The Art of Photography: Exploring Meaningful Work and Assignments

Recently, I used the term "creating meaningful work" on our show, and many viewers surprisingly didn't know what I meant by it. Creating meaningful work means pushing yourself to create something that means something, whether that's to you or to a greater context. It's not about creating a masterpiece every time, but rather about pushing yourself to do better and improve your work as a photographer. As someone who creates content around photography, I believe this concept is essential for growth and improvement.

I think this topic would be beneficial for our viewers, and it would also allow me to participate and share my knowledge with them. I've been thinking of implementing something similar in the future, building on an idea that worked well for me a few years ago. Around 18 months ago, I created photo challenges that resulted in book giveaways. I came up with a topic or theme, and people would shoot based on it. Then, I'd select a winner, and we'd feature some of the best work on the show. This format allowed me to see people pushing themselves to create interesting and high-quality content.

One aspect I really liked about this approach was seeing people who might not have been known to us before become familiar with each other through their shared passion for photography. We used a hashtag, and people would comment on each other's work, leading to connections being made. I even saw a group of people still interacting on Twitter using that hashtag years after we first started doing it. This community formed organically, and it was truly special to see.

However, I also experienced some drawbacks with this approach. As the show progressed and became more competitive (even though I didn't intend for it to be), people would sometimes feel sour grapes about the winners I chose. Some wouldn't agree with my decisions or felt frustrated by the outcome. While my intention was never to create a competition, I realize now that it's inevitable when people are invested in something. The real issue was that this format didn't allow for everyone to participate and feel included.

This is why I've been thinking of reviving a similar concept on our show, but with some key changes. This time around, I want to focus on creating meaningful work without the competitive element. Instead, I propose calling it a "photo assignment." It would be a more formal approach that pushes creators to their best abilities, rather than just trying to win. The goal is to inspire and help others improve their craft.

I'm considering doing something like this within the next week or two, so I'd love to hear your thoughts on the idea. Would you be interested in participating? Do you think there's a good way to structure it without creating competition? What do you think about my approach, and are there any other elements that might make it more effective?

