Topic: Your photography project for next year?

[Urban Hafner]

I've been taking pictures of stuff here and there without any real plan for quite a while now. Inspired by Peter's Ridgeway project (you should check out his site for it http://www.ridgeway-photography.co.uk/) I thought about what I could photograph locally and turn into a project. As we don't have really old roads around here I had to come up with an idea myself After a while I realized that the woods around Heidelberg are full of stone signpost. As I found out there are over 1000 around here! So, my project for next year will be taking pictures of them and their surroundings. Just like Peter I will restrict myself to one camera (my PrimoJr) and one film (Rollei Retro 80S). So what are your plans for next year? Oh, and I'm still looking for a title for the project. "Heidelberg's stone signposts" sounds quite dull.

Urban
 

[Late Developer]

I try to be spontaneous but, in not having a plan, I'm sure I miss a lot of opportunities. Also, I have too much gear and flit between systems and films quite a bit - which causes too many variations in the "look" of my work. Finally, I am not a lover of the East Anglian scenery. However, I accept that this is mostly down to my ignorance of the area in detail. I need to find beauty closer to home.

So, I intend to research the area in which I live and take one roll of 120 per month (haven't decided which yet) using my 500c/m and my 40mm, 80mm and 150mm lenses. These will be at locations in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex. From each month's roll I will choose one image and produce the best version I can and post in onto a "my project" thread - for scrutiny and comments.

Ultimately, I intend to produce a panel from these shots for presentation to the RPS in 2012.

[Mike (happyforest)]

Looks as if Peter has started something.

His ridgeway images are superb and I have the site bookmarked, although I think the most recent images shown here haven't made it to the site yet.

I have been thinking about trying some form of similar project but as yet haven't been inspired, although I have been thinking about town\cityscapes as well as landscapes.

No doubt we'll be seeing some of them in future threads.

Mike

[Pete_R]

I think you know what mine is. Actually, it stems from this years resolution which was 'less cameras and more photography'. It just took me nine months to start and I failed on the first part having bought another camera for the project. And then I changed my mind about limiting myself to one lens and bought three. Oh well!

[Andrea.]

I'm going to continue with the Crofter series - all in 35mm from now on - and do some more adventurous stuff on other formats. Playing with a moving film, slit camera at the mo.

[astrobeck]

I think you know what mine is. Actually, it stems from this years resolution which was 'less cameras and more photography'.

Thank-you Peter!
That's going to be my mantra for 2011 and the rest of the next decade....
"less cameras more photography".

[Jeff Warden]

My project is to find a project for 2011.  :-)    My habit is to photograph on weekend mornings; sometimes I know where I'm going, but mostly I don't.  Aimless meandering sometimes results in pictures that I like, but after a year it's difficult to find a common thread between the images, aesthetic or otherwise.

There are a few neighborhoods that I return to because of their photographic interest so that's an option, but I want to branch out from my normal habits.  Perhaps instead of heading into the city for a fix of grit, I'll head to the hills for some manure.  Nowhere to go but up  :-)

[Alan]

 I have started a project about a year ago on old fuel stations
in Galway and mayo here on the west coast of Ireland. i started it
with my digital setup but found it hard to keep a kind of typology
style to it so recently with the arrival of my cheap polaroid camera
I have restarted the project concentrating on the old pumps rather then
the stations and its coming along nicely.

 . . . another I have been thinking of for the last year was to photograph all the
newly built bridges on the M6 motorway to Galway with my Balda Baldixette.
I plan to shoot these in one day early in the morning to avoid traffic, im
going to call it "balda bridges" there is over 70 to do 

[Urban Hafner]

I think you know what mine is. Actually, it stems from this years resolution which was 'less cameras and more photography'. It just took me nine months to start and I failed on the first part having bought another camera for the project. And then I changed my mind about limiting myself to one lens and bought three. Oh well!

Very understandable Peter. I barely managed to keep myself from buying another camera from this project. But then there are many accessories I can spend money on

Great responses everyone. It will be interesting to see how far we've all come in a few month. Personally, I can't tell yet if I will be able to pull that project of.

