Hey Everyone!  Hope everyone is safe and healthy.  Today I'm going to talk about setting goals and creating personal projects.  Now, like all of these blogs, this is just my personal opinion and how I feel about the subject.  I am a goal person.  I have to set a goal to do almost anything.  That includes making a list.  I make a lot of lists.  And usually if it's not on a list, I'm probably not going to do it.  I'm pretty lazy that way.  For me, setting goals and making a list to get me to that goal is essential to growing as a photographer or in any part of my life.  I have set a lot of goals in my life and have failed in reaching them too.  For instance, I had failed for years to quit smoking until I finally did 13 years ago.  I have failed in keeping my weight under control, although I have lost lots of weight and have gained lots too.  I'm still working on that one.  But in photography I have basically kept improving by setting and reaching goals, from learning how to do something like using off camera flash, shooting in manual, the use of a light meter, developing film, shooting portraits. These were all IMG_1114 goals that I had set for myself, and I don't think I would have reached them just by picking up my camera every now and then and trying to do it.  I had to study and form some kind of plan to really learn how to do them.  And then practice.  One of the goals I have set for myself this year is to visit and photograph all of the state parks in North Carolina.  I had plans and was well under way when the coronavirus started, and that put a halt to my goal and really put the goal in jeopardy.  This weekend I set up a trip that I plan to take this summer to visit 10 state parks in a week-long camping trip to make up for all of the "Stay at Home" time while the parks were closed.  I still think I can make my goal, and it gives me something to look forward to.  And that's another point that comes from making goals.  It gives me something to look forward to, and that's important for motivating me to get ready to do something.  My yearly trips with my photography club are something that I really look forward to each year.  I like _MSP2238 knowing well in advance of the trip where and what kind photography we'll be doing.  Say, maybe landscape, waterfalls, or street photography.  It gives me time to plan for getting more equipment or learning a new skill before we go on our trip.  That way I can concentrate on the trip and not the mechanics of learning a new skill or how to use a new piece of equipment.  I think that my photographs become better because I have planned and learned my equipment or skill and can concentrate on composition and light, and the camera and/or skill become second nature because I have taken the time beforehand to learn it.  Taking some big goal and breaking it up into smaller sections is the best way to do any goal no matter what it is.  The old saying--how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time--really rings true in setting goals and planning.

Setting goals is a personal thing.  Everyone is different, and there is no one rule that fits all.  Set goals that you're interested in.  Make a personal project in photography.  Maybe if you like barns, make a project of barns.  Set a goal to maybe make a book.  Books are easy to make, but first you need the material.  In my state parks goal, I plan on making a book (just for me ) on photos from each state park.  You could make a book on barns from different regions of your state, say the mountains, the coast, or the Piedmont region, and show the differences of the barns from each region.

So this was just a small talk about goals and personal projects.  Pick a small personal project and try it out, maybe to take more portraits. While you are trying to reach your goal, your photography will improve, and you will learn a lot about yourself and what you like.  Maybe you'll find some type of photography that you like more than what you're doing now.  So until next time, keep shooting and get outside!