At this point in the course, you’ve looked at the work of others, explored technical choices, and experimented with different approaches to light, composition, and subject. You’ve gotten feedback, given it, and maybe even surprised yourself along the way. Now it’s time to look inward. This lesson is about learning from your own work.

Start by sitting down with a batch of your images from the past few months. Don’t only choose your favorites or the most technically sound. Look for the ones that keep pulling you in. Pay attention to what you feel as you scroll through them. Are there certain colors, shapes, or subjects you return to again and again? Do any patterns jump out? Maybe it’s a type of light you seem to chase, or an angle you always end up using. Maybe there’s a quiet thread running through your work that you haven’t noticed until now.

This is not about finding one style or declaring a genre. This is about noticing what feels honest in your work. What do you gravitate toward when you are not trying to impress anyone? What moments feel like yours?

Once you’ve gathered a small selection of images that feel connected, look at them together. These don’t have to be your “best” images. They just have to share something. Print them, organize them in a grid, or drop them into a folder. Write a short reflection about what ties them together. It might be a theme or feeling. It might just be a question. That’s fine too.

Then, go make something new. Let what you’ve noticed about your own work shape your next photo. You might continue a thread, or try to push against it. Either direction is useful. What matters is that you are beginning to work with intention, even if the intention is to question what you’ve done before.

This is where the long-term project begins to take shape. Not just in the photos you’re producing, but in the way you’re thinking about them.

Inspire Yourself