[matthew]

This morning I bought a little portfolio that holds 24 4x6 photos. I thought I would put together a little book of prints just for fun, since the paper's cheap.

I can't find 24 photos on a single theme or subject that I want to print as a collection.

My Lightroom catalog contains 18750 images. How sad is that?

[shuttertalk]

Lol... I know exactly how you feel!

[matthew]

I've decided that this afternoon I'm going to go and find a subject to create a series about. I'll keep the equipment simple and take a could of hours and then see what I come up with.

[Irma]

I am working on a seies of pictures that will be exhibit in a cafeteria in my village. G suggested to work in just one topic, more or less 20 images. Some of them to hang in the wall others to have them as a portafolio. I think the topic I have more pictures is flowers, I have hundreds of them, just from all, just 167 post processed to show on line, and more or less a dozen worth to be printed...

I am a bit disappointed....

[Don Schaeffer]

I think the trouble is that your world is too beautiful. You tend to categorize in more creative world when your world is less beautiful. (partly a joke).

[matthew]

Don, you must be talking to Irma, because the world being too beautiful certainly isn't a problem for me.

Irma, it sounds like you're in an even tougher spot than I am, all I need is ones that I'll be willing to look at again. I had actually considered doing a series of flowers, but wasn't sufficiently motivated for them, either.

Instead I preemptively took Don's advice and spent a couple of hours underneath an elevated expressway. The nice thing about starting with an unattractive subject is that the standards for success are lower.

[Irma]

Don I agree with you about your idea of creativity.... I don't think my world is too beautiful, but I try to make it look nice...

Matt... I think a series of flowers would require a lot of different sorts, and the best place to do it without expending much money and care for the flowers is in a botanical garden. Then, you can use a lot of the environment and you have beautiful light. With the great advantage that you can do macro and also wide angle pictures of the same flowers as the environment helps a lot.

An elevated expressway sounds very interesting, look forward to seeing some of your pictures...

[Don Schaeffer]

You are right. I don't know why but I thought Irma posted this. I apologize and sympathize.

[matthew]

Don't worry, Don, it's everyone's thread because it sounds like a common experience. Besides, our avatars are similar, so it's easy to get Irma and me mixed up.

[Toad]

I sympathize. As you all know, I have been doing night shots of cafes for a couple of years, and I still can't fill a calendar.

[wulinka]

I think that
a) if you keep looking, you will find more pictures that do go together as a series, you just hadn't thought of their common theme...

b) if you find 5 or so pictures with a common theme, keep shooting in that direction!
I have been building up on my "chicken series" for months now, and it is constantly growing.
One day I went out with the intention to fill a gap, and it worked out exactly!

Don't give up so quickly!

Uli

[Irma]

b) if you find 5 or so pictures with a common theme, keep shooting in that direction!
I have been building up on my "chicken series" for months now, and it is constantly growing.
One day I went out with the intention to fill a gap, and it worked out exactly!

I like very much this thought Uli....

[matthew]

Uli, excellent advice.

Part of my problem is that I have bad DAM habits. I'll use a keyword and then neglect it; other times my level of enthusiasm isn't enough to catch one or two stray photos that don't match their neighbours. Sometimes I'll identify a "bird", other times I'll be more specific, but yet somehow I only have one in the "pigeon" category. Bad digital asset management.

[Rabid Penguin]

Dam?

[matthew]

Digital asset management. Keywording, ranking, cataloging, archiving; all the extra work that makes it easy to find a certain image, or a certain type of image, after eight months and 20,000 photos. But considering that right now I can't even find my copy of the DAM book, I suppose I should consider myself lucky that I have anything keyworded at all.