Project 52. 52 weeks of assignments and critiques for those wanting to go pro, or be more professional in their approach to photography. The site is Project52.org and there is a ton of stuff there already. Audio crits with images to follow along with, information on creating a billing and finding clients and all kinds of stuff you won’t find at most photography blogs.
Because Project 52 is not a blog. It is a project… ongoing and breathing and vitally alive. And you can be a part of it by simply being a part of it. We don’t ask for money, we ask for your commitment to yourself. A commitment to excellence and drive to be better is your ticket in.
Being a photographer is a wonderful career. I think one of the best. It provides an amazing world of challenges to be met, and art to be created and people to meet and photograph.
And it is hard work too. Long hours, terrible pay sometimes. No ‘bennies’ in the traditional sense. But the bennies it offers go way beyond corporate gigs. Photographers don’t complain about Mondays. Mondays are another chance to work and shoot. Vacations are personal shooting time and editorial means we get to make personal shots on someone else’s dime. How sweet is that.
The point of Project 52 is not to make you a famous NY shooter with an a-list clientele. You are gonna have to do that on your own. Project 52 just wants you go get a taste at shooting professionally, in smaller markets, and with a more general clientele. The kind of work you would do in Houston, or Orlando, or Spokane or Sacramento. Or even Tucson, Tulsa and Akron.
Work. Assignment work. The stuff that pays the bills while you are working on taking Madison Ave by storm. Cash flow work that keeps the mortgage paid and baby in new shoes.
So the assignments are real. The critiques are fair and the information relevant. Others can tickle your fancy by showing how it is at the upper 5%, we are focusing on the real nitty-gritty of being a professional photographer in a medium to small market.
Come along for the ride. Shoot the assignments, get the critiques, grow and learn and shoot a ton. Even if you haven’t been involved before, now is a great time to jump on board.
Here are some assignments recently shot by the project 52 photographers. First up is Chocolate and that is followed by an editorial shot for a magazine.
The chocolate assignment and critique is here.
James Brown II came up with a novel idea for chocolate, but it may be NSFW, so you will have to click here to see it.
Here is a slide show of all the images submitted to this assignment. There are more images below.
An earlier assignment on shooting an image for a regional magazine yielded some wonderful shots. Here are some that kind of stuck with me.
The assignment was “Entrepreneur of the Year” for a regional magazine. The assignment page and critique is here.
All the images above link to the photographers Flickr page. Drop by and tell them what you like about their shots. Below is a slideshow of all the images taken for this assignment.
Thanks for coming along on this look at some standout photography. If you want to follow me on Twitter, you can. I also teach lighting workshops for photographers, and you can find that info here. Find out more about me at About.me. If you are interested in kicking your work up a notch, check out the Project 52 site for weekly assignments and critiques.
