How do you start a photo series?

Wednesday 5 January 2022, 20:02 by Wilmar Dik | 6,867 views | 2 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

Starting a photo series can be quite difficult. What are you going to photograph, how and where? And what is the focus? Do you want to earn money from it, or is it purely a hobby?

Creating photo series is something many photographers do regularly. I have been a professional photographer since 2008, but I had never felt the need to create a photo series as personal work.

Until Corona became more than a beer. Assignments were cancelled and I had more time to do things I normally never got around to.

What subject?

I think it is very important as a photographer to do something you are genuinely enthusiastic about. So choose a subject you care about.

I have always been very interested in travelling. I have taken hundreds of thousands of photos while travelling. But during corona, anything involving travel is not really a good idea.

In the meantime, I realised that I often hire a car at my destination when I am on holiday. Driving, especially outside Europe, is great fun! I always took lots of photos of cars on holiday too. An idea had been born.

I bought my first car in Australia: a 1984 Ford Falcon 4.1 litre automatic. Because ordinary cars produce more ordinary photos, I only want to photograph unusual cars in this series.

My first car
That can be anything, by the way. I have no specific requirements, as long as the car is unusual. From a 1973 Citroën 2CV to a 1969 Mercedes Benz W114/W115 or a BMW 635 CSi.

When people sign up, I check whether the car is fun and interesting enough for my series.

Personal work photos, from idea to execution

It became clear quite quickly last year that I wanted to do something with cars and photography. But I still had to work out how to do it. For my personal work photos, I regularly take photos with a fish-eye lens.

I sometimes use one for assignments too, but it has to suit the assignment. For this personal work series, I have no client, so I can decide everything myself. So I chose to take lots of photos with a fish-eye lens.

I also decided that I want to photograph every car with its owner. And always in the same way, using the same lenses from the same angles. By now, I have photographed six cars.

Because a photo series also needs to be viewed, I post eight photos of each car on my portrait photography website. If I now put the same type of photos from those series together, it creates a nice impression.

Aim of the photo series

The main reason I started this series is that I enjoy it. I do not really have another aim yet. I also think it is quite difficult to set firm goals when you are just starting a personal work series.

Perhaps I will be able to make a book from it one day, or sell some usage rights for the series. But those are things that may come my way later.

I cannot do very much with my six photographed cars yet. When I have sixty, I will think about it again.

Do you know someone with a great car?

Do you have a great car and fancy taking part? Or do you know someone with a cool sports car? Read more information here. The owners of the cars also receive the photos themselves. But they may not give them away or use them, or have them used, commercially.

That is my 'profit'. I like to keep open the possibility of doing something commercial with it one day. Until then, I will enjoy the beautiful cars that come my way!

You might also like

• 

  Review: Inspiration by Ap Dijksterhuis

  by Erik van Rosmalen

• 

  Where do you find your inspiration?

  by Nando Harmsen

• 

  Inspiration: Portraits in the Studio

  by Elja Trum

• 

  Sports photography tip: Focusing while panning

  by Nico Delmeire

• 

  Sports photography tip: Creating an abstract sports photo

  by Nico Delmeire

• 

  Street photography tip: Avoid cars in your photos

  by Michiel Heijmans

2 comments

Have your say

Please note: Articles older than a week can only be commented on by signed-in visitors.
Would you still like to comment? sign in or create a free account.