2012 Photography Goals

1) Shoot a lot more pictures - mostly film, but also digital;

2) Of more subjects - places, people, things and styles;

3) And follow through - organize, edit, print, share and display.

The sign of a true photo geek . . . stacks of negative preservers ready to be filled with all my brilliant photographic masterpieces (or, you know . . . pictures of cats and stuff).

So back in mid-2011, I put together a list of self-styled "photography assignments" that I hoped to complete over the summer and before the end of the year. Life intruded, and due to a combination of work and other factors, I got around to very few of the items on my list.

This year, while many of the same intentions remain, a more streamlined, more general, approach to goals and self-assignments would seem prudent. My photography doesn't pay the rent - at this point, it doesn't even pay for itself - but it does help to keep me sane and it is much more satisfying to take it seriously than to approach it in a slip-shod manner. To that end, my photography goals for this year can really be summarized as: shoot more and actually do something with the images after the shutter is tripped.

That said, I do have some specific ideas in mind both for the "shoot more" front side and the "follow up" back end, that I hope to accomplish in the next month of so. Right now we are still in the "ugly season" of Chicago's winter, but there photos still to be taken and spring will be here soon. I'm really digging black and white film photography at the moment - especially now that I am getting a handle on doing my own development at home - and this town has a lot of great landscapes and subjects to explore.

Getting back into film has definitely reactivated my love of photography, but there is definitely no assurance that the analog medium will continue to be viable and/or affordable in the long-term, especially as to color film availability and processing. But that is even more reason to make the most of it now, while it is still relatively accessible and cheap to shoot film.