What a Yearlong Photography Mission Taught Me

At the top of 2024, I dedicated to a easy mission for 2025: one picture per week, taken at noon, each week of the 12 months. What sounded easy rapidly grew to become more durable than I anticipated, and by the top of the 12 months, it had modified how I take into consideration consistency, strain, and private work.

Background

The thought for this mission got here collectively slowly. Having watched a webinar about private images initiatives within the fall of 2024, I began to really feel compelled to attempt one. I knew I needed one thing structured quite than conceptual or thematic, since that made it extra approachable for me. After turning it over for some time, I landed on a single picture every week, shot on the identical day throughout an outlined noon window. Midday was deliberately broad sufficient to permit flexibility, however slender sufficient to implement consistency.

The solely true constraint was time. Content was utterly open, and didn’t even should be constant week to week. Early on, I made a decision all the pieces can be black and white, partly to simplify decision-making and partly as a result of it suited the vary of circumstances I would encounter throughout noon images. I additionally dedicated to a 4 x 5 side ratio. It is my most well-liked crop, and extra importantly, it helped the photographs really feel cohesive when seen collectively.

Once the constraints for the mission have been set, the query grew to become easy: How would it not really really feel to dwell with them for a full 12 months?

The Pressure to Produce

With a 90-minute window every week to stroll away with “the” picture, there have been moments when the method felt much less like making images and extra like producing output. Some weeks I used to be energized and able to get pleasure from being out with the digital camera. Other weeks I confirmed up as a result of the calendar stated I needed to.

That strain was unfamiliar in my private work. Photography has all the time been one thing I do when the temper strikes or when I’ve a spare second. This mission eliminated that luxurious, in a way. If the sunshine was flat or my head was elsewhere, it didn’t matter. Wednesday at noon was non-negotiable.

At occasions, that weight felt heavy. I caught myself pondering much less about exploration and experimentation, and extra about merely not failing the task. As the weeks rolled by, that weight grew to become heavier. Walking away from one picture is totally different from strolling away from 30.

The Gift of Constraints

I’m no stranger to constraints. I’ve labored in artistic disciplines for almost 20 years, and limitations are sometimes the place the fascinating and compelling work occurs. The distinction right here was that the constraint was purely temporal. The mission stipulated after I needed to {photograph}, however not what I photographed.

Oddly sufficient, that grew to become a aid. I all the time knew precisely after I wanted to be out with the digital camera. There was no debate about climate, mild, discovering spare time, or whether or not this was a “good” day to shoot. The resolution had already been made prematurely.

That readability eliminated a stunning quantity of psychological friction. I ended negotiating with myself and simply confirmed up.

The Motivation Toward Consistency

I’ve by no means photographed this persistently. Even in periods when images was a much bigger focus, my planning was nonetheless reactive. I went out when the photographic urge aligned with free time.

This mission created self-discipline the place I beforehand relied on motivation. I used to be out with the digital camera each single week, no matter how busy life felt or how uninspired I assumed I used to be. Over time, that consistency reshaped my relationship with the act of photographing. It stopped being an important day and began feeling extra like a apply.

The Unanticipated Side Effects

Because of the timing constraint, many of the images for this mission have been taken near residence. Extremely near residence. Just over half got here from the identical forest protect about 5 minutes from my home. Many others have been inside a 10-minute drive.

Family journeys grew to become a bit extra sophisticated. Wednesdays needed to be deliberate round making this picture, for the reason that mission constraints nonetheless utilized even after I was out of city.

The mission ended up altering how lengthy I stayed out photographing. Knowing I’d be again out inside every week made me much less involved with extracting all the pieces I might from a single outing. For the primary time, I discovered myself stopping just because I felt executed—not as a result of I wanted to hurry off to one thing else or get again residence, however as a result of the work felt full for that day.

Creative Burnout

This was one thing I had by no means actually needed to handle earlier than. The sheer quantity and frequency of outings wanted for this mission, paired with different images—reminiscent of journeys and common household time—generally led to feeling somewhat overwhelmed. As a outcome, I typically skipped different alternatives to {photograph}, like weekend mornings, just because I used to be drained.

There have been weeks after I felt mentally dragged alongside by this mission quite than energized and driving ahead. Editing all of the pictures added one other layer of strain. I’m comparatively dangerous at staying on prime of post-processing, however I felt compelled to complete every picture rapidly so the mission might finish cleanly on the shut of the 12 months. Sometimes that meant modifying a complete shoot simply to determine which single body belonged to the mission. Even at one outing per week, that added up. The obligation to maintain all the pieces present elevated the artistic pressure greater than I anticipated.

A Way of Seeing

Looking again via the complete set of mission pictures has been unexpectedly significant. The photographs act like markers, exhibiting how I used to be feeling week to week, even when I didn’t consciously put my feelings right into a given picture.

I can see moments after I was going via turmoil, restlessness, distraction, and calm. I also can see my images wandering, tightening, and sometimes circling acquainted concepts. And whereas I imagine within the high quality of every picture, as a set it’s much less a pure spotlight reel and extra an trustworthy document. That perspective alone made the mission worthwhile.

Final Thoughts

There have been parts of the mission that basically labored for me. I cherished the readability of realizing precisely when to shoot, eradicating that call or query from the equation. I don’t suppose I’d have been as profitable with a subject-driven mission, because it was simpler for me to decide to the strict timing. Given this was my first clearly acknowledged and deliberate private mission, I feel a subject-based method would have paralyzed me and given me too many probabilities to keep away from going out.

Having a clearly outlined finish date mattered, too. It gave the complete 12 months a way of route and focus. While the strain to supply by no means totally disappeared, realizing that the mission had a transparent finish date made it simpler to deal with over time. There was an preliminary burst of pleasure, durations of wrestle punctuated the 12 months, and finally I ended up with one thing resembling a behavior.

My relationship with my images shifted over the course of the mission. I discovered myself going out extra typically with an intention in thoughts, quite than merely to wander and see what caught my eye. Watching that evolution unfold via the completed photographs was fascinating, even when the nuance is simply seen to me. I’m curious if this may turn into a extra routine side of my images outings, if will probably be an occasional factor, or if I’ll revert extra to easily exploring the world.

And possibly that’s the level. The mission left me wanting to start out one other one—one other problem, one other approach of pushing myself and committing to my images in a tangible approach. So I have already got the subsequent one lined up. If you desire a structured technique to broaden what you shoot whereas conserving a constant apply, The Well-Rounded Photographer: 8 Instructors Teach 8 Genres of Photography is a robust complement to a yearlong constraint like this.

Have you ever taken on a long-term images mission that modified how you concentrate on your work?