Personal photography projects are the spice of life between the humdrum of every day life and shooting. As a professional, there are subjects I shoot because I’m paid to (portraits, weddings, products, etc…) and there are subjects that interest me personally (mountains, goofy road signs, milk jugs, etc…). I’ve learned to mix the two and let work assignments pay for personal projects by keeping a list of what I want to shoot as I travel internationally as well as around my town.
You may not have thought of starting a long term project. Most of us don’t because our photographic interests change over time, more quickly as we start to dabble in photography and learn new techniques. We are all familiar with the Project 365, where the idea is to take a photo a day for a year. Think of this as a Project 365, but spread out of 5, 10, 40 years. Your goal is not to shoot regularly, but to shoot your given subject over and over and over, then compile the images tell a story.
Pick a subject(s)
Start with a mental list of subjects that are interesting to you and especially ones that you find in multiple locations. As with most personal photography projects, the key is to make it interesting to you so it’s always at the tip of your mind. Creating a long term project based on what your friends want, from my experience, doesn’t work as well because interest in the subject tends to wane. This project has to be for you. If others click with your sub