Charting a Course for my 2025 Photography

Last year, I hit my shutter button 6,866 times. Well, that is technically untrue since cameras are able to shoot in bursts. In any case, at almost 7,000 frames snapped, one might be led to think 'Woah! That's a lot of photography!' Whether or not "One" is right, lies in the hands or eyes of said "One" .Personally, I refuse to assign absolute values to my frequency of picture-snapping in 2024. The year was simply what it was.

Instead my focus has been on how I can improve as a photographer - specifically working on my vision and unearthing my photography style. Alas, this is why I hast decided to pen this letter. Thou consider this mine assay to chart a path for 2025.

*Children drumming during Philadelphia Holiday Parade.*

Basically, in order to become a better light-writer, I might look to go out and shoot more. As such, that 7,000 number can serve as a yardstick. However, instead of merely going out and capturing everything the light touches, I figured I would set themes for each month to guide my wandering. Since I am writing this at the start of February, this translates to a commitment to 11 themes for the rest of the year - just had to do the math in case my future self forgets how to count, or worse still, the powers that be decide to change how many months in a calendar year.

You know, I often wonder why people start sentences with "having said that...". It is quite the same gripe I have with "it is worth noting...". Wouldn't it be more economical to just do the said noting? Anyway, not one to spend time judging. I only bring this up after catching myself typing "having said that" to start this paragraph.

*Tres Amigos.* A black and white image I made in my first week of photography.

…having said all that, there are two further aspects of this larger goal. First, continuing on from focusing on a theme each month, I want to write at least one blog post each month. I would love to and will try to write more but the bare minimum would be a post reviewing and reflecting on the challenges of that month’s theme.

The final piece in my "new year new me" jigsaw is providing ample opportunities for photo inspiration to hit. I would like to engage in at least two inspo-walks - I just coined the term - each week. I am making a conscious decision to stop calling them photo-walks to decouple the success of making great photos from the success of going outside and engaging with my environment. I have a lot of thoughts on my mentality while creating and I hope to write about this in a subsequent post.

To set expectations, I believe it is worth noting that each month, I will take and make - a distinction I will attempt to develop further in the future - photos that do not fit the theme. This is why I added the point on going on two inspo-walks each week. Those walks will be more geared towards the chosen theme, but outside of those I will not be beholden to the theme’s restrictions. An example: pretend February's theme is black and white photography. Also pretend I decide to go on a weekend trip to Big Sur in February. As long as I hit my weekly goal, I give myself the license to capture California's central coast in all its colorful glory. That’s it, truly. Someone once said ‘limitations foster creativity’, so as I embark on this journey, I hope each month’s limitation has something to teach me.

Finally, without further ado, what we have all been waiting for…I will like to declare my photography goal for February. Drumroll please...

Black and White Photography! I will get into how and why I chose this in a post at the end of February but the shot above is one of my favorite black and white photographs. Onwards!