We’ve all been there, we start a Project 365 or P52 with the best of intentions only to peter out a couple months in.
Of course, we know how beneficial daily and weekly shooting projects can be to our growth as photographers, but – let’s be honest – they can also feel redundant and unmotivating.
I believe the reason so many of us lose steam with more traditional personal projects is that they often lack a unique personal relevance.
I’m pretty sure at this point I’ve completed every traditional personal project out there: 365, P52, Letters to my Children, 10 on 10. But every now and then I come up with my own idea for a project – a lifestyle maternity series for my son, monthly photobooth style collages of his first year, Every Day in June (5 photos a day for a month), a summer spent shooting images inspired by my favorite Avett Brothers lyrics, and this year’s Weekend Update series.
And it’s those projects, the ones inspired by my life and my unique story, that have resulted in my greatest growth as a photographer. Why? Because they had personal meaning. I believe the more meaning we bake into our personal projects at the outset, the more meaning we’ll take away from them. So if traditional 365 and P52 projects aren’t working for you, here are my tips for designing your own unique personal project.
1. Ask yourself, “What most inspires me to shoot?”
Try to look past the obvious answers and dig deeper. Many of us are passionate about documenting our family life, but maybe your inspiration lays outside the home, on the streets of your city or town. Or maybe improving your shooting skills is what most motivates you to shoot. Are there gaps in your photography education you’d like to fill?
Lastly, look to your non-photography passions for inspiration. Music, books, art, cooking, baking, are all rife with project possibilities. The key with this step is to hone in on something uniquely personal to you that will keep those creative juices flowing for the duration of your project.
2. Take that inspiration and flesh out the details.
If your inspiration is your family, look for specific elements of your family’s story that you aren’t capturing as best or as much as you’d like to. What about your time together as a family is most sacred? What will you most want to remember? If you love street or landscape photography, look for something unique to where you live that you could turn into a series: bridges, doors, churches, old storefronts, abandoned houses.
Maybe you’re looking for a good technical challenge – creative lenses, light studies, and compositional themes all have potential to be turned into weekly or monthly projects. Music or book lover? Projects designed around lyrics or literary quotes are among my favorites. Passionate about cooking? Pick a recipe a week to cook, photograph, and share with your followers.
The key to any good personal project is making sure it’s neither too broad nor too narrow in scope. You want your project to have focus, but don’t limit yourself so much that you run out of ideas to shoot halfway through. This balance is different for every project, but finding it is a key step toward ensuring success.
3. Be realistic about the frequency of your project.
Daily shooting projects are great, but they’re not always feasible. I’m a huge fan of weekly projects, personally, as I feel they aren’t so intense that I get burned out but aren’t so infrequent that I get bored.
Frequency also depends on the nature of your project. If you’re doing a year-long study of different types of light, consider how long you want to give yourself to study and shoot each type of light.
And be sure to factor in time to edit and share on social media. We often underestimate how much time the non-shooting aspects of our projects take (or maybe that’s just me).
Also, consider that some personal projects aren’t conducive to a fixed frequency. A project photographing old doors or storefronts in your town might make more sense as an ongoing project that you shoot as you happen to come across your subject.
4. Lastly, decide if you want to do the project solo or with a friend or group.
It may seem odd to suggest partnering or grouping up on a project that you’ve designed to be very personal, but sometimes that’s the best way to make sure we stay accountable and stick with our projects for the long haul.
Bringing in a friend or even creating a hashtag for your project and inviting your social media followers to join in could take your project idea to a whole new level. The group dynamic isn’t right for every project, but if you’re someone who benefits from a little peer pressure to finish a project then it’s worth considering.
Summer is a fantastic time of year to start a new personal project, so I hope you’ll take these tips and create a project that’s original, inspiring, and uniquely you.
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So perfect, Allie!! …and I have loved following along with all of your projects! <3
Great tips! And glad to have been along for the ride on these ideas of yours, it’s fun doing projects with you, friend.