Urban

[Alan]

thought id post this blog, some people here might be familiar with it . . .
Ive been keeping an eye on it for a couple of months now and i think
it fits in this thread nicely.

http://500photographers.blogspot.com/

if you are looking for samples of good typology type projects its a great resource,

enjoy

[Suzi Livingstone]

One of mine for next year is a collaboration with a local artist/puppet & doll maker. I shall be photographing his creepy little dolls in local graveyards probably for a little local joint show  

[Dave Elden]

I'm a firm believer in the value of the project approach, I'm even an ocasional practitioner...
Mine is to complete one I started about 2 years ago which is to photograph all the bridges across the Rideau River in the Ottawa region.  There are 13 but to give an idea how behind I am with this the city has actually started construction of another bridge since I started photographing...
There are few shots that I've started with here http://www.pbase.com/mononation/bridges.
My intention is to do it all with an SQB on FP4 and print up a selection then try and get a small exhibit somewhere.  I guess declaring my intent here is part of the process of getting this going again.
I have a couple of other much smaller projects to edit and make final prints from a couple of brief trips last year which will be something to do over the winter.
Should revisit this thread again in December 2011 and see how people did!

[Mil Mascaras]

I am slowly getting back into film after being a digital kid for years. So my project for 2011 is to try out as many different 35mm colour films as many times as possible. I know that there are not ALL that many but I want to know what works for me.

[Ed Wenn]

Mine is a fairly general project; I've decided to get back into home devving. I processed my own b/w for a couple of years up until Amy was born, but the chems and plastic bottles have been in the shed for 5 years (how long does Rodinal last for in entirely uncontrolled temperature and light conditions? )

I started using colour C41 and getting films processed in labs, but the labs were either too careless with my negs (lots of scratches) or very careful, but just too expensive and so about 3 years ago I started using instant film almost exclusively (along with more digital) and never really looked back. However, I love my Pentax SLRs and Yashica RFs and every so often I go wild and shoot off a few rolls. I now have a fridge full of exposed and unprocessed 35mm and 120 film. The plan is to start C41 processing at home (see other thread about that - UPDATE: my chems arrived yesterday) and to resurrect my b/w setup too.

Oh yeah, my other project is to find out why my beloved Bronica SQ-A has stopped working and for that I think I need to buy another 120 film back.

[Windy]

I'm thinking of starting a 12 month photo blog - 'Stornoway the Holga way' trying to capture the place, people, events and changing seasons around town using a 120N

[jojonas~]

I'm starting to have a lot of shots of a forklift that I harass whenever I can.. I'll be sure to start to scan what I have and decide what the next step should be.

oh, and start to develop colour film. c'mon ed, let's go go go!

[Greys on Grey]

I am going to do: more experimentation; candids; street photography; architecture; textures and shapes; get my holga; make a pin-hole; and not allow exposed film to pile up before I develop it.  

[choppert]

Hmmmm

Just having seen that the dudes on Rangefinder Forum produced their own book (http://www.amazon.com/Rangefinder-Photography-RFF-Forum/dp/B002ACR5UO/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1291824689&sr=1-1), I might (foolishly) commit to running a collaboration in 2011 and producing a Blurb/Lulu book?

Would anyone be up for it?  
Would have to figure out the boundaries, rules, how it would work.

Suspect it would go the way of the allotment project I was meant to be working on this year!

Chops

[Urban Hafner]

Of course Chops! However, as I'm planning to get a book out of my project too I'm not sure I'll be able to handle both. On the other hand the success rate would be higher when I'm doing (or when I'm part of) two projects

Urban

[Wensleydale Blue]

I've already started what could be a major project for me next year, if I have the courage and motivation to take it forward.  I've so far taken a couple of photos of people that I know who have recently been made redundant from their jobs, taken outside of the organisations that made them redundant.  I've taken these with my Mamiya 6 and I want to carry on with this format for all of the pictures that I might take.

Thankfully, other than the handful of shots, I've already taken, I've now run out of people that I know to have been hit by this, and so I now need to think a little more about how to find other willing subjects.  I've toyed with hanging around job centres and just asking people if they've been sacked and asking if they'd be willing to take part, or perhaps even putting ads in the local papers.  So, the next part is the hard part if I am going to continue with this and make something of it. Also, given that I work in local government in the UK, and we are about to take a pasting from central government's public sector cut backs, I might even get to do a self portrait sometime around March next year!  Who knows where the axe is going to fall next?

