My Photography Plan
While reflecting on the current state of my photography, I have come up with a new photography plan. My end goal is quite high - to become a well known photographer. From that goal I am currently quite distant, however in small steps I believe I can achieve this.
Therefore I have decided to name goals in different areas.
Skills - How to improve my skills as a photographer.
Equipment - What new gadgets to purchase.
Sales - How to make more money from photography so I can purchase said gadgets.
Clearly the most important thing is to improve my skill as a photographer. I already have good equipment, so that is not as important. The following are things that I need to do.
Improve my composition - I need to work more on the composition of my shots. The shots need to have strength, be interesting, and give a message beyond the subject. I have been reading a number of books on composition recently and hope to show the results very soon.
Learn from the masters - I need to spend more time examining the works of the most famous photographers in history. What made their works special? What do I like about their works? How is the style of the photographer reflected through their shots? The library will be of great help here. In the end, I hope to create my own particular style. I am on my way towards this, but I think an identifiable style will come in the further future.
Get stronger critiques - For my top shots, I need to have them critiqued by much tougher critics. Ideally, I would like to hear from a gallery owner why he/she would not hang the shot in his/her gallery. For shots where I only hear good feedback, I need to find tougher reviewers.
Take more photos - Before, I would sometimes go two weeks without taking any pictures. I need to take shots more frequently, which will improve the chances of getting that amazing shot.
Take different subjects - I need to branch out from taking only travel and insect photos. I should look into taking a wider variety of subjects - such as flowers and more abstract imagery.
Improve my editing skills - I need to learn more about Photoshop so I can add more to my images. In general I don’t like dramatically changing shots from how they came out of the camera, but I do need to learn how to change fine details of the photo in order to make it stronger.
In terms of equipment, I plan to make the following changes and purchases within the next year.
Photoshop Production Premium - I should be able to buy this by the end of this year. It is the first step towards increasing my knowledge of video as well.
High speed photography - I want to learn how to take pictures of insects in flight. This will likely involve building my own contraptions, which I’m not sure how to do right now. It seems more likely that I will need to learn a bit about electronics.
In terms of sales, I intend to keep up with microstock sales and real estate. I hope to expand my services in real estate soon and to actually begin advertising myself (currently it is just word of mouth). Eventually I want to start selling fine art prints, but I think that is still around a year away.
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Tags: goal, improve, photography, plan, skill