I have been dealing with an unfortunate yet expected family situation for the last seven or eight weeks. These circumstances have prevented me from getting out and doing much, actually, any photography during this time resulting in a couple of firsts. One, a couple of weeks ago, I missed two consecutive weeks of posting, which is something I have not done since I began posting once a week back in April 2020. Two, I have no new pictures to share this week. While things have been rather difficult for the last several weeks, I am still disappointed to find myself in such a situation.
I still wanted to post something to get my weekly routine restarted. But, with no new pictures to share and discuss, what could I do? Then, it occurred to me. Back in January, I had shared my photography goals for 2022, and I realized that I had not really assessed my progress in achieving those goals. After all, what’s the point of establishing a goal if you aren’t going to make sure you’re meeting it? It seemed like now was a good time to see where I stood with accomplishing my goals.
My first goal for 2022 is to follow my four personal photographic rules to help me consistently create high quality, artistic photographs: enjoy the trip; no pressure on myself; slow down; and, when all else fails, remember to enjoy the trip. So far, with the year nearly three quarters of the way done, I have to say I think I am making progress on this. I have generally stopped putting pressure on myself to capture a lot of images and expecting them all to be amazing. Instead, I go out with the mindset that, even if I never press the shutter button, it’s still worth it just to be outside being immersed in nature.
My second 2022 goal is to focus on the quality of an image and not the quantity of images I capture. The point of having this goal, which was inspired by the likes of photographers such as Simon Baxter, Nigel Danson, and Thomas Heaton, was to make me more selective about when I press the shutter button, to concentrate more on the quality of the subject and the quality of the composition, and to focus less on getting 50, or 100, or more images when I went out. After all, why capture 50 images and only process three of them when I can instead capture six images and still process three of them? Although the end result is three images either way, processing half my files instead of only five or six percent just feels better. Because of this approach, I have captured far fewer images this year than I have in past years, but my ratio of “keepers” to images has been significantly higher than previous years.
My third and final goal for 2022 is to stop waiting for “ideal” conditions to go out and photograph; rather, go out any time I have the chance to do so and not let the conditions dictate when I go out. I came up with this goal when I realized that I often plan my photographic outings based on the likelihood that the conditions will be ideal for photography meaning the sky will be overcast with no wind or rain. But, this approach places three unnecessary limitations on my photography: where I can go, when I can go, and what I can photograph. I don’t want to have those limitations, so I established this goal with the intent of just picking a day and time to go out and photograph. I would pay attention to what the weather was likely to do so I could be prepared, but I would not let it dictate anything else. So far this year, I’ve had several photographic outings, the weather forecast has not affected when or where I went, and I have made some interesting pictures each time.
After careful consideration, I think I am meeting my 2022 photographic goals, and that’s fantastic. But, that doesn’t mean I can check the boxes and say I’m done. I have to continue to keep these goals in mind every time I go out, or I can easily slip back into the bad habits I have established over many years. And, falling back into those bad habits is something I definitely do not want to do.