As in past years, earlier this year I reviewed the photos that I made in 2023 to select my favorites, reveal patterns in my work, and set goals for my work in 2024. Last year was a prolific year for me. I made a lot of photographs during our six months exploring the western states, especially the more remote and less heralded places, and continued my local projects, especially in the Anacortes Community Forest Lands, the Palouse and Olympic Peninsula. So, by the end of the year, I had added about 15,000 images to my Lightroom Catalog. Whew!
I started my review process this past January. With so many images, it took far longer than in previous years, and the process was interrupted by two long photography trips in early 2024. I'm finally finished - sort of. I limited myself to 32 images, which proved difficult. I compiled quite a few iterations of those 32 images, and finally realized that this process could go on forever. So, I drew a proverbial line in the sand, and present my "final answer" in my 2023 Favs Portfolio, with some of the images included below.
More importantly, I learned a lot from this review including what makes a favorite photo as well as what I'm doing well, not so well and not at all in my work. This then led me decide what I want to keep doing, do differently and experiment with in my work in 2024. I'd better get going. The year is almost half over.
First, what photos become favorites, and why did I end up with only 32 but made about 15,000 photos? Actually, 32 was a self-imposed limitation to force myself to look long and hard, and not bore anyone with too many images. So there were actually several hundred images that I REALLY liked, and perhaps several thousand that I liked well enough, but they didn't make it the status of "REALLY liked".
What makes a photo a FAV? For me, photography is a way to explore and experience my world more deeply. In 2023, I enjoyed a lot of great experiences that resulted in a lot of photos, many of which were really about the excitement of a cool place or a fun activity but didn't result in a FAV photo. That excitement sometimes didn't make it into the photo, or the resulting photo just didn't go deeply enough, compared to others, or, too often, the photo just wasn't as great as I'd hoped based on my excitement at the time.
So, FAV photos had to rise above just excitement of the moment. They were the ones that evoked the most powerful responses in me, for whatever reason. Or looking at it in another way, a cool or exciting experience doesn't necessarily result in a FAV photo. It's really about my personal response to the situation. If my response is "meh", then typically the photo will be just "meh". So, I need to pay a lot more attention to what I'm feeling, and only make images when I'm really "feeling it".
But, why did I make so many photos to get to so few Favs? Three reasons. As said above, it's partly due to the fact that I made photos when, in hindsight, I wasn't really feeling it. I was in the moment with a camera in my hand, so I made photos. How could I not? That leads to the second reason. I had a lot of fun making those images. To paraphrase Sean Tucker, the joy is in the making. If I also make a joyful image, that's a bonus. As long as it's fun, I'll probably keep making lots of images that may turn out to be just "meh".
And thirdly, it's also due to the nature of photography as a medium. I don't think I would have made the few hundred images that I REALLY liked; had I not made the thousands that I did. Making FAV images in photography is a lot like finding the proverbial needle in the haystack. To make an image of the needle, photographers have to look through a lot of chafe in that haystack. Painters can just skip the haystack and paint the needle. Photographers get through the chafe by making photos. Painters may go through some chafe but can repaint to get what they want in their final image. Painters also make sketches before making that final image. So, perhaps my photos that weren't FAVs, were sketches that led me to the FAVs.
So, what will I do (and am doing) differently in 2024. First and foremost, I need to be much more mindful, focused on the moment, ignore distractions and pay attention to what I'm feeling. I'm very good at being distracted, especially by other people. Practicing mindfulness is the best way to stay in touch with what I'm feeling and make more meaningful images. Second, in 2023, I too often seemed to get stuck on making one image, trying too many minor variations, hoping to make it better than it really was. Sometimes that worked, but I often I wondered later why I did that. So I need to move around more, exploring the scene visually and emotionally, and key in on what resonates in me more deeply.
Third, I will work more smaller, more intimate scenes than the grand and the epic, perhaps even dipping my toes in the macro pool, and work toward greater abstraction over realism. This means that I can't depend on the spectacular subject to "make" my images but must work the light and composition for images that are "made" by my creativity and not the obviously awesome scene. I'll still make those when they present themselves (because it's awesomely fun), but I'll work more on making what has become known as personally expressive images. And finally, as much as I love photographing in nature, I also love to photograph people and culture. I did a lot less of that in 2023. So, I plan to get back to more of that in the future with my Creative Types and Local Culture projects, as well a couple of new ones. Stay tuned!
2 Comments
May 31, 2024, 9:03:48 AM
SHANNON BORG - Such beautiful work, Mark! And your message is so needed right now. Thank you for posting this! Shannon
May 24, 2024, 3:41:30 PM
Irene - Simply delightful - look forward to seeing what 2024 will bring us via your well trained eye!