my [JOE] blog: the dailies of a portrait & documentary photographer. who doesn't take pictures.

Do a Project

This is some text prior to the author information. You can change this text from the admin section of WP-Gravatar Joe is a photographer born and based in New Orleans. He specializes in portraiture and documentary projects. During the day he works for a cargo agency specializing in humanitarian aid and relief. Read more from this author

Whether you're needing to rekindle your creative juices (did I just mix metaphors?) or discover your creative juices, there's nothing like creating a project. Whenever I'm in need of something fresh or different, I do this, and it, without fail, not only helps me out of my rut but teaches me something new. Here I'm going to be using two photography examples, but both of these can be done with anyone who has a camera. So, if you're not a photographer, stick around, this is still for you.

50/50

The first is by one of my favorite photographers, Bert Stephani. Bert is a Belgian photographer, whom I've been following since I started photography, and he's just now breaking into the I-do-workshops level. And very well, might I add.

A few months ago he started a project called 50/50. For fifty consecutive days he was going to shoot only his 50mm lens. Just like the old days. Okay, I don't know anything about the old days, but I've read. Anyway. Every week or so he'd post a collection of the images from each day. He just posted the final installment; here it is:

If you watch each day, you'll see some are just regular days and some are really cool days. But the common denominator between them all is that he was able to get great pictures even on his 'regular' days, because he had his camera out. The key here is "he had his camera out."

If you like his work, jump over to his blog and website and checkout the rest!

Running From Camera

My brother recently came across this next project. Basically, Muggezifter, who is from the Netherlands, sets his camera on a tripod with a two-second delay, hits the button, and runs as fast as he can. And he's been doing this for the last three and a half years. As you can imagine, it's kind of a predictable blog, but for him it's about finding a new location to run from the camera. If you're thinking your project is kind of lame or too weird. It's not. See Muggezifter. The point is, it's the project itself that forces your brain into that creative range.

Try it out!

Editors Note: Photo is from the Running from Camera blog by Muggezifter.

About jOe

Joe is a photographer born and based in New Orleans. He specializes in portraiture and documentary projects. During the day he works for a cargo agency specializing in humanitarian aid and relief.