So here we are, January 1st and it’s time to start something new.

I’ve spent the past couple weeks thinking and talking over ideas with friends and family, followers and fiends, with no obvious conclusion coming. The problem is that I take portraits, however I’ve already done 365portraits.com so the idea of doing a ‘portrait a day’ all over again seems repetative. Especially in a world where many other photographers have already taken up that banner. That said, I work better when I work in public. More pressure and less wiggle room.

I came up with the following goals.
– I want to collaborate on more involved portraits with multiple subjects.
– More pre-production, more visualization, and more control
– But with all of the above, I’d like to be able to move in different directions if my will takes me.

So instead of one project, I’m going to do a few which overlap and interweave. It’ll be tricky to juggle, but then again if you don’t push yourself, then what’s the point. So by the end of the year, here’s what I’m determined to end up with:

Dioramas: 52  posed environmental portraits involving 2 or more subjects
Or at least I think I’m going to call it Dioramas. This is the big project. These are going to require a lot of subjects and locations and stories and help. So if you want to participate, send me an email. I’ll need subjects, wardrobe and make-up people, assistants and helpers of all kinds. As well as the volunteer of locations and time. I imagine that it’ll involve a fair amount of talking and chatting and organizing for one shoot a week where the magic will actually happen. As much as possible, I’d like to keep a record of the pre-production on the blog as each week goes on.

E-book: ‘Self-taught Photography from a Self-taught Photographer’
I’m also going to start writing some educational material. Medium-sized essays, building to a book, which tell you what you need to know to really understand photography. Not really step-by-step how-to as there are plenty of those around the internet, but rather the what and the why, so that you can figure out the how-to for yourself. I think I’m going to make these available as ebooks for a buck or two donation per chapter. Or maybe they should be video podcasts…

Daily (or better) Blog Posts
I’m also going to ramp up my blog posting. In fact I’ll be shooting something everyday. This is my job and it’s time to get serious. It might not always be portrait, but that’s a good thing. Reasonably priced prints will be available for one day only.
I’ll also attempt to interact more with the community at large. The trick is to work work work even if you don’t feel like it. As Picasso once said, “Inspiration exists, but it has to find us working.”

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On top of the above, there are a few other smaller ideas I’d like to throw out there.

Portraits of Jazz Musicians
Jazz musicians used to have the coolest photos ever. Just type ‘blue note album covers’ into google image search and you’ll see what I mean. Lately however, they’re really cheezy. Bad clothes, bad lighting, just no mood at all. It’s time to do better. I’ve shot some musicians in the past year and I’d like to do more of it. In fact, I’ll shoot album covers and promotional shots at a reduced rate just to give back to the community.

Profile Picture Factory
I’ve had a number of people ask me to take a headshot kind of thing for their online profiles and whatnot. Of course these people don’t want to spend a ton of money and it’s really not my thing, but I was thinking that maybe it would be fun to setup a little factory one day. Get a makeup person and a wardrobe person and me and turn it into a production line for cheap. Say the subject pays $200 and they walk out with 3 finished shots of my choosing and we do one person an hour. It would be like a fun little fire drill & they walk away with a new professional profile shot.

More Heroes
I like to contact people who I think would make good subjects and see if they’ll sit for me.  In fact I’ve got a running list over here: http://www.billwadman.com/thelist/ I think I’m going to make a more strict effort into contacting them and increasing the list. I think that would be fun.

Finish Panels
4 more Panels to go to make 10.  These are fun, but time consuming.  I think a set of 10 would be a nice round number to finish on.

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So with all of this in mind, I start my year. I hope you all follow along and enjoy.
Right now though I’ve got to go back into town to retrieve my camera which I left behind last night so that I can get started.