Personal photography projects can do more than improve your camera skills. They can support mental health, build confidence, and help you rediscover creativity when life feels a tad overwhelming.
If you’re new here, I’ve challenged myself to a two-year, personal photography project, designed to stretch my creative skills, learn new techniques, support my mental health, and, maybe, just maybe, help to inspire and motivate someone else to pick up a camera and learn this wonderful craft called photography.
This blog is part of an ongoing photography project where I challenge myself to explore different shooting styles and a wide variety of photographic genres to improve my skills, build my confidence, and manage (understand) my AuDHD.
My first 60/60 photo challenge was with Erica Mulkern on location in Chester, and my second in the studio with Jessica Saffron, both were based around fashion photography and portraiture.
My third 60/60 photo challenge took me in a different direction: Still-life photography with sunflowers became my subject of choice, offering the perfect opportunity to practise composition, lighting, learning some new techniques but also allowing me to slow down my overstimulated brain without feelings of pressure.
Little did I know just how much this still-life photo-shoot would give me back!
Photo Project #3/60 – Still-Life Photography with Sunflowers
I’ve always loved the genre of still-life photography, I love props, the buying of, and the bringing them together to create a scene. If I’d known there was such a thing as training to be a ‘Visual Merchandiser‘ or ‘Window Dresser’ when I was going through my education, I think I might have chosen a different career path altogether.
I also love Sunflowers. Just ask my friend Sandra, she’s a fellow photographer who happens to be a wedding florist and it was a bit of a no-brainer as to the flower I wanted to photograph. When she said she’d be able to get me 20 large, stemmed sunflowers for my number three photo project I was over the moon.
I was so happy, I even let the Boss take a photo of me ;)
Want to know more about the meaning, history and symbolism of sunflowers
Controlling a small scene can calm a busy, anxious mind
I’ve said it before and I will say it again, when it comes to still-life photography, it’s the setting up of the props that take the time. Once you’ve got your basic still-life set-up, the rest just flows. Well, it does for me anyways!
For me, the setting up of the scene is pure mindfulness, it’s my kind of colouring in or knitting. I love to faff and play around, moving objects from here to there, swishing fabrics and arranging my loyal subjects in different compositions. It’s amazing how just moving something ever so slightly can change the whole look of the photo.
I use my phone, as well as my camera, to see how it looks through the viewfinder and then, usually, I faff some more! I usually do this so I can try to explain to Eif what is in my head, and then if I need help with the lighting, he knows the look and feel I am going for.
Eifion is the type of photographer who likes to get the light right first, then create the set up, and then adjust the lights. He has a plan to start with, often in the form of notes. I don’t, I just have one simple idea in my head (in this case, the Sunflowers) and I work from there as the inspiration takes me.
I am a faff first then lighting second kinda gal.
When he asked me how I wanted to start, all I knew was I was starting on the floor, I didn’t even know the size of my still-life set-up until I started to build it. Just like my ideas, it grew!
I think, the making of tiny adjustments in composition as I go, creates big emotional shifts in my mind for me. It has a calming and meditative feel. Definitely my colouring in equivalent.
Permission to play with my camera and lighting equipment
I didn’t realise how noisy my brain had been over the last few weeks until I picked my camera back up again. My mind is always busy but lately it’s been going ten-to-the-dozen. Some days, it feels like I’m juggling seventeen thoughts at once, the to-do list, the emails I haven’t replied to, the workshop plans swirling around my head, wondering if I locked the door, the usual anxiety-shaped shadows that creep around the edges of my day. ADHD doesn’t ask permission, and Autism doesn’t always give me the grace to process things quietly.
But then, camera in hand, something shifts.
It’s not often I have the luxury of a whole day in the studio to myself, but, I was determined to keep the promise I’d made to myself so I decided my photo project number three was going to be a simple session.
Nothing major. No elaborate mood boards. Only using what I had to hand. Just me, the sunflowers, and the quiet hum of the studio lights (and sometimes the voice of reason as to why putting the light in that particular position wouldn’t work… Thanks Eifion!).
As I started, the chatter in my head softened. Not instantly, but gradually, in the way a kettle stops rattling when it finally boils.
