List , charts and sketchs can keep you focused and save time

I'm a list person... I sketch and doodle a lot.  I have lists for everything.  I have an iPhone app to keep track of my lists.   So it should be of little surprise to find that I make photography lists and sketches.  Lists of things I want to photograph; How I want to photograph them; Workshops I will be doing; Topics to share here in the blog..

Consider quick napkin notes of ideas you want depict in your photo session.  Many will agree that working from a self-assignment can help give your random ideas some direction and form.  You don't need to be an artist, nor do you need to be overly detailed.

Creating a schematic after a recent workshop has helped me recreate the shooting and light setup and will save me a ton of effort next time I want a similar setup.  Historically I will make three to five revisions of a particular setup on scrap paper before committing it to one of my journal.  The journal has a rather random flow, but I keep an index in the back of each book and use a keyword hierarchy to navigate back to the entries of lists, camera settings and schematics that fill the front pages.

Self-Assignments...staying sharp

One way I find I can be more effective in a photo-journalist way is keeping my eye sharp and training myself  to acknowledge what's around me, not just see it.  It takes attention and practice.

Last year I was inspired to start a self-assignment of photographing the numbers 1 - 50 as seen around me.  I committed to not using house numbers as that would be too easy, and to try to isolate the numbers if possible.  Far harder than you might imagine..

A recent visit to my daughters school proved especially fruitful, but with all the labels, charts, number lines, rulers and class-room numbers it almost felt like I was cheating.   

Click the image for more in the Number 1 - 50 project