Goal Setting as a Photographer

Submitted by Keith Bridgman

During our last club meeting Sheila presented a good program about the importance of setting goals as a photographer. Three panel members along with Sheila discussed a few personal ways about how setting goals was important for them and also provided some insights on how to go about selecting photography appropriate goals. I'd like to expand on this idea and take a deeper look at why setting goals is not only an important element as a photographer but also how goals help us focus our efforts.

Goal setting can take you as a photographer in two important directions; it gives you a purpose for your photography and it helps identify not only your strengths but areas in which you need to improve.

I've always believed in the idea of diversifying my photographic skill sets. I firmly believe by learning how to work within the realm of multiple photographic concepts you become a stronger overall photographer. By doing so, it helps you focus in on what kind of photography you really enjoy and excel in. I understand not everyone is going to entertain the same interest levels for the multitude of photographic styles and techniques that are out there. However, I look it at from the perspective of not unlike cross training an athlete performs to build a higher degree of all around fitness to enhance his ability to perform at the highest levels within his chosen field of athletics. Beginner and novice photographers can benefit the most from this approach because they are the ones with the most need to exercise their skills so they can begin to put all the pieces together. Over time they begin to focus in more on the type of photography they find of most interest to them.

Quite often I will talk to novice photographers who come across sometimes as looking and feeling lost within the jungle so to speak...a kind of can't see the forest for the trees sort of thing. There is so much they do not know, they have a tendency to shy away from anything new and concentrate on the simpler and easier aspects of photography. This is actually a normal kind of thing to happen. That is why novice photographers should set a series of small attainable goals and progressively work toward becoming stronger with each achievement. The worst thing they can do is to settle for what is easy...or put another way, set the camera to auto or program mode and point and shoot things.

The trick is to set progressively more complex attainable goals. The first goal for all novice photographers is to learn the basics and gain a fundamental understanding of the camera's functions. Without that basic knowledge, it is easy to become trapped in a world of Good Enough for me...or the, I have a good camera and it takes good pictures syndrome. A next goal might be to learn more about composition and how to actually create a well composed image. Then maybe learn a little about post processing as the next progressive step. After gaining experience with these you will find how the first goal suddenly starts becoming more instinctive and you learn more about how to apply those fundamentals to your photographic skill sets. In essence, each goal builds on itself and you progressively improve. During the first tentative steps of working toward a goal you can photograph just about anything. The idea is simply to learn and once you become more proficient you can start to focus in on specific targeted photographic opportunities.

Image by PhotoBac

A good personal example involves learning how to shoot with off camera flash. This kind of photography is a bit more advanced and can be intimidating to even experienced photographers who have not given it a try. That was my problem several years ago..I didn't know how to do it so I never tried it...I was afraid of looking foolish or failing in my attempts. But, I realized in order to truly capture the kinds of images I wanted, I needed to understand how this concept worked and so I started studying. First I read up on it, then I watched videos. I tried to shoot some using the only flash unit I had at the time...with terrible results by the way...for some reason I just did not understand the concept of how the flash and camera worked together until one day it all clicked. The concept suddenly became clear to me, but I still needed to perfect the technique. It did not happen over night, and I am still learning how to apply the use of off camera flash, but several years ago I knew nothing about it and had I allowed my fear of the concept dictate what I did, I still today would not know how. I set an attainable goal based on what I knew was required for me to progress forward as a photographer and worked hard to master the technique. Today I own five speedlights, actually six but only use one to five most of the time, and regularly use them to create interesting controlled light images. This technique alone has opened up a whole new avenue of photography, an avenue which at one time I was not sure I would ever need or use. Today, it is one of the most important elements of my photography and has generated a renewed vigor in how I approach photography.

Goal setting is a vital approach to improving your photography. By only relying on random chance to capture great photographs, more often than not you will be disappointed in the results. But by defining a purpose and direction for your photography and progressively moving forward by following a series of attainable goals...in time you can compare where you were then to where you are now and discover just how far you have traveled and just as important, how far you still need to go. The more goals you achieve, the easier it becomes to continue with the practice.