A Practical Exercise for All Photographers

When it comes to photography, your purpose can feel a little vague. While that may not necessarily be a problem, a little focus — if you'll excuse the pun — can push you forward and improve your work.

When it comes to finding a purpose for your images, many people keep a wide scope and look to just create good-looking images. There is nothing wrong with this, but it can lead you down a path where you stagnate. There are many ways to narrow down your purpose with a camera and finding a story to cover is certainly one of them. However, I often gravitate toward a related pursuit: series.

I am in the process of writing a longer article on this concept, but the premise is this: come up with an idea for a series of photographs that are all connected and then create a series around it. This doesn't have to be complicated, it can simply be creating images similar to one you have taken that you like, or working off of a theme. You will be surprised how much learning you do when you have to create images that all fit together in some way, no matter how technically "easy" the shots are to create.

Rob Baggs's picture

Robert K Baggs is a professional portrait and commercial photographer, educator, and consultant from England. Robert has a First-Class degree in Philosophy and a Master's by Research. In 2015 Robert's work on plagiarism in photography was published as part of several universities' photography degree syllabuses.

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