Personal projects
I believe it is always good to have a little personal project on the go - keeps the mind thinking and keeps me being creative.
My personal projects vary from a spur of the moment idea to location concept photo shoot with my car over flowing with props. These days I seem to find myself either dragging my camera bag out on family days only to never use it or feeling annoyed with myself for not having the camera on me when I spot a great shot…. so doing personal projects and little creative side missions helps me to overcome those annoying having / not having a camera on you when you need it moments in life..
When you move from being a keen photographer to a professional photographer it is easy for the fun and love for photography that you always had to disappear. Creativity can be found in all aspects of photography work as you are always looking for the best angles or something unusual but some jobs are obviously far more creative than others. Having personal projects on the go can really give your creative ideas the freedom they need.
Juggling a creative project with busy work life can be difficult but I have found that if you have a sketch book to keep track of concepts and a goal to aim for then it really helps with the motivation and drive to move forwards with producing the images instead of leaving the idea just sitting there in the back of your head.
Recently I seem to be leaning towards bigger personal projects involving lots of organising and models which is fun but time consuming (and expensive) so once these are finished (are personal projects ever really finished?) I might start aiming for more low key ideas!
Watch this space and see what happens next…