Featured: How to Start a Project

[boomguy57]

I just wanted to let you all know that I was featured on Japan Camera Hunter (an RFF sponsor!) and I will be having a regular guest post--most likely weekly--on the JCH site. Here is the first contribution, adapted from a blog post I did a few days ago on starting photographic projects. If you have ideas to add, please do. I'm not an expert, but thought I'd share some of the things that work for me.

Here is the link:

JCH - Developing Photography Projects

I'd love to hear your thoughts,

Trevor

 

[varchs]

Nice text, thoughts and presentation Trevor!
Let's start projecting!!!! ;-)

 

[boomguy57]

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.

 

[sleepyhead]

Hi Trevor, thanks for posting this. I read your article on the JCH website.

I'm sure it'll be a useful and interesting read for many people.

It would be interesting to have a discussion some time here on RFF on tips for FINISHING projects - which you touched on briefly in your post.

I'm very good at thinking of ideas for projects and starting them. However, I am very bad at finishing projects. I have too many going simultaneously to focus, and I always think that there's just one or two shots missing before I'm done.

Even though I know all this, I still have great difficulty calling a project "done".

 

[boomguy57]

I think that finishing projects is always difficult, regardless of the field. In graduate school, there were peoole who never finished their theses, despite all of us starting one. The main thing I took away was havjng a project with clearly defined start and end points is key. Often, one feels the need to get extra shots to finish the project, but at some point you just need to be done. Hence, I favor projects that have a start and end date built in.

 

[VTHokiEE]

I like the post a lot, I've always been interested in starting a project, but I haven't quite taken the first step yet.

 

[boomguy57]

I like the post a lot, I've always been interested in starting a project, but I haven't quite taken the first step yet.

Go ahead and start...what's to lose?

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

I'm very good at thinking of ideas for projects and starting them. However, I am very bad at finishing projects. I have too many going simultaneously to focus, and I always think that there's just one or two shots missing before I'm done.

Even though I know all this, I still have great difficulty calling a project "done".

I agree/feel your pain. I have many projects "in tandem"; it'd of course be easier if you followed the "simple lifepath" i.e. "one camera/lens, one film, one subject" ever ever ever. This of course helps focus --and it's easier for the general public to digest--, but then there are the oddballs that just have way too many ideas, and complexity is often discouraged by the masses: you can see this in photo-collector/buyer tendencies. And there's a lot of noise out there competing for attention.

What I suggest is to apply what was presented by the OP: critique. I'd show your project(s) to a whole range of people. Everybody has an opinion ("B&W is the best ever", "color is the best ever", "portraits are the best ever", "landscape is the best thing ever", etc.) and where opinions converge you may want to reassess the priority of that particular project.

Critique is very important, but most important is not to get discouraged. People are generally *horrible* at constructive feedback. Once you find someone who can go beyond "great capture!" or "this sucks" with reasons, stick to that person. Not many people have the visual patience, verbal focus and dedication necessary to help you grow. Take all empty "wow"s, "meh"s and "rubbish" with a grain of salt.

Being discouraged and frustrated is part of a natural cycle of the creative mind. Seek creative people. But don't forget to read the OP's guidelines again once in a while.

Good job, Trevor.

 

[VTHokiEE]

Go ahead and start...what's to lose?

Absolutely nothing 🙂, just haven't found the right material, or idea, I suppose. I think part of the problem is not forcing myself to set start/finish dates and instead waiting for an idea to come across my mind. If I was in school and didn't know what to write a paper on you can bet I figured something out real quick. I'm sure the same would happen if I forced myself into doing a project.

 

[batey_1020]

Nice read. Deciding on a project is something i strugle with. Im new to film and have trouble shooting enough rolls.
In the past week i have gone out to shoot one roll on one subject and that attitude so far has worked. For example i shot a full roll at the Sydney Opera House just trying to find different views and lines. It motivated me and i think i could now go back and shoot another 2 rolls there with no problem.
Im not sure if this is the right way for me to go nbuti think shooting more will help me and the rest will follow naturally. I always right down ideas i see on others websites and think its been done before but if your in your own town it will be done completely different.

 

[johannielscom]

Coincidences do not exist!

From my post in the Facebook Leica User Group, earlier today:

Started working on a new project To Hell With Poverty and today took the first shots.

It's an editorial documentary on poverty in families in The Netherlands. I plan to work until the end of the summer of 2013 on this.

Below you can see my father collecting presents from a large NL retail chain, to be included in 180 Christmas present boxes for poor families in our home town. These boxes are sponsored by both the church, and local shops and businesses.

Merry Christmas everybody, donate something 'round where you live this season, if you can!

(shot with Ricoh GXR-M and Summilux 1.4/35mm pre-ASPH)​

I've been preparing for a few weeks now and just today took the first shots! In for the long haul, I'll let people know about when and how I'm gonna round this project up, summer 2013!

 

[Pioneer]

Good stuff Trevor. You have given me some things to think about. I bookmarked so I can get back to it.

 

[__--]

...Critique is very important, but most important is not to get discouraged. People are generally *horrible* at constructive feedback. Once you find someone who can go beyond "great capture!" or "this sucks" with reasons, stick to that person. Not many people have the visual patience, verbal focus and dedication necessary to help you grow. Take all empty "wow"s, "meh"s and "rubbish" with a grain of salt.

Being discouraged and frustrated is part of a natural cycle of the creative mind. Seek creative people...

Critique is important, cosiderng that at the first editing stages it's hard to edit your own work effectively — in my experience on a long-term project, succesive edits become increasingly more easy to do: photos one just couldn't cut earlier suddenly become obvious cuts. On my long-term book project, Bangkok Hysteria, (download link for PDF file of 49MB), I started out with 320 photographs and, in the final version, of which four dummies have been printed by digital offset, there are 112 pages.

I've had a few theads on RFF, LUF and dpreview in which there were useful comments but, then, in a thread in which I hadn't asked for a crigtique of the book project, I came under severe attack: there are seven of pages of thus drivel here (starting with a post by "linterman"), if you are interested in the sociology of the internet. Very unpleasant stuff. Seems like less than five percent of the comments that one gets on photo forums are likely to be useful.

The best critiques I've had were by a fashing editor for the French Gala Magazine (a "People"-type weekly), a painter and a friend I made through the internet — all three immediately understood the concept of the book and provided very useful comments.

—Mitch/Bangkok
Gods for Sale