Personal Projects
Shooting for yourself, and others
A gallery of World Trade Center Steel photos at WestervilleLife - Photos by Gary Gardiner
As New Years Eve approaches, I consider what my resolutions will be.
My family has stopped laughing at my failed humor about stopping doing something that prevents me from being injured such as resolving to no longer stop at traffic signals and never pass by Krispy Kreme without stopping when the light is on.
A failed former resolution actually involved Krispy Kreme and its light. If you know KK, you understand. If not, seek out KK when the light is on.
I always have plans for new personal projects each year. Some are in addition to existing projects that have lasted, in some cases, for much more than a year. Others are short term and only possible during certain seasons or set of events. A project from two years ago was to shoot farmer’s hands and their produce at the Westerville Farmers Market. It was confined to each Wednesday for the market season. A much earlier year-long project showed action and interaction around The Rock At Inniswood. A continuing project is more conceptual involving anglers and their poles and catches at Hoover Reservoir.
One of my continuing projects is providing photos to the Westerville Fire Fighters’ Memorial to help raise money for its project and to help them document the installation of a piece of steel from the World Trade Center.
Personal projects provide spectacular challenges for photographers. Defining the project and its scope in your photo life can alter your life schedule to accommodate the project’s needs. Good photographers always choose ideas that are layered in their complexity. It would be easy to photograph the same tree every day for a year. It wouldn’t be easy photograph every tree surgeon and their workers in a year.
The scope of the project defines your expectations. Choosing something simple, such as the tree, and you learn nothing more than the aggravation of a project poorly defined. Accepting to step beyond the ordinary places you among the photographers who challenge themselves to better undertand the craft and learn more about themselves.
Accepting to shoot the tree surgeon and their employees is more than just knowing when to use small strobe fill flash or narrow depth-of-field to isolate a subject.
It requires a skill set that includes personality, psychology, dedication to purpose and good photography.
Your choice of project will define you.
(Eds. Note: A portion of the profits from this site goes to the Westerville Fire Fighters’ Memorial fund. Contribute.)
