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I generally agree with what Parker Smith has to say - but it may be a little more complicated if you haven't decided or settled on your style.
As a story, you must impose some structure to it, even if it is at a much later time. Keep shooting, and as you review and edit, try to figure out what is working for you. Often, if you shoot enough, your vision will show through even if it wasn't apparent to you at the time you took the pictures. As your vision becomes clear to you, choices become easier.
What is harder, is trying to photograph the past.
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I am not so sure I agree with the same camera same lens approach, I thing the project in itself defines the photography.
Very long term projects demand flexibility , with equipment and process, it really all boils down to telling a story with photographs.
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As an artist I am interested in how other artists work. I watch videos of them, interviews, and read what they say about their work. Alec Soth, for example, says he created his work "Sleeping by the Mississippi" over two years of just shooting, then editing down to a cohesive body of images. Abelardo Morell gets inspired by something he sees and explores it through his camera in as many ways as possible. Sally Mann made a series about death because of an incident on her property where an escaped convict took his own life during a police standoff. My current series grew out of a previous body of work and what I realized I was talking about when discussing it. It was a transition and exploration, not a pre-determined, fully formed idea from the start.
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 Originally Posted by garysamson
Paul Strand, Joel Peter Witkin
I don't think I've ever seen those two names in the same sentence. 
s-a
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Originally Posted by Paul VanAudenhove
I generally agree with what Parker Smith has to say - but it may be a little more complicated if you haven't decided or settled on your style.
I hate when people mention 'style'. It sends me into a downward spiral of distraction and confusion, mostly because I find 'style' to have too many aspects of the definition. Camera brands, prime or zoom lenses, strobes or OCF, 4.3/DX/FX sensors, 35mm/MF/LF and all the sizes in between, vintage/modern/fine art/fashion/portrait/PJ and all the other genres, over-saturated, under-saturated, that awful trendy 'faded' treatments... How do you define a 'style' when there are so many options? What if you tend to enjoy more than one, or heaven forbid two or more? And those questions are rhetorical, I definitely DO NOT want to start the age old argument about the definition of style... those threads never die.
My shooting experience has mainly consisted of 35mm and DX digital. I used a Mamiya TLR during my loosely titled 'apprenticeship' after high school, and most recently the Mamiya C33 that I purchased from an APUG member. I do have plans to upgrade to FX digital for work purposes, but as for the film experience... I haven't settled on anything, and haven't shot enough to know. I definitely enjoy my 35mm for daily 'walk around' type shooting, and for the limited shooting I have with the Mamiya, I definitely enjoy the square format. I haven't used it in the studio yet, but I do have plans to do so in the near future.
As for subject matter, the only thing that I consistently enjoy photographing is dogs. It doesn't matter how many dogs I photograph, I never get tired of setting up the shots, making the shots, and viewing the shots. And a lot of my dog photos always look the same, or at the very least resemble the one before it - but I still enjoy them just as much as the one before it. I can sometimes enjoy looking at them, but I have absolutely zero interest in shooting things like macro, nature, landscapes, wildlife, "beauty", and architecture.
Although, as I'm typing this response... I've come up with a year long personal project idea. Hmmmm, it seems I may have a stirring of the mental juices.
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Whenever I plan a project it always comes out contrived and too clinical....as if I was trying too hard to do a project! Some people can pull it off, more power to them. For me I just shoot what I like and over time it develops into something of my style and my personality. Just the way it works for me.
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Good point, at the end of the day you need to enjoy the project.
Originally Posted by rich815
Whenever I plan a project it always comes out contrived and too clinical....as if I was trying too hard to do a project! Some people can pull it off, more power to them. For me I just shoot what I like and over time it develops into something of my style and my personality. Just the way it works for me.
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Originally Posted by Bob Carnie
Good point, at the end of the day you need to enjoy the project.
Bob, that's the truth!
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And just for the sake of the thread... my response above regarding the mentioning of 'style' was in no way intended to be snippy or harsh. And now that I'm reading it, I can understand how it may have been interpreted as such.
I truly meant to say that when it comes to style, I can't exactly determine mine because at this point in my photography experience I enjoy a multitude of things at the same time.
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Originally Posted by ChristopherCoy
I hate when people mention 'style'.
Style is a definition others impose on your work.
Love of subject – tell a story, man! (Your love of dogs tells me you're already there).
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