them and then putting a story to their photo sounds like a great project. It’s a scary thought, but exciting.
I have never evaluated what I am doing as a guy with a camera, and I hope at the end of the year I will have an answer to that.
No better way to start a 12 month plan than by reading some very niche and highly accurate comics from What The Duck.
Say cheese!
That’s really great Sean! A friend of mine took a course at Metro college here in Edmonton. It was taught by a collegue of mine, Chantal Thorlakson, and focused more on composition and expression, than camera controls. He enjoyed it very much.
http://edmonton.augusoft.net/index.cfm?method=ClassListing.ClassListingDisplay&int_category_id=4&int_sub_category_id=41&int_catalog_id=
Great ideas Sean! I like your stranger challenge. Check out this lady’s gallery. http://www.flickr.com/photos/girlhula/sets/72157604692045546/ Her challenge was titled 52 strangers. You might dig her blog too. http://hulaseventy.blogspot.com/ Keep on shooting!!!
Excellent, thanks for the link, I wouldn’t have looked at Metro college. I didn’t see a course that specifically said they would teach composition and expression but I thought “A Practical Introduction to Digital SLR Photography” was probably what I was looking for as the others seemed to be focused on a specific subject (Lightroom, Photoshop, Night Time, Wedding, Basics).
We talked in person about this but Hula Seventy is an amazing resource. I will be spending more time going through her archives, looking at the sites she uses as a resource/inspiration. Great find!