My 2020 Photography Lesson

Gaff Rigged Sunset

With very few exceptions, I believe that everybody learns something every year. Whether it is a practical skill, such as how to install drywall, or an emotional skill like learning to be less of a procrastinator. I am no different and most years I learn quite a bit. As my main creative hobby is photography, I tend to learn quite a lot from it. In my earlier years I learned things more along the lines of understanding composition and how to balance ISO, shutter speed, and aperture. At the same time I was learning some practical skills like how to use a tripod, how use a remote shutter, or even how to use a speed light. One year not too long ago I started shooting film and learned quite a bit in that realm, some of it translating very nicely to my digital photography. In recent years however, my lessons have been less about the physical tools devices used for photography, and have tended to be more conceptual in nature, this was certainly true in 2020.

I began 2020 by signing up for a photography website I had seen on Fstoppers that greatly interested me: 52 Frames. The idea behind 52 Frames is to take and publish a photograph each week which follows a certain community wide prompt. You can follow people and like their images, and even go for “Extra Credit” if you want to give yourself more challenge each week. A prominent theme on the site is that putting out any picture is always better than putting out nothing at all, this is emphasized by a badge on your profile that indicates your weekly streak. While it is rather low pressure in most respects, it also apparently features plenty of space to flex one’s creativity. Furthermore, if you want it you can get really good critiques of your work by an extremely friendly photography community. In so many ways, this seemed like a really lovely photography community to be a part of, and I was so excited about the year to come.

For over 30 weeks, I was a weekly uploader to 52 Frames, rather proud of my growing streak. However, it was not all sunshine and roses, very often I really did not like the picture I uploaded for the week. Quite often I would have an initial idea for the creative prompt, but would struggle to properly execute it. Part of that would come down to my own execution for the idea that I had, but part of it would come down to not being able to execute my plan thanks to external circumstances. Though the problem usually had more to do with an ill conceived plan to satisfy the prompt and a skill deficit than external factors collaborating to spoil my fun, I was finding myself increasingly frustrated with my photography in a way I never had been before.

Those that know me, know that I am not the biggest fan of social media to put it kindly. Surprisingly for some, this extends to Instagram as well despite my love for photography. As a result, I had not posted much photography leading into 2020 and I wanted to change that; this was one of the reasons I was drawn to 52 Frames in the first place. Previously, the only really notable place where I had posted my pictures in a notable way was for the United States Naval Institute’s annual photo contest. In 2019, I submitted a black and white picture of a gaff-rigged cutter sailing under the bowsprit of the Spirit of California in San Diego Harbor at sunset titled “Gaff Rigged Sunset.” I won an Honorable Mention in the contest and was very proud of myself. After taking the picture and seeing it published in a real magazine, I resolved to take an even better picture for the contest in 2020. As August 2020 rolled around, I decided to review the pictures I had taken over the course of the year. Suffice it to say, I was not at all impressed with my body of work for the first 2/3 of the year.

Granted, Coronavirus was something of a roadblock and prevented me from doing some of the things I had been hoping to do in the world of photography, but that didn’t excuse the tremendous number of bad pictures I saw while I was combing through my archives. I believe you can tell when a photographer and their subject are having fun taking pictures, it comes through in the images. For folder after folder I saw very little joy in my work; most everything was taken for the 52 Frames challenge, and was mostly uninspired. Furthermore, I saw very little that could be used for the photo contest. I wasn’t expecting much, but I had hoped to see a picture or two that I could include in my 5 photo submission for the contest. Unfortunately, my body of work for the year left me wanting in that respect. It was rather easy to conclude that 52 Frames had not really helped me in the way that I had hoped, and that it had actually left me in a worse position since I had been dedicating so much time and effort to achieve each weekly prompt.

After 38 weeks of consecutive posting, I quit 52 Frames, resolving to get back to what I had loved in the past while at the same time aspiring to take a new creative direction. I was able to put together a nice collection of 5 images and submitted them to USNI for the 2020 contest. Once again, one of my photos was picked as an honorable mention. Though I had failed my earlier goal of finishing in the top 3, I was proud to have come up with another honorable mention with less than a month of focused consideration and effort. Ironically the image that was selected was the one most similar to my previous runner up, a black and white film picture of two old sloops moored on Boston’s Inner Harbor titled, appropriately enough: “Sloops On The Inner Harbor.” More generally, I was looking for a place to post my images and engage in a creative way digitally. To cut a long story short, the result was this website. I look forward to everything that 2021 brings, and implore all that are reading this to keep watching this space as I plan to do quite a few fun things in this space.

Happy New Year!

Sloops On The Inner Harbor