Photography Goals | 2012

New goals for the coming year on February 1st instead of January 1st?

Yep. Cuz that's just how I roll.

I could start off by making the classic joke about one of my goals being to stop procrastinating, seeing as how I'm posting my goals a bit later than one might expect.  But the truth is that I'm just insanely busy, so I haven't had the time to dedicate toward deciding what I want to accomplish in the coming year until now. Which does bring me to goal #1...

2012 Photography Goals

1. Dedicate more time to photography

I can't believe that I've lived in Phoenix for over 6 months and I still haven't opened up my shooting schedule and started looking for new clients. This makes me very sad and I really miss taking photos for others. But sometimes life doesn't turn out quite like we expect it to, and we have to play the hand we've been dealt.  Moving here didn't go quite as smoothly as I'd hope, and it has delayed my anticipated schedule a bit.

The good news is that I've started down a new path that will allow me to start spending more time behind my camera and finish up the final things I need to do to reopen MWP here in Phoenix.  So, sometime this Spring, you can expect to see an announcement that I'm once again open for business.  Of course, that's when the real work will begin!  I have to admit that I'm terrified about how I'm going to get started when I don't know anyone here.  Eeeek! But others before me have relocated businesses, so I know it can be done.  Right?  Please, oh please, someone tell me I can do this! :)

2. Get outside of my comfort zone, and start exploring more areas of photography

Put a willing person in front of my camera, and tell me to take their portrait, and I'm all over it.  I love taking portraits and I'm comfortable doing it.  Put me in the middle of downtown, and tell me to photograph the buildings and I'm going to stumble.  I don't know the first thing about photographing architecture.

Second Street Creative, who is designing my new brand, tweeted this today, "Quit being afraid to fail. It paralyzes growth and makes you complacent. JUMP."

I couldn't agree more, and that's exactly what I'm going to do: JUMP.  Maybe not off the buildings, but headlong into photographing them, and every other subject that I haven't tried shooting before.

3. Create more emotional and symbolic personal photographs

In my Intro to Photography class, we were given an assignment to capture symbolism in a photo.  I had a hard time wrapping my mind around the concept, and I crash and burned on the assignment.  When we shared our images, one of my classmates had taken photographs at a cemetery for fallen soldiers.  All of the tombstones were the same and her photos of row after row of graves were stunning.  The composition of her images was gorgeous, and the symbolism behind them was amazing.

Ever since then, I have known that I wanted to work harder to add more symbolism, and emotion, into my own photography.  I know this won't be the easiest thing to do, especially when embracing the less happy things in life, but I want my images to feel real and to evoke feelings and emotions in those who view them... even if it is only me, and my memories and feelings that are brought back.

In the spirit of symbolism and emotion (and because I don't feel right about a blog post with no photos), I want to share these two images that I took last February when I was participating in a month long online photography class called "The Joy of Love" hosted by Willette Designs.  When viewing wedding photos of others, I'm always drawn to the photos of the rings.  Some photographers have the most amazing and creative ideas of how to photograph them!  So, for the class I decided to try my hand at photographing our wedding rings, and this was the result...

I do like the composition of the photos, but what I like even more is what the photos mean to me, and how they make me feel when I look at them. My wedding day was the most amazing and magical day of my life. Not because I had a fairy tale wedding, and I felt like I princess, but because it was the day that I joined myself to the person who I was made to walk through life with. Our wedding rings are a symbol of what we have together, and nothing could ever be more precious to me.

And, there you have it, my 2012 goals.  Since we are already a month into 2012, I guess I better get started!

If you've made it this far into the post, I thank you for sticking with me.  I do try my best to aim for more photos and less words, but I realize I didn't quite succeed with this one.

Michele Whitacre is a portrait photographer serving Phoenix, Arizona and the surrounding area. Visit Michele's website at michelewhitacrephotography.com. Become a fan of Michele's work on Facebook. Follow Michele's updates on Twitter.