Learn your weaknesses to make you a better photographer

Awhile back on my Twitter account I started posting new year's resolution tweets. Doesn't sound so weird does it? I'm sure I wasn't the only one

During December 2009, I began to look at my work over the course of 2009 and saw some great improvement in what I was doing, however something in the back of my mind was constantly telling me what I already knew. I realised I had been sticking within my limits and comfort zone. That's not to say what I was producing wasn't good, I could have easily carried on producing work that was "nice" but safe.

On a shoot my thought process, just like many other photographers tends to be get that safe shot (the one that you've prepped for) in the bag first so you have something usable in case nothing else works, then go crazy and try and push the limits. Although I do this to some extent on shoots, I realised that I wasn't really pushing myself far enough or in my photography in an overall sense.

A few things I noticed that I'll be doing this year to expand myself:

1. Shoot more Blondes - It's not a preference it's just the way it's worked out over the last few years
2. Shoot a style that seems alien to me - I shoot plenty of Fashion and Beauty but I've stayed away from things such as Fitness, Glamour, Lingerie, Editorial etc but realise that doing this can only help to improve my creative foundation in my own field.
3. Post-process more - I've been using photoshop for 12 years, WAY before even learning about photography, but over the last few years I've realised that I've only used photoshop to do basic retouching on my own photos but with all that knowledge and experience I should be trying to expand my use of it.
4. Use some great locations, I've been far to normal in my selections
5. Shoot more than just models - i.e. real people, don't get me wrong, shooting models is great, but there's something about shooting normal people that I miss.
6. Pay it forward - Basically a lot of the skills I've learned were taught to me by other people that haven't asked for anything in return. Now it's my turn.

So far this year I've done quite well. This shot of Vik Moreno and Shafina Patel is more a style I hadn't really explored before, although still fashion. I went a lot further with the post processing than I would normally to get this surreal look, used a fantastic location and also was taking another photographer through the shoot, so 3 of the points above covered in one shoot.

I guess the moral of this post is, if you ever start thinking that you're feeling comfortable with what you're shooting and what you're producing... it's time to change it up!