My photo project for 2024

It is here… The New Year… 2024!

And in this year I intend to start a new photo project of mine focused on still life, by which I mean manually created compositions photographed either indoor or outdoor.

I paid attention to still-life photography back in 2015 and 2016, you can read about that experience here. I liked the style and wanted to continue to improve my skills as it was a genre I seemed to have a sense of. True, in the following months and years I took a few photos here and there after creating some simple still-life compositions but I missed guidance and lacked space, technical skills and some basic equipment so gradually the resolve faded away.

Faded away yet did not evaporate entirely as you can see, so now, after creating a small and humble “photo studio” at home and acquiring some necessary photo equipment, I am prepared to give it another more persistent try, which is why I wrapped the intention into the photo-project coat to help me focus on the path.

When I was thinking about the format of the project, it seemed a good idea to use what worked for me before, which would be to assign a particular topic to each month, such as e.g. Spoon(s) – Lantern(s) – Coffee – Tea – Book(s) – Bottle(s) – Crate(s) – Button(s) – Fruits – Vegetables – Candle(s) – Egg(s) – Christmas – Vessel(s) – Flower(s) – Tool(s), etc. Yet eventually this seemed way too limiting and demotivating and I decided otherwise.

I decided to lower my expectations significantly and start slowly, getting to know the equipment, learning to use it properly, opening my mind to possibilities. The topics above may be used as an inspiration, but of course, there are so many other choices, both simple and complex…

If I am not sure where to begin, I cannot start running, first I need to proceed step by step in the intended direction. And I am prepared to acknowledge in advance that some photos on that way may look nice and some may look silly but it’s a start and that is good.

To support my motivation, there are two conditions I want to base the project on:

1) At least once a fortnight I will devote the whole morning/afternoon to taking still-life photos. The more the better for sure, and in time, after gathering momentum, I may develop a sustainable practice and make better use of the available time, but this is the required minimum.

2) At least once a month I will present a selection of the photos in a post here on my blog.