I've talked before about how projects keep me inspired, help me grow and improve as a photographer and are a fun way to participate with other photographers. This year I'm taking on quite a few although I may very well not keep up with all of them so we'll see. I have already cut back my hours at the day job again as it was all too much and I needed a bit more time to focus on me, the kids and Bexphoto so fingers crossed I find this year a bit more manageable!
So, which projects. Well you may have already read my goals for this year which mentioned a couple but I thought I'd list them here, more to help me keep track than anything! Lol.
The big one - my 366 project!
I tried one of these before in 2018 and made it pretty far but this time I hope to complete it. This time I have the added bonus of fellow photographers taking part in their own 365s via Phlock (headed by Cathy Murphy) and A Daily Occurence (headed by Ashley Marston) at the same time so we can support each other. So far so good but it's easy when on holiday as I'm shooting every day anyway! I'm two weeks in and this is how it's looking so far...
The Top Secret one!
It's not really a secret although it is somewhat under wraps for now. This project is big and it's exciting and I wanted to include it here! It involves documenting families in 2020 and has around 20 photographers on board (which seems apt). Oooh the intrigue! ;)
I did this one last year and will be trying to make sure I do each colour in the correct month this time. Here's last year's final grid (having been filled in with photos from other months as I didn't always manage a full 9 photos each month...
This is a new one for me, I've linked up with 3 other UK photographers to work on our portraits together (including self portraits if we're brave enough). This is a monthly challenge and we've set different techniques as our themes to help us grow and try new things. First up is prisms which I do often use but I tried something different by using it on myself! Our first loop is going live on the 18th Jan!
All about food of course, one of my big loves in life! I joined this loop during 2019 as a way to experiment and learn more about food photography since I've been hired as The Hurstwood's resident photographer! :) I'm yet to have any success with styling and trying out flatlays with food at home but it's something I want to do more of so hopefully this loop will give me the push I need. We post once a month with anything related to food. It will make you hungry!!!
Another new one for me, I've lurked in the p52 clicks Facebook group for years but finally took the plunge and joined in this year. Run by Megan Tully Boggs, Angie Mahlke and Lindsay Craig, this project sets monthly tasks which you practice and post once per week, hence project 52. January's theme is low light. For my first post I shot a self portrait in the shower at Mum & Dad's home in Malaysia as I was inspired by the window light behind the water. This was my favourite shot which I also posted in the Unraveled group and was chosen for a feature in their weekly top 20!
Another new project this year and another 52 week project. This one is run by Chloe Lodge, author of For the Love of the Photograph, and Cindy Cavanagh who paired up with Chloe for their own personal and ongoing 365 projects. This project sends out prompts to make you think and observe what's around you so for this one I've decided to concentrate on details and try to notice more of these around me and not just when shooting clients and my kids. (See below for my own ongoing details projects.) Both of my 52 week projects may also make up part of my 366 project for the days I shoot specifically for these to take the pressure off and avoid shooting overload!
Of course, I'm still carrying on with my own creative projects too, This Detailed Life is my Instagram hub I started in Feb 2018 which now has 5 mods plus me posting almost every day. We share images of details of all kinds of genres. Do come and follow along and join in with #thisdetailedlife! We now have almost 33,000 posts to our hashtag! Also, see below for how you can be more involved and possibly get featured on Details by the Dozen too!
Another one of my ongoing projects is the DBTD blog. This has evolved this year and I now select my favourite 12 images from those posted in This Detailed Life Facebook group which any photographer can join. Each month I also choose a Top Shot by one of the contributors which is then made the cover photo for the group for that month and posted in the Top Shot Gallery. The 12 Top Shots of the year will then be featured in a special blog post of the best of the year next January.
So yeh, there are quite a few that I've decided to participate in this year (and there is one more I've yet to finalise with a friend which I'm very excited about) but past projects have produced some of my award winning images and I've definitely seen an improvement in my work so this can only be a good thing. Also, if it does get overwhelming, I'll change it up a bit and relax the "rules". These are projects for me so I'll do them as and when I can but for now, they're all going well!
You can see all of my projects past and present by clicking on PROJECTS on the menu bar at the top of all Bexphoto web pages (I've just re-vamped the projects page). Current projects are also listed in the drop down menu from PROJECTS so you can click to go directly to them if you want to catch up and see how any of them are going throughout the year.
You can also sign up for automatic blog email updates every time I post something new by creating an account on the blog homepage...
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