Rather than start a new thread I'd like to post some thoughts about projects here is that's OK with
@sirch
I see a lot of people on TP struggling to come up with ideas for taking photographs. My problem is that I come up with too many. This means that my difficulty is concentrating on ideas long enough to get anywhere with them. As a consequence I have lots of themes going round in my head and whenever I see something that fits one I take a shot or get in the groove and take a lot of pictures. Sometimes this happens when I go out with something specific in mind and get sidetracked.
I had such a light bulb moment last week. I'd been taking photos on this particular theme since I got back into photography in 2010. Pictures got tagged with the keyword in Lightroom and filed away. It wasn't until I had something clicked and I realised that what I wanted to be doing to make my point was take lots of detail shots and bring them together in grid format. I've got a little obsessed with making groups of pictures of late. I like the way individual pictures play off each other, how the collection becomes the whole, how there are multiple ways to read the piece.
After making a three by three grid from the pictures I shot (in an hour or so when I had actually gone looking for dragonflies) I tried another 3x3 using pictures I already had. That didn't work so well but it gave me a clue for some more that I could take. Which I did. They kind of worked but seemed a bit forced. However, combining them with the older pictures I began to get somewhere. Putting three 2x2 grids together I liked the effect (if not the arrangement). For now I've settled on a 6x4 grid, and have a clearer idea of what kind of pictures I need for it. Hopefully I'll keep my mind loose and shoot far more pictures than I need, and without too much thought as to how they might fit the grid. When I've got more than enough I'll pull them all together and, with a bit of luck, have something that works. In fact I'm itching to go out and start taking more photos!
It took me a while, but stumbling across the combination of detail picturess and a large grid has been the 'way in' for this project. I'm not posting anything at this stage as I'm superstitious and don't want to put the mockers on things! I'm quite hopeful though.
What I am saying is that different people have different approaches to creating projects. For some the carefully mapped out approach works best. They need to know what comes next and be in control. Others, like me, have to let the pictures tell them where to go. Whenever I plot a project out in detail I can't be arsed going taking the pictures. It feels too much like work. I got as far as laying out a book using Blurb for one project. I had a list of subjects to photograph. All I'd have to do was visit the locations, take the photographs and slot them in place. I took one or two and shoved them
on a blog. But I soon lost interest. However, that approach would suit some people down to the ground. I'm still shooting in the local shop, so one day I might drop lucky and find my 'way in' and make something out of the hundreds of pictures I have accumulated.
Just a few thoughts that might be relevant.