Trying to dig out of that horrible rut

I have noticed over the last few weeks that I have lost myself. I have not created a fun image in months, and I am honestly struggling to figure out my next move. It has been enough to make me wonder from time to time if I am just stuck temporarily or is this going to be something I can never get out of. I love my photography and I love to see the excitement from my clients, or even my own family when I create images.However I have not had the chance to feel that enjoyment lately. I seem to struggle with making something that I am happy with and proud enough to show my family. With this in mind I realize that I must do something because I am stuck in a rut, which I am not happy about.

I am a big fan of the Improved Photography LLC. This group of photographers spend a number of hours creating podcasts, articles and training material for us to use at either a very low cost or no cost at all. With this thought in mind this was my first stop. I went to the Improved Photography website and went through the articles that are available and ran across one in particular that is entitled "In a Photography Rut? Project Workshop!"  The article is written by Rowland Jones and is part of a series of articles that have been written. However at this point this is the only one that I have read. This article covers the basic history of portrait photography and how time consuming it was in the beginning stages. It also talked about how photographers began to change how things were done by creating new and different portraits that showed the emotion of the person that they were photographing versus just a stony face and a very stiff postured subject. The suggestion is made at the end of the article to create and schedule a formal portrait session. This includes finding a model, doing some research on a location and preparing for the shoot. There were also some suggestions about putting your subject at ease and discussion about post processing. If you would like to read this particular article in full here is the link:
http://improvephotography.com/30488/photography-rut-project-workshop/

After reading the article this has given me some perspective and to some extent has gotten the juices flowing about what I could do with a session. However this is something that I want to be personal and from my heart. I also want my personal project to tell a story through the photos that I take. This is something of a challenge because I have no idea how to tell this story. I have learned that unlike dancing, which can tall a story though movement, photography is something completely different. I have attempted this idea and failed several times. Each time I feel as though the photo needs an explanation or a thought bubble so that the viewer of the photo understands the story that I am trying to portray.

So as I sit here I am trying to figure out several things.

1. What is the topic, or title of my project?
2. What is the story that I want to portray?
3. Is this something that I am only doing for myself or is this something that I want to release to the public eventually?
4. What type of project can I do that is something that I can complete, and not become discouraged and quit?

I found an article about some of this at The digital Photography School. In the article it talked about why a personal project is important. There are actually several other reasons, besides getting yourself out of a rut. Personal projects can help to expand your portfolio, get you to step out of your comfort zone and get you out into your community. Which I believe these are all great ideas that may be very helpful.

If you would like to read the full article for further explanation here is the link.

http://digital-photography-school.com/importance-personal-projects-professional-photographers/

As I continued my research I found another article on the Fstoppers site that helped to define things a bit more. It talked about not letting your projects die and how to stay motivated which is something that I NEEDED more than I realized. This really brought things into prospective for me. This article broke down how to come up with ideas, and how to keep track of them and to expand on them to make the project specific and not quite so over whelming at the very beginning. As I said this is something that I needed to see as I believe that being over whelmed from the very beginning is a very huge issue for me as a photographer. I also found it reassuring to know that I am not the only one that struggles with the actual execution of the project, which in my case is the reason why it dies, and the ideas that were given to prevent this is great. I have come to realize that I need a time line for the project and it is not something that has to be a year. It can be as short as a few days to as long as I want it to be. However there need to be end dates and there need to be bench marks with dates in order to keep myself on track. Also one of the biggest take always from the article for me is that it is ok to fail. You can always go back and re-shoot. Which brings a lot of weight off of my shoulders.

If you would like to read this article as well please follow the link.
https://fstoppers.com/business/how-not-let-your-personal-photography-project-ideas-be-forgotten-83648

What are your thoughts? Do you have any suggestions for me? Would you like to see the project as I work through it?

I would love to know what you think and if this is something of interest to you. Please leave your feed back in the comments and give me an idea of what you are interested in.

As always thank you so much for taking the time to read my thoughts and give feedback. I hope that it is helping you as much as it helps me as we grow with our photography.