Create like no one is watching

As much as I love photography, outside of a project, job or course, I don't pick up my camera otherwise. I don't regard this as a good thing.

I didn't realize why. What motivates me during projects and courses? It finally came to me. I was missing a benchmark, something to aim towards. Outside of these things, there was nothing to aim for. If I was doing something right or wrong, how would I be able to tell?

It takes discipline to work on your craft when no one is watching. We admire the end result not thinking of the work it takes to create it. There are plenty of sayings that the difference between someone who succeeds or fails is the level of commitment. I wasn't showing up for myself. There is always room to improve, I just couldn't motivate myself without a way to measure it.

It's easy to get discouraged when looking at professional product photographers. Beautiful, imaginative, original work, I wish I had thought of. But they had to start somewhere too. I can't get to that level without putting the work in.

This past Halloween I decided to do a project just for myself. There is no shortage of great Halloween supplies to inspire stories.. I decided to create a GIF in Photoshop, something I learnt to do in my product photography course. One 10 second GIF is the combination of 122 separate images. Each frame painstakingly put together to maintain continuity. Lots of work, but very rewarding. Working on a project of my own, testing my skills, doing it for me.