Caged: My Next Personal Photography Project

“Start a huge, foolish project, like Noah…it makes absolutely no difference what people think of you.”
― Rumi

January 1, 2021 not only ended an extremely fulfilling career in education, but also my personal photography project to create photographs everyday at work for the final years of my career.  I worked on this project for three and a half years.  Closing the chapters on both the career and the project

simultaneously left  quite a void.

I clearly needed a new project.  There were several things I needed to consider while planning my next project.  It had to be something that would stretch me creatively.  It also had to be something that I could work on that was relatively close to home due to the combination of Covid and personal obligations.

The first thing I decided upon was the place.  The Riverbanks Zoo, located in Columbia, South Carolina was just the right distance away for my project.  It was far enough away to fulfil the driving time I so enjoy, while being close enough to home that I could get home in a little over an hour if needed.  It seemed perfect.

Since I decided on the location, I made four initial trips to photograph.  I purchased a yearly membership to keep the cost of the project down.  Each visit now requires a timed reservation made prior to the visit.

I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do for my project.  As I have learned from previous projects, the best thing to do is start photographing and eventually your camera and your creativity will lead you in the right direction.  All I knew is that I wanted to take pictures that don’t necessarily make you think of the zoo.

As with any photographic endeavor, I started with more of the low hanging fruit photographing the typical zoo images.

I then began looking for scenes and compositions that didn’t scream zoo.

In addition to straight photography, I will do composites in this personal project.  The constraints I will put on this part of the project are that all parts of the composite have to be taken by me at the zoo.

I am not sure where this project will lead me.  For now, I have a title:  Caged, a location to create, and a start.

I am looking forward to seeing where this project leads.

What is your current project?