Building a Landscape Photo Project

Single great images are rewarding, but a project — a body of work around one idea — is how photographers grow.

Choose a subject you can return to

The best projects are close to home: a river, a mountain, a county's back roads, a city park through the year. Repeat visits teach you how light and seasons change a place.

Ideas:

• One location photographed every month for a year.
• All the covered bridges or lighthouses in your state.
• Trees of your region, or wildflowers of one trail.
• Night skies from every state park within a day's drive.
• A single intimate landscape theme: ice, bark, reflections.

Define it in one sentence

"Water in the Front Range from snowmelt to drought" is clearer than "nature photos." A sentence guides what to shoot and what to leave out.

Make a plan

• List the shots you need with the shot list planner.
• Track seasons, blooms, sunrise directions and moon phases.
• Stuck? Try a random challenge from the photo prompt generator.

Shoot, review, refine

Review work every month. Print small proofs and lay them out on a table. Notice what's missing, and go back.

Sequence

A project is more than a pile of good images. Look for pairs and rhythms — wide then close, warm then cool. Try showing three related images together with the triptych maker.

Finish it

Set an end: a number of images, a date, a printed book, a small exhibition or a web gallery. Finished projects open doors in a way loose images rarely do.