By NZIPP Accredited Professional Photographer Simone Jackson
Ok is this the most whack title so far in the Pro Report? Probably. Let’s get into it.
Have you ever groaned when it’s been cheerfully suggested, “You should do a personal project!”
Really?!
After spending the latest season, photographing other people’s lives, editing until midnight, answering emails at 10.30pm, updating social media because apparently we’re all now marketing experts, the last thing you feel like doing is picking up a camera for fun.
After this wedding season I was absolutely knackered.
Running two businesses, editing every evening, weekends disappearing into Lightroom, juggling more weddings, clients and trying to stay on top of life in general… I genuinely got to the point where I looked at my camera bag and thought,
“You and I need some time apart.”
Weddings have certainly changed. We are wearing a lot more hats than we ever have done before as paid professionals
Somewhere along the way I seem to have accidentally, also become a content creator, wedding planner, weather forecaster, family traffic controller, emergency stain remover and part-time counsellor…all while trying to remember which part of the wedding locations I left my lens cap. I’m also pretty certain I’m New Zealand’s leading expert in reattaching buttonholes, (no official award has been presented, but in my head I’m undefeated.)
I do mean this in a meaningful way now also, how many of my brides have said to me this season “I never want to be THAT bride, but’, … and then they are, because they genuinely have had trauma in different ways and we are not paid therapists. So I really care and personally go out of my way to make sure my clients feel fabulous about themselves. But this all takes a large amount of time that we haven’t counted on and it goes way longer than the wedding day.
So no… I don’t want to do a personal project thank you very much
The word Recreation though. I looked up the word Recreation. It literally means to give new life to.
Well… DANG!
That’s exactly what I need.
Many professional photographers MAY need a personal project every now and then…
Not because it’ll win awards or make money. Not because the socials and followers will shower you with little love hearts.
Simply because sometimes our brains need reminding why we picked up a camera in the first place.
Now…
Don’t take your spouse.
Don’t take your partner.
Don’t take your kids.
Don’t take your best friend.
Don’t take anyone.
Because what starts as your peaceful creative adventure quickly turns into…
“Can we stop for coffee?”
“How much longer?”
“It’s freezing!”
“Are you seriously photographing THAT again?”
“Didn’t you already take 117 photos of that tree?”
Meanwhile, you’re crouched in a ditch whispering, under your breath (or not), to … yeah whatever it is you are deliberating how to answer, but it’s usually not something that can be written in a publication.
So yeah. Don’t take anyone if you can help it, apart from your dog maybe .. yes always my Collie, (insert crazy love heart emoji’s here)
Personal projects are awesomely self indulgent.
No deadlines – No client expectations – No timelines – well not really if you can help it
No one asking you to perform digital cosmetic surgery with a mouse and a prayer
Nobody cares if you come home with one image…or 117 photos of exactly the same rock, bird or tree.
Because the photograph isn’t actually the point.
The process is.
As professionals we become very good at making photographs for other people.
Sometimes we completely forget to make them for ourselves.
That’s where the fun lives.
That’s where we try ridiculous ideas.
Where we often fail spectacularly. OR have crazy awesome happy accidents.
Where we discover that what looked incredible in our heads, now resembles a potato wearing a hat.
Where we remember photography is supposed to be enjoyable.
And here’s the funny part…
Those silly little experiments have an annoying habit of sneaking back into our paid work.
A different way of seeing things.
An idea you’d never have tried at a wedding or a portrait shoot, because… well… people generally expect you to know what you’re doing.
Some of my favourite photographs have happened simply because I made time to stop.
No brief.
No pressure.
No expectations.
Just me…
…a camera…
…and roughly 14 million West Coast sandflies.
Every. Single. Time.
Without fail.
You’d think after the 8th visit I’d remember to shut the car door before leaping out in excitement.
Nopety nope nope..
Instead I spend the next hour driving along waving a T-shirt around the inside of the car like I’m conducting the NZ Symphony Orchestra, trying to evict what feels like several hundred freeloaders.
I never learn.
But maybe that’s the point.
Personal projects fill the creative tank.
So if you’ve been feeling flat…
If photography has started to feel more like admin than adventure…
Go and photograph something that you have thought to yourself, “I wonder if this would work”.
Something nobody else may understand.
Something that may not make you a cent.
Something that reminds you why you first picked up a camera in the first place.
Because I don’t think any of us got into photography because we were passionate about invoices, emails, or exporting 900 JPEGs at midnight.
We picked up a camera because something made us stop.
Look.
Smile.
And quietly think…
“Wow that’s cool!…”
If a personal project can give you that feeling again…
I’d say it’s worth every sandfly bite.
