Your personal photography goals for 2014 / Part 02

Hello again in 2014 :) I took a bit of a break from blogging, but now I’m back with the second part of your personal photography recap - or to be more exact your goals for the new year.
If you haven’t read the first part yet, it might be a good way to get started and then come back here.

I want to help you to get all excited about photography again, mainly through finding ways to improve your own images.
Let’s look at some ways in which you could start your photography in 2014 with motivation and ambition:

- create a Pinterest board with some of your favourite, inspiring images, and ideas you’d like to work on. In order to actually stick to your goals you might want to pick one image a month and actually turn the idea into reality (set yourself a deadline!).

- You don’t have to just keep it digital, but can create an actual, real scrapbook or poster. Print out your own photos, pictures that you like, anything that inspires you. Put them into your scrapbook together with notes and thoughts that come to your mind.

- If lists are your thing you might want to make one for your ‘goals for 2014’. I like to make this part of the scrapbook I talked about just before to keep it visual and engaging.
Simple lists remind me of ‘to do-lists’ which can put pressure on you, whereas these goals are supposed to be fun.

- To get really specific, look back at your recap of 2013, and figure out what needs improving. What are your weaknesses, what do you need to learn more about or put more time and effort into?

- At the same time think of your photography strengths, and build on them. This might be technical, like being really good at getting your exposure right, or it could be something related to your subject. For example, you might be really good at making people feel at ease when you’re taking their photo.

Finally, for some very practical tips, have a look at the following posts if you haven’t checked them out yet. I believe they’ll all be really helpful to get you off the ground and to help you become even better at photography this year:

The number one tip to becoming a better photographer
All about exposure and photographing in manual mode - a summary (includes links to ISO, shutter speed, aperture)
More on exposure
Creating a cohesive photography style
How to take pictures of products (with links to food and people)

Let me know how your ‘new start’ goes and what photography goals you've set yourself! :)