I know many people feel a bit down after Christmas and the worst time for this was reported this year as 18th January or “Blue Monday”.

Well we have passed that milestone so things can only get better for us all! To beat those January blues, I like to look ahead and personally find the best way to keep upbeat is to plan and to keep as busy as I can.  I have shared some of my plans and ways I intend to keep busy below:

Commercial

Luckily on the commercial side of my photographic work there are always products to shoot at this time of year, with companies wanting to get their new products to market for the spring.

Also many Bride & Grooms started focusing on their wedding plans, so I know I will have a fair few wedding photography consultations over the next couple of months.  I always enjoy meeting couples who are planning their weddings, it is such an exciting time for them and it is a joy to share this with them.

Personal photography projects

The other area I look at is where to take my personal project photographic work over the next 12 months.  I always tend to be ambitious with this part of my work, sometimes a little too much so, but I think it is better to plan more than I can probably do and then see which projects really run well over the year the ahead. Some projects I also carry over from year to year or revisit if I think there is a new approach I can take with them. I haven’t had a major exhibition of my personal project for quite a few years now, and know this is one way to really focus my efforts when I have such an event in mind. So over the next month I am going to review my work that hasn’t been exhibited and see if there is common theme I can look at in order to plan a future exhibition.

On location

More emphasis this year will be on be on location work as I plan to move out of the studio for a while to develop my creative more in this area. This will include my personal work and also the workshops I will be offering in 2016.

Serious portraiture

For 2016 I  would like to start a portraiture project, allowing me to push my boundaries beyond my commissioned work. With what at the moment I am calling “serious” portraiture, for want of a better way of describing it.

Portraiture Project

Macro

I also intend to develop the macro work that I did over the last couple of years – I just need to decide the direction it should take. I think this can also be perfect winter work as I have a good sized product table at home with plenty of room to work with this in those winter evenings.

The wild up close !!

Street photography

I have always liked street photography and have done it as a matter of course when I have been out and about, especially with other photographers on days out. This has resulted in having many years worth of these images archived away. I am going to analyse these images and set a serious direction of where they can fit into my plans for this year and beyond. At the end of January I will be in Berlin for a long weekend, so this will be a perfect opportunity to get some great street photography images.

Instant Film

I really want to revisit Instant Film  for a couple of reasons ….one is that I love working with it and other is I have two film fridges full of it ……. so no better time to do it!