Why 2021 Will Be a Great Year for Your Photography

Published: Jan. 3, 2021, 9:48 p.m.

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YOU GOT THIS >

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Dear friend,

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2020 was a hell of a year. My deep optimism:

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2021 will be a great year for your photography.
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Why I\'m so optimistic

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Many reasons to be optimistic. Looks like we have produced a COVID vaccine much quicker than expected. I already know 3 people personally who have gotten the vaccine.

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I look at my photography, and have figured --

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Even though I prefer to travel and make photos, I have been able to make very interesting photos while NOT traveling, or being in other \'exotic\' places.
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The upside of monochrome

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A new realization:

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The joy of shooting monochrome is that it opens up more photo opportunities for us.
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What I mean is this:

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Because our lives have become more \'boring\' and more \'normal\' ... it is hard to find new visual stimuli or sources of things to photograph.
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But in monochrome... we can transform even the boring and normal things into interesting things to photograph.

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Monochrome is magic. I see a lot of normal \'boring\' mundane things, and when I look at it and hold up my Ricoh GR III in high contrast monochrome mode, it transforms the thing into something far more interesting. It is almost like using a blacklight on normal surfaces.

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We take a common thing, and make it ultra-common (extraordinary) through photography.
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A chance for you to \'pivot\' your photography

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To use Silicon Valley talk, the notion of \'pivoting\' is good.

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Too often in photography we become trapped into a singular, reductive way to approach our photographic artwork. My optimistic thought:

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2021 can be a great chance for you to \'pivot\' your photography, and switch things up.
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For example, let us say that travel/street photography is your thing. But certainly your ability to travel in 2021 (with COVID) is greatly impacted. Thus, rather than bemoaning reality and complaining ... best for us to exploit our (\'bad\') situation to the maximum advantage. This means:

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Given my poor circumstances ... how can I best transform these \'downsides\' to upsides in photography?
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For example, let us say you\'re stuck in quarantine at home, or just restricted in your small boring city or town. Perhaps use this to your advantage:

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It takes more skill to photograph really boring things and to transform them into interesting photos.
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Treat this as the ultimate \'creative constraint\'.

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Or --

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If you\'re stuck at home all day with your partner, kids, roommates, etc ... use this chance to start a \'quarantine\' photography project of your family and/or loved ones.
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Time with loved ones is the ultimate non-renewable resource. To use 2021 to focus on family/friend photography is great.

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Creative photographic flourishing

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There are a few thing which bring me as much joy in life as photography. Simple things which have been incredibly fun for me:

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  1. Designing more new e-books of my photos in Adobe Indesign, exporting the e-book into a PDF and sharing it with others. Using this chance to buff up my \'books\' section.
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  3. Chance to deep-dive into new photo books. Huge thanks to my buddy Mark for sending me a photo book on Gabriel Cuadallo (feels like a more poetic Henri Cartier-Bresson), which infused me with new photographic motivation in monochrome. If you\'re stuck in quarantine investing in new photo books is a great opportunity for you. For me in photography, buying books is th
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