2013 Project 52 Review

[In which I talk a ton about myself. You've been warned.]

I completed my 2013 Project 52 on December 30, when I snapped the last photo entitled, "Man on Steel." Or maybe I completed it when I posted the photo to the blog on January 1. Either way, by that date I had taken and shared my 52nd photo and 45th accompanying blog post describing the photo and thought process. Doing this project has resulted in something of a personal time capsule for 2013, which is both unique and memorable for me. I'm truly surprised and also quite proud to have completed the Project, as it had bested me when I attempted it a few years ago.

I've now had a month since the last selected photo and blog post for reflection on the Project as a whole and the photos as individual images, which has produced a number of observations (self evaluations) and a few ideas for what to pursue going forward.

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1. Structure, structure, structure
Firstly, I think it should now be well apparent how desperately I need some structure in order to function proactively and productively. Anyone who would disagree need only to compare my blogging output of 2013 to any other year (including this young 2014!) . A similar conclusion could be reached by comparing the sheer number of photos taken over the course of the trip around the sun versus previous years'.

My falling off the pace in the recent past comes in part from the lack of a Project with which to cajole myself into injecting structure and regular activity and assignments, however there are other factors at play. Chief among them is the time I've been spending learning the new body, the Nikon D7100, after nearly three years of shooting with a Nikon D40. While I continue to acclimate myself to the new camera, I do intend to continue sharing photos regularly. For now, I'll probably limit it to a monthly format that will allow me to be choosier when selecting photos to share.

2. What would I have done differently? How could I have improved the Project?
"Being choosy" provides an excellent segue to a second point about the Project: my chief complaint about the Project 52 was the arbitrarily picked deadlines it created and the fact that it forced me at times to pick and share a photo out of what I thought was a generally weak crop of photos in a particular week. I eventually came to terms with it. "They can't all be winners", etc., and so long as I had been working hard and applying what I'd learned while expressing myself, I could accept it.

I am going to go back to review each week's output against the pool of photos available or "nominated" each week for selection, now with a photographic eye slightly more wizened after the year's exercise. Would I have edited the same way, i.e. would I narrow down the pool and select the same photo? Also, would I have post-processed the photo(s) in the same way? I will review the 52 photos in the coming month with these questions in mind (so here's a promise of some structure for the future!). I'm curious to see how I might improve upon the final product.

2.5 Speaking of final products
Sharon has been encouraging me to come up with a way to preserve the photos I took in a tangible product like a photo book. Honestly the idea of further thinking on the Project (any more than I'm doing already) makes me feel spent; but I know that, if done well, a photo book of my Project would be something I will really appreciate. No timeline or deadline on this, but I'll put this together at some point in the year.

3. Have I gained any clarity about my photography interests?
When I initially considered this question, I thought I had a pretty clear answer; it turns out I do, though not the one I had assumed it was. For a large part of the past year, I'd tell anyone and myself that my preferred genre of photography was "[candid] street photography," followed by urban landscape", followed distantly by "sports photography." But upon reviewing not only the Project 52 photos but also the majority of the photos I took in 2013, urban landscape appears to be my wheelhouse: roughly half of the 52 photos could be considered to be urban landscape photos. (I'm defining urban landscape as photography of an urban environment of mostly stationary city views that may contain people simply going about their city lives. It comes so naturally to be simply because it's where we live.) Additionally, I've realized quite recently that I really want to get into portraiture. It's really and firmly captured my interest and imagination, and so I want it to be a big part of my photography. I'll always have urban landscape as a secondary default modus operandi, followed again by my long standing aspirations for shooting sports.

So, I have indeed gained insight (if not directly from the Project then at least concurrently with it). Clarity is good.

4. Have I improved over the course of the year? 
Chronologically speaking, I was more technically proficient on December 31, 2013, than I was on January 1, 2013. But I do still struggle with the most basic of concepts. Maybe the fact that the photos I prefer most over the course of the year all tend to show up after Week 1 is simply a function of subject matter rather than a tangible improvement in actual skill?

How does one measure whether improvement, anyway? Is there a quantitative formula, perhaps counting the number of "keepers" against the total number of shots taken? (Hardly rigorous or scientific. I maintain anyway that I'm still closer to the "beginners" end of the spectrum than not, which means my definition of "keeper" is still evolving.) Could I then really judge based on my aggregate or average personal satisfaction with my results each time? ("God, that would be an awful gauge," says the guy who is hardly satisfied enough and who writes-in his own parenthetical rebuttals to himself.)

I have lately been reading a lot on the concept/practice of "shot discipline", discussed here by two photographers Thom Hogan and Ming Thein whose writings I follow closely. Even if it's unmeasurable on a tangible level, I'll recall a few of my favorite photos of 2013 and the Project to illustrate:

- Washington Square Park
- Cooperstown Fishing in the Fog
- Pride Parade
- Kentucky Lake Pier
- Upper West Side Long Exposure
- Met Museum Stairway
- Castell Montjuic
- Barcelona Metro

I operate on a baseline feeling of "This could be okay," that generally directs me to take a shot. Of these eight photos that I think represent my most successful efforts, there was only one where I knew instantly or even just before I pressed the shutter that I had a real winner (Washington Square Park). On the other hands, on perhaps my second favorite of the year, I don't think I had any real clue that it would turn out well at all . The rest were all shot with some variation a few steps better than "This could be okay."

But my inner perfectionist still struggles to grasp the point, which isn't to hit home runs in every at bat. No one does. Neither does anyone bat .500 or even .400. But (as I've clearly veered into baseball metaphors) while I do aim to be a .300 hitter (or, for the sabermetrically inclined, to get on base a lot), mostly I want to give myself the best chance during each at bat. That's what the shot discipline concept is all about: maximizing my chances for success with each shutter press via preparation and recognition, from the hours and minutes up to the split second before the shutter press. If there's something I can pretend to measure about myself, it's my own discipline. And to that end, I can point to real (if marginal) improvement. I'm not necessarily cranking the ball each time, but I'm striking out a hair less fequently, or I'm gradually understanding better whenever I miss. My chief goal moving forward, then, should be to ramp up and maintain a higher level of discipline and to watch its effect on my photography output.

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And perhaps that's the main takeaway from the Project 52. By forcing myself into an arbitrary but "binding" schedule of production (and the annoyances that came from occasionally forcing myself to post less-than-totally satisfactory results), I motivated myself to recognize and plan to maximize my shot discipline. Before the year, it was but a vague concept that I set aside while shoring up basic technical proficiency. And along with developing (if latently) a better sense of creative application of that technical proficiency, I've come to recognize what subjects come to or attract me most naturally. So I begin the next (arbitrary "next") phase of photography with goals (type, evaluation, discipline) much clearer than before.

And for someone like me, that is a truly tangible gift.