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I’ve decided on three major photography projects for 2010. I think it’s important to post about what they are so that I can be held accountable.

Another 52 photowalks

f/8.0, 1/80 sec, 22mm, ISO 200

I debated this a lot. In 2008 I did a 366 project (leap year and all), so I attempted a second one in 2009 and I felt really dragged down by the project, and wasn’t getting anything out of it anymore, so I dropped it. I was afraid I’d get the same “burnt out” feeling from doing another 52 photowalks. I decided to stick with it anyway because I’m not tired of it yet – and I think there’s still a lot more for me to learn. Besides, I really enjoy it. I’m going to try to get out of the Metro/State/National parks some this year, though, and walk around the city some more.

The idea, once again, is to leave my house once a week and take photos, that’s my only rule. My weeks are defined as Thursday-Wednesday.

52 Self Portraits

f/5.6, 1/80 sec, 44mm, ISO 800

I mentioned that I did a 366 project in 2008. It was actually a Self Portrait project, and it was very rewarding. Part of me has missed both the challenge and the creativity involved in self portraits, so I’m giving it another go, with a less restrictive time-frame. Just one a week for me!

Monthly Themes

When I was still trying to settle on what my project(s) for 2010 was going to be, I decided to tweet about it and ask for suggestions. I got so many great ideas that I knew I couldn’t do them all. However, @jeffehh suggested “Set a theme every Monday and shoot a photo in that theme on Sunday (Sunday so you have a whole week to think about it) :)”. I wasn’t ready to add another weekly project to my list, so I adapted the idea into a montly project. I’m not restricting myself in any way with these – I don’t have to have a set number of photos for each month, or post one every day or every week. They’re just jumping off points for me to think more creatively. Some topics are ones that I think are good challenges for me (Urban and Lights, for instance) and some are things I just LOVE (Bokeh and Sunsets, for example). Here’s my list of themes for each month:

January Textures. When I think “textures” I think of two different things – textures that you can use in other photos (as discussed here), and stand-alone photos with their own texture (like rough brick buildings). I hope to get some of both in January.

February Shapes. This is one of the topics attempting to get me out of my comfort zone. I photograph a lot of nature – not a lot of perfect squares, circles and triangles in nature. I’m hoping to be insipired by architecture and patterns around me.

March Mono. Suggested by @duckunix, I’d like to do another month of mono. I did an all B&W month for my 365 last year and learned a lot. I think it’s time I pick it up again.

April People. This is definitely another out-of-my-comfort-zone themes. It was also suggested by both @kbphotos and @catdubh – who actually suggested doing a 20 10 project – 20 people in 10 photographs (the idea is getting 10 photographs of couples).

May Colors. Suggested by @Megin – and should be a great contrast to March :)

June Urban. I think I’ve mentioned one or two times I want to concentrate more on urban photography than nature this year, so I want all my photowalks in June to be in cities. I picked June mostly because I like John to come with me when I’m walking around in the cities, and I’m probably more likely to convince him to come with me every weekend if it’s nice out :)

July Bokeh. Just because I loooove good bokeh shots!

September Shoes. Last year, I went to a wedding rehearsal dinner that was a cookout in someone’s back yard. I found myself fascinated with all the shoes around, and took photos of a bunch of people’s feet, and shoes that had been tossed aside to run barefoot in the grass. It was a fun mini-project that I’d like to expand upon this year.

October Lights. Perhaps by October I will have bought an external flash for my camera, in which case, I can play with lighting from that. Even if I haven’t, I’ve always seem fascinated by photos of lights – I really have a lot of them in my flickr stream, so I hope to add a lot more in October!

November Trees. I picked November for trees because it’s a great time of year for them – at the beginning of the month, they should still have some color left in them, but at the end, they should be pretty bare, and I really like both states.

December ???. I haven’t thought of anything for December yet – Do you have a suggestion?

I thought about starting a flickr group for these themes in case anyone else was interested in them, too. If you are, let me know and I’ll start a group, because I think it will help motivate all of us!

One Last Thing…

In addition to everything above, I plan on doing another 50mm day. On the 50th day of the year (Feb. 19), I’m going to take 50 photos with my 50mm lens. I might come up with other mini-projects like this through-out the year, too, if something strikes my fancy.

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