Sometime around June of 2021, I had some extra time at home (didn’t we all?) and I wanted to learn my cameras better. I found my way to Photography YouTube, got the help I needed, and then quickly found my way over to the 'how to improve your artistic approach' side of YouTube.
Thank you for mentioning my post, Josh! Projects are a great way to stay or be inspired and to get a broader understanding what your own art is all about! Great little series of yours here too!
As I started to embrace projects I found lots of themes that I was shooting (e.g. trees lit up by sunset) that turned out NOT to be projects—maybe thats what you mean by “half projects” I now keep a list of themes I shoot and keep thinking about them and looking at them on how to make them into projects. E.g. for Backside as I looked at them when posting for the article I realized two of them showed the evidence of people hanging out (look for chairs). I now want to narrow the project even more to backs of buildings where there is evidence that people hang out there. I will only have two images that fit into it but it will more of a project then the original project.
The video has a lot more of how to define a project.. vs a theme or a half-project, etc.
Dec 3, 2023·edited Dec 3, 2023Liked by Josh Weinberg
I can relate, over the years I have taken lots of photos that were all over the place. Nothing wrong with that, I just like many types of photography and I'm interested in many subjects, but I do feel that doing things like projects can give a bit more meaning to the photographs :) For me it's also quite early days in terms on doing 'proper' projects, but I just take it one step at a time.
Absolutely nothing wrong with taking pictures all over the place. Thus the name of the blog/substack: Random Capture.
But when I start looking through my pictures for patterns then developing those into project I fell like my photography is stronger. AND when I display them as projects my photography looks strong.
There can even be projects (or themes) of random captures. I just put up my Urban Abstracts that I will write about next week or the following week: https://joshuaw.com/urban-abstracts
Your Backside project reminds me quite a bit of Jason Hunter's work - @fuji.hunter on Instagram. He does some real magic with what would ordinarily be quite mundane subjects - the corners of buildings, the sides of big box stores, etc.
I'm trying to shoot projects more, but most of what I end up doing is wandering around aimlessly with a camera. I'm only just now starting to print work and work towards better editing (as in sequencing, not post processing), and it's way more difficult than it sounded like it would be.
On a side note, I too have done the YouTube deep dive on photography topics. Most of what's popular seems to be gear obsessed consumerism, not the useful and timeless photography philosophy I wanted. Brian Lloyd Duckett and Alex Kilbee are shining exceptions to that rule, and I would have to say Sean Tucker as well. Alan Schaller has another great channel (albeit very new), and focuses a bit on the concepts of photography and a bit on how to use gear to achieve those concepts.
Funny, I went down a Jason Hunter rat hole the other day! And we are well aligned on the YouTubers that are great and have gone beyond gear. I'll be linking to a lot of good folks and videos over the next few months. But I don't know Alan Schaller so I am off to watch some! Good chatting tonight.
Nice post! Great ideas.
Thank you for mentioning my post, Josh! Projects are a great way to stay or be inspired and to get a broader understanding what your own art is all about! Great little series of yours here too!
What a great idea Josh! I may have to give it a try myself.
I love projects, and the two of you are convincing me to do more. I have a set of “half projects”. No more excuses!!!
Well written and described, too. Thank you for creating this article.
As I started to embrace projects I found lots of themes that I was shooting (e.g. trees lit up by sunset) that turned out NOT to be projects—maybe thats what you mean by “half projects” I now keep a list of themes I shoot and keep thinking about them and looking at them on how to make them into projects. E.g. for Backside as I looked at them when posting for the article I realized two of them showed the evidence of people hanging out (look for chairs). I now want to narrow the project even more to backs of buildings where there is evidence that people hang out there. I will only have two images that fit into it but it will more of a project then the original project.
The video has a lot more of how to define a project.. vs a theme or a half-project, etc.
Thank you all for reading and commenting!
Great series of images, Josh.
I can relate, over the years I have taken lots of photos that were all over the place. Nothing wrong with that, I just like many types of photography and I'm interested in many subjects, but I do feel that doing things like projects can give a bit more meaning to the photographs :) For me it's also quite early days in terms on doing 'proper' projects, but I just take it one step at a time.
Absolutely nothing wrong with taking pictures all over the place. Thus the name of the blog/substack: Random Capture.
But when I start looking through my pictures for patterns then developing those into project I fell like my photography is stronger. AND when I display them as projects my photography looks strong.
There can even be projects (or themes) of random captures. I just put up my Urban Abstracts that I will write about next week or the following week: https://joshuaw.com/urban-abstracts
Exactly! Great idea's. Btw, I like the "seeing light" project as well 👍
Your Backside project reminds me quite a bit of Jason Hunter's work - @fuji.hunter on Instagram. He does some real magic with what would ordinarily be quite mundane subjects - the corners of buildings, the sides of big box stores, etc.
I'm trying to shoot projects more, but most of what I end up doing is wandering around aimlessly with a camera. I'm only just now starting to print work and work towards better editing (as in sequencing, not post processing), and it's way more difficult than it sounded like it would be.
On a side note, I too have done the YouTube deep dive on photography topics. Most of what's popular seems to be gear obsessed consumerism, not the useful and timeless photography philosophy I wanted. Brian Lloyd Duckett and Alex Kilbee are shining exceptions to that rule, and I would have to say Sean Tucker as well. Alan Schaller has another great channel (albeit very new), and focuses a bit on the concepts of photography and a bit on how to use gear to achieve those concepts.
Funny, I went down a Jason Hunter rat hole the other day! And we are well aligned on the YouTubers that are great and have gone beyond gear. I'll be linking to a lot of good folks and videos over the next few months. But I don't know Alan Schaller so I am off to watch some! Good chatting tonight.