Finding my flow
Once I got going, I was in my flow for sure. As I was faffing, composing, shooting and then faffing some more, the ideas were pouring into my head, and I had to consciously stop myself from moving forward too fast. Stop myself from rushing from one set-up to the next. I was making sure that before I moved on, I’d got everything I needed from the current set before I started to build, compose and shoot another. I covered all the angles, captured the scene in different lighting scenarios, I even found (remembered) myself checking the back of the camera to see if everything was correct, or if I needed to make any adjustments in my camera.
You don’t have to know everything to start
This photographic project is challenging me in more ways than one. I am learning that to do something, anything, you absolutely do not need to know it all. You just need to start. If you spend some time each day working on something, whatever it is, you will soon start to see the results. You will soon start to, what I like to say, “Get Good”!
In December 2024, I decided I’d like to start a podcast. I knew NOTHING about starting a podcast, but by the time January came – Courage & Confidence was up and running. Was it perfect? No. Did I know what I was doing? Absolutely not. In fact, our first recording, I hadn’t even pressed the record button. Do I know what I am doing now? Sort of, more than I did, but I am still learning, and I love that with each recording, each guest Michelle and I bring on, I am learning a little more each episode.
As with my podcast, my personal photo project and the challenge I have set myself is helping me to learn, but it’s also teaching me that nothing has to be perfect, and I do not need to know everything to enjoy the whole process.
And… Just when I thought I was finished
With a little encouragement (ok, so maybe just more than a little) Eifion pushed me a little further out of my comfort zone. Making me try some low-key images (the darker ones) using lighting modifiers such as grids and snoots.
This really did test me, and my brain cells, and when I felt a bit impatient, or fed up because the sunflowers would not sit in a way I wanted them to sit, I stepped back, took a deep breath and tried again.
At one point, even after I thought I’d finished, and I’d put everything away, downloaded my images onto my computer, I realised that I could have done better with my perspex shots, so, I set it all up again and shot some more.
I’m learning patience at the age of 60 – see, I told you, I’m not just learning about photography…
What I learned from my still-life sunflower photo-shoot:
- I don’t always need to have a grand idea for a photo-shoot. I just need to be curious.
- Slowing myself down and taking my time can be just as productive as pushing onto the next set-up
- Controlling a small scene can calm my busy brain. Setting up my still-life is like an act of mindfulness in itself
- Creativity doesn’t need noise, pressure, or people to be meaningful. It’s how I feel at the end of the day about my project that matters
- Making tiny adjustments to my set-up, my lighting, my camera settings (or maybe all three) can give me differing results
- Photography is grounding, meditative and sensory soothing
- Simple subjects/objects often reveal the most surprising beauty
Your turn to slow down…
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, try creating your own still-life moment. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Choose a simple object that brings you joy, place it near some soft light, and notice the tiny details.
Let yourself move slowly. Breathe. Adjust. Observe. You might be surprised at how much calm you can find in something so small.
And if you do give it a try, I’d love to know what you create.
My personal 60/60 photo project challenge is teaching me more than I ever expected:
That…
- Growth isn’t always loud.
- You don’t have to know everything to start
- Creativity doesn’t need to have an audience
- Sometimes, the most meaningful progress happens in the slowing down, the taking time to think and just enjoying the stillness of the doing.
I’ll continue sharing each 60/60 photo challenge as I go, honestly, imperfectly, and with plenty of learning along the way. Whether you’re a photographer, a creative, or simply someone looking for quiet moments in a noisy world, I hope you’ll find something here that inspires you to pick up your camera, too.
Wherever you are on your own photographic adventure, I’d love to know, would you like to start a personal photography project?
Has photography helped you in some way?
Have you done a photographic project, what did you do?
I’d love to hear all about it, so pop a reply in the comments below.
You’d seriously make my day if you did.
Lee x
Want some inspo with your photography or photographic project?
Every week at Welshot we spend quite a bit of time putting together our weekly Welshot e-Newsletter titled ‘Your Weekly Dose of Motivation from Welshot’ and, each week, it covers a different genre of photography. You get seven hints and tips to motivate and inspire you in your photography, you get a weekly challenge to help you if you’re stuck in a bit of a creative rut and you get four ideas in our gear checklist (non-branded and we try to keep it affordable) – all focusing on that week’s chosen photographic genre.
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