Overall, I'm excited about the possibility of bringing this concept back to our show, but I want to ensure that it's something everyone would be on board with. Your feedback is invaluable in helping me create content that resonates with you all.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enso I have an idea that I would like to get your feedback on and one of the things that I'm considering adding into the show is some kind of regular photography assignment and this could be something that we could do maybe once a month or once every two weeks or maybe once a week I don't know what that schedule would look like but you know a lot of times when I prepare the shows that I do there's a topic or something that I discuss and people have questions on that but we sort of move on to other things and I think that might help address some of that continuity and also some of the problems and questions that people have with things and so I'm curious to know whether you guys would find this useful or not you know we talk about a lot of things on the show and last week I used the term creating meaningful work and a lot of people surprisingly didn't know what I meant by that creating meaningful work means pushing yourself to create something that means something whether that's to you or whether that's in a greater context and you're not going to create a masterpiece every time but pushing yourself to do that will improve your work as a photographer you need to do something that means something and so I think that that this would be something that could address that in some ways um so the way it would work is we could talk about a technique or concept or something and then there would be some kind of assignment based form so that you as a photographer could put that into practice and I think this would be beneficial to people who watch the show it'd be beneficial to me certainly because I could participate and and when I prepare these and I think this could be something that could be really interesting um about a year and a half two years ago I did something similar and we were doing um these photo challenges that would result in book giveaways and I had a bunch of books I was giving away and what I would do is I would come up with a topic and uh people would shoot based on that topic or theme and then I would select a winner and I would do a show and I'd feature a bunch of the people I thought that did great work and then it would culminate in announcing the winner now one thing that I really liked about how that worked is that um I I saw people that were really pushing themselves to do some interesting things and I think that the overall quality of the work as these went by got really really good and that was really impressive to see I was really Blown Away by that actually the second thing I thought that was really cool about that is all of a sudden one I got to know people who watch the show uh because I'm seeing people's work regularly and then I started seeing connections being made and people like meeting through doing that CU we did it on Twitter and we used a hashtag and people would go through there and they'd look at all the other foes they'd start commenting on people and so I saw relationship start to form via the show doing that and I think that really was probably the most meaningful thing for me in that in fact there's a group of people who still do tweets with that on it now and I think it's really cool and so I really like those two elements what I didn't like about it and I will be honest this is the reason I stopped doing it was that um inevitably because it was a contest or it resulted in a giveaway and I had to pick a winner um inevitably especially as it progressed uh people would be very sour grapes about the things that I would choose um not agreeing with the whole idea of the the winning aspect of it anyway so I don't want to make it a competition and I don't I think it would be a failure if people feel that they don't agree with how it's going or they feel frustrated about it I don't want anybody to feel frustrated I want people to be inspired that's the whole reason I do any of these things so this is where I want to get your thoughts on this and what would work for you and so that's why I'm calling it a photo assignment and not a challenge or a giveaway or something like that I think that that's easy to do I think that there are other places you can do that online but something that's more and I hesit to use the term like taking a class but it would be something that's that's just a little more formal like that that really pushes you to be the best you could possibly be so what I want to know from you guys is is that something you're even interested in if you're not tell me if you're interested tell me if you think you have a good idea around it tell me if you think something I'm saying in here sounds kind of goofy or awkward that you definitely would want to see tell me let me know leave me a comment and uh I'll get back with you I I've been thinking about this for a while and this will be something I decide whether or not we'll do probably pretty quickly here in the next week or two and I think it could be really interesting and a lot of fun if we do it correctly so I do want to open this up and get your feedback first anyway so leave me a comment if you guys enjoyed this video please remember to like it share it with your friends and as always subscrib to the Art of Photography so you'll always be up to date on all the crazy things that I talk about and do here on the show and until the next video I'll see you guys then laterso I have an idea that I would like to get your feedback on and one of the things that I'm considering adding into the show is some kind of regular photography assignment and this could be something that we could do maybe once a month or once every two weeks or maybe once a week I don't know what that schedule would look like but you know a lot of times when I prepare the shows that I do there's a topic or something that I discuss and people have questions on that but we sort of move on to other things and I think that might help address some of that continuity and also some of the problems and questions that people have with things and so I'm curious to know whether you guys would find this useful or not you know we talk about a lot of things on the show and last week I used the term creating meaningful work and a lot of people surprisingly didn't know what I meant by that creating meaningful work means pushing yourself to create something that means something whether that's to you or whether that's in a greater context and you're not going to create a masterpiece every time but pushing yourself to do that will improve your work as a photographer you need to do something that means something and so I think that that this would be something that could address that in some ways um so the way it would work is we could talk about a technique or concept or something and then there would be some kind of assignment based form so that you as a photographer could put that into practice and I think this would be beneficial to people who watch the show it'd be beneficial to me certainly because I could participate and and when I prepare these and I think this could be something that could be really interesting um about a year and a half two years ago I did something similar and we were doing um these photo challenges that would result in book giveaways and I had a bunch of books I was giving away and what I would do is I would come up with a topic and uh people would shoot based on that topic or theme and then I would select a winner and I would do a show and I'd feature a bunch of the people I thought that did great work and then it would culminate in announcing the winner now one thing that I really liked about how that worked is that um I I saw people that were really pushing themselves to do some interesting things and I think that the overall quality of the work as these went by got really really good and that was really impressive to see I was really Blown Away by that actually the second thing I thought that was really cool about that is all of a sudden one I got to know people who watch the show uh because I'm seeing people's work regularly and then I started seeing connections being made and people like meeting through doing that CU we did it on Twitter and we used a hashtag and people would go through there and they'd look at all the other foes they'd start commenting on people and so I saw relationship start to form via the show doing that and I think that really was probably the most meaningful thing for me in that in fact there's a group of people who still do tweets with that on it now and I think it's really cool and so I really like those two elements what I didn't like about it and I will be honest this is the reason I stopped doing it was that um inevitably because it was a contest or it resulted in a giveaway and I had to pick a winner um inevitably especially as it progressed uh people would be very sour grapes about the things that I would choose um not agreeing with the whole idea of the the winning aspect of it anyway so I don't want to make it a competition and I don't I think it would be a failure if people feel that they don't agree with how it's going or they feel frustrated about it I don't want anybody to feel frustrated I want people to be inspired that's the whole reason I do any of these things so this is where I want to get your thoughts on this and what would work for you and so that's why I'm calling it a photo assignment and not a challenge or a giveaway or something like that I think that that's easy to do I think that there are other places you can do that online but something that's more and I hesit to use the term like taking a class but it would be something that's that's just a little more formal like that that really pushes you to be the best you could possibly be so what I want to know from you guys is is that something you're even interested in if you're not tell me if you're interested tell me if you think you have a good idea around it tell me if you think something I'm saying in here sounds kind of goofy or awkward that you definitely would want to see tell me let me know leave me a comment and uh I'll get back with you I I've been thinking about this for a while and this will be something I decide whether or not we'll do probably pretty quickly here in the next week or two and I think it could be really interesting and a lot of fun if we do it correctly so I do want to open this up and get your feedback first anyway so leave me a comment if you guys enjoyed this video please remember to like it share it with your friends and as always subscrib to the Art of Photography so you'll always be up to date on all the crazy things that I talk about and do here on the show and until the next video I'll see you guys then later\n"