Before getting to new pictures for the new year, I wanted to finish my reflections with some thoughts on the future.

When I started this blog, project, whatever this is, I really wanted to explore my thoughts on photography. I did not and continue to not expect anyone to read this. As it was then as well as now, this is a space for me to both reflect on the pictures I’ve taken and a way for me to learn and adapt over time. At first, I was relatively quick at turning around the posts. However, throughout the year as things in my life started to pile up I fell off of posting in any sort of quick cadence. This isn’t necessarily because I didn’t have the time or desire but because I definitely didn’t push or feel motivated to do so.

I already knew this about myself though. It’s also one of those things I do want to do better at. Not because I feel guilty about it. But because as I was writing some of these posts in the last couple weeks, I realized that my memories of the specific situations being depicted weren’t fully sufficient. Obviously, it’s hard to remember things that happened a month ago, much less 6. And honestly, the posts as a result took on a bit of an inauthentic feel to me. I don’t expect that to be obvious, but it didn’t feel as vivid or real as I’d like.

That said, the main reason why I want to do better is because I want to talk about more pictures. I ended up cutting a few posts because I didn’t want to have to catch up an extra 4-6 posts. This isn’t to say that I won’t come back to those, just that it’s definitely the case that my capacity to push through a large number of posts is not infinite, even if this is solely a personal project with no external audience.

With all that said, I want to outline some of what I’m thinking about for this year. While last year was very much an exploration of different film stocks and relatively free form in terms of what I was aiming to do, I really want to be more focused this year. In the first TV’s Daniel post, I mentioned a particular compositional structure I came back to multiple times throughout the year. This year I want to focus a bit more on that and see what variations and possibilities are there. In doing so, I can think a bit more deeply on which things work and which ones don’t under that set of constraints.

I’m also reducing the number of different film stocks I’ll be shooting on. While I’ve largely believed and have been of the opinion that colors and things are not super important to the structure of any specific picture, I do want to restrict that more. I also want to be more exploratory in that specific space. What does pushing/pulling do to this film? How bright can it get before blowing out? To that end, I’ll be shooting primarily Portra 400 this year. I’m not saying I won’t shoot any other film stock, just that the greater majority of pictures this year will be using Portra 400.

One thing I’ve felt as I’ve taken more and more pictures is that I often take some of my most distinct and interesting pictures as I restrict the space of possibility. That said, I do want to expand in other ways this year. While last year was shot primarily with a 50mm lens, this year I really want to explore different focal lengths more. This is especially true at certain venues or under certain conditions which I’ll most likely get to throughout the year.

One other thing I feel like I did a lot of last year was spend a lot of time on my memories in relation to pictures. While I think that that can be good place setting and context for a picture, I really want to be careful with that. At the end of the day, while this is very much a personal project about me and the pictures I take, I really want this to be more focused on the pictures and be less of a diary.

To that end, I also want to cover pictures I haven’t taken more this year. I started to do that a bit in some of the posts I had covering artworks and sculptures. But I really want to expand that a bit more and cover pictures in broader contexts as a way to get better at that type of analytical exploration.

All in all, this year should end up looking pretty similar to last year. But it should also be a fair bit different and that’s ok. I’m looking forward to it and already have a couple rolls shot waiting to be developed. So here’s to 2023 and more pictures.