I have been thinking for a while about starting a personal project. One done with a camera, but one that doesn’t require me to work with others like I do when photographing dogs. What I wanted was a project that could progress on a whim. A photo could me made when the feeling was right, when I had a few spare moments or when I wanted to experience the emptying of my mind as happens when I make photos, but without any preplanning. Having written those thoughts down for the first time that seems like a big ask!
Yet it only took a day of occasionally thinking about this project for me to realise what the perfect subject would be. Clouds. It really couldn’t be more simple.
I hadn’t paid much attention to the quality of clouds, beyond whether they appeared to contain rain, until we moved into the tiny apartment we built in our shed some six or so years ago as we began the process of building our home. I was washing dishes in the laundry come bathroom come storage room soon after moving in and noticed a pale pink light appear on the wall the sink was attached to. Looking out the window I saw a vivid pink had flooded the sky as the sun was setting. I ran outside so I could appreciate it fully and used my phone snapped the beauty for prosperity. Little did I realise then that would be the first of hundreds of such photos, many taken with my camera, and many more that were enjoyed without getting out a camera.
During covid lockdowns I wanted to photograph something within the confines of my home, something that would give me a project to focus on but one that didn’t require fancy equipment or time spent setting up. Standing on the verandah one day, I looked up and was struck by the light hitting the powerlines that run in front of our property. The sky was blue, with white clouds breaking up the colour and to me it looked beautiful. So my project was born, which I refer to as sky and powerlines. Clouds aren’t necessary for that project although they often feature.
So this new project, which in many ways is an extension of the others, will focus on the beauty of clouds. I will use my old Fujifilm X-Pro1 camera, rescuing it from languishing in a drawer. There will be no other restrictions placed on the project. And time of day, any location, and if I want to add other elements, such as shooting through trees or some kind of man made structure such as those power lines, then I most certainly can. The flexibility of not placing lots of limits on myself is what’s going to make this project work.
I’ll share my progress here throughout the year.
Do you embark on personal projects? I’d love to hear about them if you do.
Kim
That sounds like a really interesting project! I'm trying to incorporate larger projects into my year this year - at the minute I'm doing a 3x4" card a day. Sometimes it's a photo. Sometimes it's junk journal inspired, or a water colour sketch. I'm also planning an art series project this year, which I will start as soon as I get out of my own head and my own way!