Posting weekly with Heather has given me a great way to check in with myself on the progress I’ve made in the previous seven days. On a day-to-day basis this progress is hard to measure and when not feeling a sense of accomplishment, can negatively spill over into the after hours, leaving a bad taste in my mouth (and others). If I can offer any advice this week it would be to check in with yourself. If you feel good about what you have accomplished today take the time to enjoy the moment. Then use this to fuel your next move, which will be made with that much more confidence.
I can’t give a specific incident that got me thinking about this. It’s more an overall feeling generated from a handful of new opportunities and new steps taken during this leg of my very fresh career.
First off, I did a little tabletop job for a friend and his import-export business. He needed a few of his products photographed on a white seamless. It’s nice, when you have a bit of time, to be able to help out friends. Nobody is calling on me for my plumbing or carpentry skills (understandably so). Introducing the worlds smallest studio:
© Grant Harder
This week saw ADBASE assisting me in sending out, approximately, a bazillion emails. No, I didn’t get too crazy, although one could. With that amount of contacts at your fingertips it would be easy to try and take advantage. I really tried to narrow my lists down as much as it seemed to make sense. I suspect in the future the list will get smaller and even more targeted. Initially, after the first wave of emails went out, watching the stats coming in provided some entertainment. That wore off. Also, my inbox became quite full with emails containing “out of office on holidays…if serious contact…” and “away on maternity leave…if serious contact…”. I’m thinking that I wouldn’t mind if my account were responding back with something similar (more like the first and not the second). I mean really, if that many potential clients are on holiday’s maybe I should be too?
Naaaaaa. Then I would have missed the opportunity to quote on this fantastic job that I’m being considered for. Hopefully the information super highway doesn’t somehow jinx it, not that I’m all that superstitious. All in good time, I suppose. Whatever happens it’s nice to know that I’m coming in on people’s radar, definitely a small moment to enjoy.
This week’s portfolio consideration:
© Grant Harder
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First off, thanks to everyone who sent me an email in regards to my post last week looking for assistants. The response was massive and I definitely have one hell of a list now! I wish calls for work came like this too. Anyways, I think I got back to almost everyone so far. Sorry if I haven’t yet, I’m not a jerk, a guy can only send so many emails in a day before his eyes fall out.
The adult ADHD is in full swing this week. I’m going to blame it on the awesome weather of late. Not only is there sun for the first time in what seems like forever, it’s also warm, almost hot out. They also re-painted the creepy shed in the dog park; hopefully it doesn’t get gratified too quickly like everything else in this neighborhood…
© Jaime Hogge
I had another shoot for Financial Post magazine this week that went really well. I also had a Humber student along for the ride once again to learn all of my bad habits and such. This weeks’ lesson was “remember to check all your gear before you leave” as I forgot all of my grids (I was planning to use all of them for the shot) and my sync, though luckily I had a back up. In the end it all worked out though and everyone lived happily ever after. Most of my editorial shoots seem to come in bunches so hopefully this was the first in another round of busyness.
I also had an idea come to me for a personal project while dodging dog crap in the nice morning sun at the park. I’m hoping it’s something I can pull off through the spring, summer and fall. I’m not really one for planning too much, as I don’t like ideas to get bogged down by strict, pre-determined guidelines, so this is actually a little new for me. I guess I’m curious to know what kind of a process others do when they’re getting a creative or some kind of personal project together? So far I have a few doodles and random questions and lists in a notebook. It’s not really organized at all and I’m sure if I were to submit to something like Supercreative or even to get some kind of grant (the non-Harder type) they wouldn’t be able to make sense of it whatsoever. I’d love to hear some other people’s experiences that have done or are doing something like this right now. For now it’s back to the doodles for me.
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The Year in the Life Project follows two junior shooters through their weekly adventures, trying to make a go of it, in the world of commercial photography.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Jamie ~
Glad to hear you’re thinking “personal project”. A couple thoughts on those…..
First, seems to me that there is a big difference between a creative and a personal project. Most creatives I see are pretty much commercial in nature, a way of fleshing out your portfolio. To me a personal project has no real bearing on what you might do commercially, it’s just something you do for the pure hell of it. I see this as a big difference and believe that creatives shouldn’t be mistaken for personal projects. (Not that personal projects won’t get you work. It’s just that the impulse behind them is different.)
