Introduction

If you dig back into the archives far enough you’ll find that I’ve talked about the joy of photographic projects before, but it’s been a while. A quick search of the site finds:

1. LTP 25 back in October 2015 when we had a panel discussion suggesting possible projects as a way of finding fresh inspiration.
2. LTP 59 from August 2018 when I described my approach to photographic projects in detail.
3. LTP 101 from February 2022 touches on a related suggestion to shoot in small series rather than individual shots.

So, I definitely have talked about my love of photographic projects in the past, but apparently it’s been a little over four years since I’ve done that, so I think now is a good time to suggest and related concept — using a long-term background project as an opportunity to learn about something else. By that I mean, to photograph something with care an attention to detail over a long time, and to learn about your subject as you photograph it. I’ve found this approach to be a virtuous circle, the more I photograph the more details I notice, triggering more questions, and the more I learn, the better my photographs get.

The Spark

As is often the case these days, this episode is inspired by a photography-related anecdote that happened around the middle of the month as I was starting to worry about not finding a topic for the month’s show.

I was finishing my morning walk with a cup of my favourite coffee in hand, and I glanced down at the footpath and noticed something odd — a ragged looking dark pink thing that looked like it may have fallen from a tree. It was in poor condition so I wasn’t quite sure what it was, and kept walking. A few steps later, I spotter more of them, then even more, and when I came to the part of the path that passes right under a row of big tall trees, they were everywhere! Most were trampled under foot, but the wind had blown one freshly fallen one into a nice arrangement with a yellow ivy leaf, so I put my coffee down, hunkered right down low, and snapped this shot:

Found Still-Life — glass.photo/…

I’ve walked that path many times a week for literally years, and this is the first spring I noticed these catkins! Not only did I notice them, but I suddenly realised that while I walk under those trees all the time, I actually didn’t know what species they are. I racked my brain, and all I can remember is that they’re definitely not any of the species that grow wild in Ireland, they definitely have slender leaves with a silvery tone in summer, and they seem to shed white fluff at some times of the year. So what are they?

Now that I knew they have these amazingly coloured catkins, I was determined to find out! I started a conversation with my favourite privacy-preserving AI chatbot Lumo, and together we figured out that the trees are Purple Willows. They’re commonly grown in gardens and parks because of their decorative catkins.

The Lesson I Took

At first I was just happy with my found still-life shot, but then I started thinking more deeply — since I have been walking that path for long, why was this the first spring I noticed the catkins?

The answer is that without really meaning to, I’ve started a new photographic project — I’m carefully tracking the natural cycle of the ordinary things that grow along my regular walking routes. I had done this consciously during COVID, and referenced the joy I was finding in photographing the same places over an extended time back in LTP 84 “The Circus Animals’ Desertion” & LTP 85 “Finding Inspiration in the Ordinary”, but I’ve been sub-consciously doing it again thanks to AI.

The reason my intentional project faded was that I ran out of plants that were easy to identify by scrolling through lists of Irish wild flowers. It was so frustrating not to be able to know what I was seeing that I got bored and stopped. But, in the last years or so I’ve really leaned into using AI to help with plan IDs, and it works so well that the my frustration has evaporated and my old project has been revived! I’ve been watching every little botanical change in both the wild and urban environments I walk through regularly for months now, and I’ve been learning so much about the plants that grow around me, both in hedgerows, and, in gardens and public spaces. Between iNaturalist and Lumo plant IDs are a breeze, and both learning and photography are a real joy again!

Because I walk the same routes so regularly, I have no FOMO, if I see a new flower or bud or leaf, and it’s just not in a photogenic spot, I take note that something new is happening, and keep my eyes peeled for the right arrangement to get a compelling photo. In the mean time, the poor photo is good enough to get an ID, so I get the joy of learning even when I don’t get the joy of a nice photo. Sometimes the learning feeds the photography — I read about a new plant and discover that it will do something cool later in the year, and that seed seems to stay planted in my mind, because when ever the thing happens, I always seem to recognise it as if I’d always planned to capture it!

Generalising

Thinking more broadly, every time I get stuck into a photographic project the joy comes from the virtuous circle set up by the fact that photography requires attention to detail, which leads to questions, the answers to which feed into the photography, which leads to more attention to new details, more questions, more learning, more photos, and so on, and so forth!

So, that’s the idea I wanted to put in everyone’s mind. Combining your desire to learn with your photography will enhance both your learning and your photography!