How to photograph what you love for a living

Mark Johnson talks with his photojournalism class at the University of Georgia.

Yesterday I talked to Mark Johnson's Photojournalism class at The Grady College of Journalism and Multimedia on the campus of the University of Georgia.  I shared with them business practices and marketing concepts for the photographer.

If I had more time I would have told them to also about the importance of a personal project. If you ever hear a successful photojournalist speak about their work you will most likely hear about the “personal project.”

Today I want to talk about why I think this is a key to the success of the visual storyteller

Inner Drive

I have hit the delete key way too much here to capture how important having an “inner drive” is to the success of your career. You have to be excited about a project that it consumes you enough that you are excited about thinking about the possibilities that it motivates you to act.

You need to have a passion about something so that when you pick up the camera to capture the subject emotions are driving your compositions and not a formula.

Community

You need a support system, because going something all alone is difficult.

My faith community talks about the individual call and the corporate call. While a person may feel they are called to do something it is the corporate call of the community that must confirm the call.

By sharing your ideas with some close friends they can help encourage you and challenge you in the process.

Mark is more than just their teacher, he can serve as their coach or mentor, but they must make that decision

Coach/Mentor

You really need someone who has been where you want to go or at least has taken on a personal project and succeeded.

Your coach will talk to you before you start. They should ask questions and help you to articulate why you have chosen an approach.

As you shoot your project you should be taking it to them to review. This is when you will discover with their help you have some holes in the coverage. You then will reshoot and show the results again to your coach.

Sometimes you will discover that the project you tried to cover just doesn’t work for one reason or another. This is when your coach might suggest taking on something else that might be better match for your heart and abilities to capture.

Goal

 
When you are done with your project you will know it because you have achieved your goal.

Sometimes your long-term goal may take years to achieve, but due to your efforts people have hired you to shoot some of their projects. Sometimes you may have a very successful career and still not achieve your goal for a long time.

Surprise

Just the other night my wife Dorie helped me to see I had achieved some of my goal.

I had been asked to curate the art exhibit on missions for our church. It has been up now for a couple of weeks. Some people had come to tell me how much they loved the photos. “They are so real and we just love them.” Soon I had a couple folks talking to us. Then I overhead my wife telling a couple that this was not just Stanley’s profession this is the essence of what he is all about.

You see my goal was not to be published only, I have wanted to know that my photos were having impact on people’s lives. I hope that because of the art exhibit people feel called to give, go and/or pray for missions. If this happens then this personal project met the objective.

Students listen to Mark as he introduces me to the class

What is your personal project?