And, I might have this backwards, but for me the paying gigs (even tho I mostly love shooting them) are a way to pile up some of the fabulous moolah so I can spend it shooting for myself, with total freedom. My personal projects vary from lasting a week (Christmas in the Mississippi Delta), to four years (USER). I like both approaches. Short and sweet allows you to get your yaya’s out fast. You know: first thought, best thought; come to a conclusion; just react; shoot, don’t worry. That kind of approach. The long term projects really suck up your psyche and time and emotion and that’s swell, too.
I believe that too many photographers get too hung up when it comes to shooting personal projects. They think about it way too much. I say, shoot. After all, photographers take photographs, right?
Grant.
The idea of checking in with ones self is a really important one. I think that goals, and goal setting are terrifically important. But they are sometimes taught in such a dry, overly intellectual way.
Taking assessment means that you have a measuring stick with which to work. And that gives you both the joy of seeing growth, and the pain of seeing what ain’t workin’. It doesn’t have to be a 20 page plan with gant charts… just a couple of notes and a look-back in quickbooks /notebooks / assignment folders can suffice.
And that latter is even more important than the former. If something isn’t working – change it up.
Then assess later against the measuring points you have identified by taking previous assessments.
To both of you guys, thanks for sticking to this project.
It is something I look forward to each Friday.
And thanks Heather, for bringing it to us.
Great Post–I love reading the print-out of another photographer’s stream of consciousness! I tend (since I’m usually staring at my Gmail window all day long) to sort of start an email chain TO MYSELF (ha) with little notes on my idea, and just keep replying to myself over the weeks as the idea builds, attaching photos and such, this way it’s all in once place. Then I will make a digital collage cool enough to make a third-grader jealous. Then I send it around to my creative friends for input on how to make it happen! There’s GOT to be a better way!
Jamie, about creative process on personal projects. I’m sure it’s a personal preference kind of deal, but for me I’d echo tony’s comments: the more notes I take, the lower the probability I’ll actually do anything.
It’s like when you show up on a set with a specific picture in mind that you absolutely want to get. I don’t know about you, but when I try to pull that level of previsualization it never works out. But when I have more general ideas then tweak them based on the reality of the day, things go great.
So it is with my personal projects: I get an overarching idea, hook up a couple subjects, and see what happens. Then I let the process develop organically from there. Half the time what turns out to be the interesting thing is a complete surprise, not the stuff I wrote down to begin with.
Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.
Wow, thanks for all the fast responses guys. It is definitely a personal project and not a creative, though hopefully potential clients will enjoy browsing through it just as much as they would a creative.
As for the note taking and such I’m not talking really from a technical perspective, that I typically only worry about once I’m already shooting (could be a bad habit, but it works for me). There are just a lot of pieces that need to come together to get my plan off the ground and that’s where my note making is coming into play. For example I’m not making a strict shot list with detailed ideas of framing and such, more the general idea and who I need to get in touch with to gather what I need to make it happen.
Having said that, if this turns into something that I’d like to pitch to whatever, I’m not exactly sure how to go about formalizing the notes and ideas that I have, if that makes any sense.
Well Jaime, it first starts with the idea. That wonderful moment when that spark of genius hits you and things allign and the world finally makes sense. That should last for around a day. Then you can anticipate two weeks of heavy drinking interrupted only by sleep, crying fits, and throwing plates at the wall whenever anyone insists you “take a bath for gods sake!”.
At this point its wise to crawl over to your computer and research your idea and see if any similar ideas have already been done. When you realize that close to 700 people have already done a project very similar to yours you can expect another week of vomiting, self-loathing, and repeatedly hitting yourself in the head saying “STUPID STUPID STUPID!”.
Once that wears off it’s best to hose yourself down, wipe away that wall of shimmering tears, and just go make a photograph and see if you actually like your idea. Once you have some tests done it’s important to ask yourself…
“Ok. If someone else made this photograph and I saw it hanging in a gallery or in someones book, how would I feel about it?”
Here are your reasonable moves after you ask yourself this question…
1. I hate it. – move on to the next idea.
2. Meh, it’s ok. – move on to the next idea.
3. Its good. – move on to the next idea (or use it as an excercise to find something better)
4. Wow. This is kinda cool. – think about it some more and make it something way better than “kinda cool”.
5. Holy fuck. I didn’t know I had this in me. – pursue idea.
Sometimes we fall in love with ideas because they’re ideas that make sense. That doesn’t mean they’re good. It’s important to stop for a moment and ask yourself if it makes sense for you? Does this kind of work excite and intrigue me or am I just doing it because a thousand other people have and I wanna see if I can too.
But that’s just me…
Dan
P.S.: I wish you didn’t have the devil’s curly hair! ;)