Dartmoor: Learning to Develop a Photography Project

Why Photography Projects are Valuable

In this episode of Learning Landscape Photography on Dartmoor, I explore the value of developing a photography project rather than simply going out in search of individual photographs.

My own passion for photographing heather on Dartmoor provides the perfect example. Over the years I have returned to Dartmoor during heather season, visiting different locations, working in different conditions, learning from the photographs that didn't work and gradually building a collection of images around a single subject.

A photography project gives you a reason to return. It encourages you to look more carefully, experiment, embrace the failures and learn from them. Most importantly, it can help you move beyond creating individual photographs towards developing a body of work that reveals something about your subject.

In this video, I explore how you can develop your own photography projects, why the process can be more valuable than the final images, and how choosing a subject and committing to it can change the way you see and photograph the landscape.

The subject doesn't have to be heather. It could be a particular place, a season, a type of landscape, a natural feature or simply something that interests you.

Sometimes the best way to improve your photography is not to find somewhere new to photograph, but to spend more time photographing something you already love.

This is part of my Learning Landscape Photography on Dartmoor series, exploring the ideas and thought processes behind landscape photography on Dartmoor and beyond.