Graham

[LT]

Mushrooms from spring to autumn.

Clocks all year round.

[sapata]

I want a "Press Pass" !
Anyone knows where to start from ?

[Diane Peterson]

Chops...love your idea and would be thrilled to participate..keep us informed!

[Mike (happyforest)]

Well folks how are the projects going?

Regards

Mike

[Mojave]

My tortured oaks have all filled in with spring greenery so more shots will have to wait for next winter. Now Im going to start shooting the salton sea as far as landscapes go. And on the people front, Im going to be collaborating with a friend of mine on a new series of portraits of folks who live and love Rock-a-Billy. I want to use my new Type 59 for that, if it works. And in another collaborative effort, I'll be doing a series of portraits of the masters of the kung fu system I train using the rest of my T55. But I think that series will probably be a long time in the making. Folks are awful busy these days. 

And what about you HF? Where has the new year taken you so far?

[astrobeck]

so far I've been keeping to my mantra of "less cameras more photography".
Using the pinholes mostly with a few side shots done with the ME Super.

I have a project coming up in Texas next month and some travel to the West Coast later this year so exciting times ahead for 2011!
 

[Late Developer]

I regret to advise that I am struggling to say the least.

A variety of reasons - but mostly an elephant in the corner of the room that I just can't shake off. The "elephant" is my ceaseless apathy for the area in which I live. Any opportunity to go and shoot somewhere with hills, deciduous forests and a bit of wilderness is seized upon as a means to escape what I perceive as the sheer monotony, banality and tedium of the East Anglian landscape.

I accept that these are my "perceptions" and that there are probably some lovely places I just cannot, for the life of me, get excited about the prospect of trying to find them or make photos despite having lived here and travelled the area extensively for the past 12 years.

This Thursday, however, my friend Howard and I are off early and are aiming for Thetford forest and onto the north Norfolk coast. Hopefully, we will find something to spark my interest. If not, I'm binning any hope and will work on the basis that I waste as little film in Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire as possible.

[Mil Mascaras]

I was planning on shooting a large amount of colour and a little B&W but I ended up realizing that most of my best shots were in B&W for whatever reason. So in the last 3 weeks I shot 15 1/2 rolls of BW (one still in the camera) and 4 of colour...

At least I am keeping true to the shooting different films part. I am now experimenting with slide from Kodak and Fuji. I had actually never shot slide before and my scanner is dead so I have not seen the results yet (!!!).

[Mojave]

Mil, you can pick up a 4490 on eBay for like 25 bucks, brand new. I've seen them there for that much and mine works like a charm. At least I think it does. I've never tried anything else and the scans come out focused in all the right places so Im assuming it works great.  But you can scan 35mm, 120 and slides with it. I even scan large format and then stitch it together after the fact. That isnt always easy to do but so far I've been able to make it work. But you can at least get your slide scanned.

And Becky, let me know when you're going to be out here so we can meet up. I can drive out to the coast and you can give me a lesson on using pinholes with water. 

[calbisu]

Everybody has plans   I also have plans!   Yes... I Do   Ooookk, as per the equipment I want to try 4x5, both in Polaroid and non POlaroid film. I also want to make tintypes, after deciding that wetplates was for now out of my possibilities, dryplates seems much closer to the ground and it also looks cool. There is one place which sells kits for tintypes so they could send it here to the philippines and then I could try that. Then out of one camera that I am waiting to arrive there will be no more equipment to purchase. I have all I want. More shooting less equipment. AS per the photography itself I like shooting portraits so I will keep doing that as much as possible, trying people I know or that I barely know. I will also keep shooting street photography. AFter looking at my shots I have seen a common pattern and I just like that, it just needs to get better  

[Mil Mascaras]

Mil, you can pick up a 4490 on eBay for like 25 bucks, brand new. I've seen them there for that much and mine works like a charm. At least I think it does. I've never tried anything else and the scans come out focused in all the right places so Im assuming it works great.  But you can scan 35mm, 120 and slides with it. I even scan large format and then stitch it together after the fact. That isnt always easy to do but so far I've been able to make it work. But you can at least get your slide scanned.

I will definitely look at that one. I am shooting 35mm and some polaroid (very little even though I have a million instant film cameras actually) but at some point I will start shooting 120 too, so this combination works great. Thanks!

