Another year: 365 days to improve

Yet another year has gone by. Another year of achieving goals. A year of improvement.
New plans for a new year. That's what alot of people try to do. Setting the goals for the new year and at the end of the year most forget even to look back at it. Some of the plans seem to be impossible. But working on those is a good way to grow. If there are problems reaching your goals, you can do two things: giving up, which won't help you further,  and just starting, trying to cope with the problems you'll see along the process. Sometimes you have to think outside the box. In that case you'll learn new things, you'll improve. That's the first thing I want to blog about :)

Easiest thing to do is challenging yourself with things you've already done. Can you still call it a challenge if you already know that you're able to complete it? If you've already done it, I think it's a no. Challenges are there to find problems you have to solve. Working on those problems helps you improve your skills. Either technical or in a creative way, you'll improve. Doing things you wouldn't normally do are the things that help you to reach a level you wouldn't normally reach. If you don't step out of your own safe area, you'll never grow bigger than the area is. Explore new things, try new things and learn from it. Even if it doesn't help you reaching your goals, it still helps you. If you never leave the small village, you'll never know how to drive in the big city.

So, what am I going to do to improve? First of all I have the challenges at school. Besides, there are some ideas. I want to work on a book about a band and I want to do a fantasy-based photo shoot with random people who like to have a picture of themselves dressed as an elf, a dwarf, a wizard or any other fantasy based creature. Why do I want to do this? Besides I want to do it because it's cool to have such pictures in my portfolio, I want to do the fantasy shoot to learn how to combine the natural light with a little bit of studio light. How to create a certain effect by using the light in a way it makes the picture stronger. The reason why I want to work on the book is because I want to learn how to put down a good impression about the emotions that are there by choosing the right pictures, the right moments and the right combination of text and photo's. Besides that it will be a challenge how to fix the finances for it and what the full process will be to turn a nice collection of pictures into a well printed book that's for sale.

I also want to learn how to make good pictures of soccer. I already started a bit with that, going to the youth team of Ajax to make some pictures during their matches. It's a good way to get known with the technique and timing of it. The circumstances aren't the best and you need the feeling to find the right moments and the right place to stand. Practicing is of course another way to improve. To learn how to make good traveling pictures you don't always have to travel, but it's a good thing to do. Taking time to wait for the opportune moment where everything is perfect. Then learn from the things that aren't perfect. Because the perfect picture doesn't exist. There's always something to improve.

This is an impression of how my year will be regarding photography. Enough written for now, going to make some pictures now :)