And here we are at the first day of the new year.
If you’re curious at all, here are the most viewed pages from 2013 posts:
1. Farm fresh… (4 March)
2. A study in the trees of winter… (11 Dec)
3. Ones for whom the rules do not apply… (1 March)
4. Where are you coming from, where are you going: an afternoon conversation… (2 Jan)
5. Always take the call… (7 Feb)
6. What you see now will never be again… (10 March)
7. A cold first of the year… (1 Jan)
8. In between places… (25 Jan)
9. Loud noises, firecrackers, and burning effigies… (5 Nov)
10. Broken morning out… (11 March)
Actually kinda interesting. And here’s why:
A full 365 days ago, I started another photo-a-day for the year. I had done it, successfully, back in 2010. Now, as much as I know that the 2010 photo-a-day project did some good, I discovered something doing it this year… which is why there’s a certain point when I stopped posting:
I was posting absolute crap.
The thing about photography is that anyone can take a picture. All you need is a camera. It is a really cool mode of artistic expression that requires practically no skill. For real. Most cameras have ‘P’ or ‘automatic’ mode. I have great respect for physical artists like painters and (especially) classical sculptors because they have no scene mode or Instagram filter to make their errant chiseling look like the Pieta.
But truthfully… great photography takes skill. In fact, massive amounts of it. Not only skill, it requires vast amounts of time. And not only skill and time, it takes a pretty serious amount of thought and concentration. Might as well add money into the mix there.
And my photo-a-day photos were only occasionally exhibiting skill; they were done shoddily because I constantly felt like I was out of time… and because of that I gave very little thought or concentration to making them. I failed at my photo-a-day postings because I don’t want to subject you, kind viewer, to the little crappy snaps that I was taking with my iPhone. You are smart, intelligent people: I should attempt to give you smart, intelligent photography.
You may say, “Oh, but you just need to give more time to your photography.” That is completely valid and very true. I have no excuse. But it is not that I’m not making images. I’m making LOTS of images. But not every one of them you really need to see. To be completely honest: the photo-a-day project pulls the curtain back a little too much. Nobody is looking at my contact sheets or outtakes… and there’s a reason for that. If I work to produce quality work and not worry about producing volume, the quality of my output increases.
So, there’s my promise to you for 2014: I will post regularly–expect at least once per week–but I will only post things that will be worth your time. Hopefully. The internet is full of vacuous garbage and you can go look at many millions of images anytime you want… but not here at the Fledgling Photographer blog. I’ll only post photos that fit a very specific criteria: exhibiting some level of technical or practical skill, made intentionally and deliberately, and with some sort of accompanying thought or contemplation.
I hope you’ll find yourself lingering around the site. Perhaps there won’t be so many photos in the future, but my hope is to give you things worth looking at. I’ll promise you quality over quantity.
There are some really fun things coming up. I’m now one-third of the way through my Photojournalism-MA program in London and things are gaining speed.
But, as usual, please stay tuned…
-Noah D.