[Pete_R]

This Thursday, however, my friend Howard and I are off early and are aiming for Thetford forest and onto the north Norfolk coast. Hopefully, we will find something to spark my interest.

Make sure you take in the bright lights of Cromer Paul. Here's one of them, the other was too far away to get both in shot...


(I think it's supposed to be a prawn on a stick).

[Mike (happyforest)]

Mojave

I asked for that didn't I?

I didn't have any specific projects in mind last time round so didn't join in the thread but was interested to see what other people were thinking of doing.  However I did have some gems of ideas.

One was to make a panoramic pinhole camera, which I eventually did recently (see world pinhole day thread).  I am still running the first roll through this camera and hopefully will have something to post from this soon.  I hope that these will encourage me to take more of these once developed.

I had intended to use colour film occasionally and had promised myself a colour kit to develop them.  Unfortunately the kit didn't appear so have struck out on this so far.  Although some recent colour images on the weekend threads have made think about shooting colour.  Might not wait for the the kit.

I have a part used roll of Technical Pan in one bulk loader (not sure how much is let) and had tentatively thought about doing some long exposure type or some close ups\still life but have got no further than this.

More recently I have re-discovered some old ilfochrome paper that I had lying around for years and wonder if I could do something with this, solagraph perhaps?

LD I sympathise with your comment about apathy for the area you live in or not being inspired by it.  I live in the west midlands and I too struggle with this and envy those who live nearer to inspiring countryside\beach\woodland etc.  I must admit that following Peter R's series on the Ridgeway I did try and think about whether I could do something within the west midlands area, either landscape wise or city\street-scape wise but as yet haven't done so.  Maybe I  could combine the pinhole\tech pan desires above into a project.

I originally joined filmwasters to participate in the collaborations as these forced me to think and stretched my photography beyond the every day snap shots of my kids or other peoples.

Longer term I would love to get back into a darkroom.  I know so much more about the art of darkroom work than I did when I did have access it would be interesting so see if I could put this into practise.  I used to do so much more when I had one (not least because I was single).  I used to develop my own XP1 using Ilford's excellent kit.  I tried colour printing once, I remember it well, photocolour kit, 25 sheets of 5x7 paper to get the balance right (well nearly).  Final print balance OK but covered in dust\debris.  Decided at that time it was cheaper to get them done at Boots. (I also didn't take much colour then so wasn't worth the investment).  I did cibachrome, filtration was easier than negative and colours were great.  I still have the two of the original Ilford manuals on my book shelf, basic but worked for me.  I have no idea where any of the prints are unfortunately.

Mike

[Late Developer]

@ Peter R

Hi Peter. I nearly bust a lung laughing at your shot of Cromer. "Prawn on a stick" - hilarous.

I must admit I have seen some lovely coastal shots of East Anglia by other photographers and I keep returning to Aldeburgh, Southwold and Hunstanton as there are definitely shots to be had if only I can find them. However, for 6 months of the year the North Sea coast is bleak - and not in a good way.

I think focusing in on the micro landscape is probably best when not at the coast as vast 180 degree expanses of extremely flat land don't tend to hold the imagination for long. I'm also going to take my D700 to get some instant "feedback" before wasting film and, if the end result isn't worth the effort, I'll just enjoy the day out.

[Urban Hafner]

Well, between work, my wife's PhD and the kid there's not much time for photography. So I've mostly shot my kid and a few things here and there. Recently I started using my Diana+ lens as a close-up filter and have burned through a few rolls for that. Maybe that will turn out to be my photo project for the year. But first I have to scan a few of the rolls ... And I've finally started to use my Holga WPC which is quite nice (mostly walking around searching for a shot and waiting a few seconds for the exposure, very meditative). If the images come out nice I'm sure I'll find some time for pinholes.

Urban

[CarlRadford]

I'm going to continue with the Crofter series - all in 35mm from now on - and do some more adventurous stuff on other formats. Playing with a moving film, slit camera at the mo.

Tell us more of the moving film project?

[CarlRadford]

A project on the allotment at which I now have a plot.  More image making less image talking

[Mojave]

I'm going to continue with the Crofter series - all in 35mm from now on - and do some more adventurous stuff on other formats. Playing with a moving film, slit camera at the mo.

Tell us more of the moving film project?

Oh yes, please! I missed that part.