Taking Stock
May 1, 2022
In this everyday maelstrom, it is easy to sometimes feel stuck, or not in control of our next steps. As we have limited energy and resources to spend on our creative endeavors (at least, I do), we need to be deliberate in how we spend it. So, every now and then, it can be quite helpful to hit the pause button, and take a step back. This is a good time to assess where you are, and where you’d like to go next, artistically speaking (or really, with any part of life I suppose). Sometimes just making that cup of tea, putting the phone away, and sitting down with a pen and paper for half an hour is all it takes.
Building up this new website required me to go through this process and take stock, in order to figure out what I wanted to achieve with this space. So, I spent some time reflecting on what I have accomplished so far with my photography, what its purpose is, and what I’d like to focus on next. I realized that I want to go back to the core of image making to deepen my craft and increase awareness of the creative process. Follow along with me on this journey, as I document it here on the blog!
Forest Path - Black Forest, Germany
Improving a craft and an art form is hard work. This forest path reminds me to find enjoyment along the way, whichever way that path turns.
I strongly believe that focusing on the core elements of composition, image making, and the creative process is crucial for anyone to make more compelling images. This holds regardless of your experience and skill level, and is relevant for all styles of photography. This is one of the key motivations behind the new Elementum Photography platform, as you will see in the courses coming out shortly. Subscribe to the newsletter to be the first to hear about these new courses!
In the future I’ll talk more about how to take stock of your work in a more formal way by evaluating a portfolio and setting specific creative goals based on what motivates you. But for now, putting some thought into what you would like to focus on in the next few months is a good exercise. It can be anything: learning a new technique such as panning your camera to capture movement in street photography, starting on that portrait series you’ve been thinking about, or finishing the post processing for those images that you’ve been going back and forth on. What will you tackle next?