The transition from one year to the next is for many a rare time when we pause for thought, taking some time to reflect on what has passed and looking forward to the coming year. In most endeavours consciously stopping to reflect and plan can be a valuable activity in improving performance and achieving better outcomes. However it is also one of those things that is easily put to one side in the midst of doing more pressing tasks and often sits in the mind’s ‘to do’ tray for an indefinite period.

Stock photography is certainly an activity that can benefit from serious reflection on the success of past actvities and deliberate planning for the future. This is true at whatever level of involvement in the industry a photographer is currently engaged, from the full time stock shooter to the casual contributor. Pausing to reflect on what your goals and objectives are and how successfully your current activity is moving you towards achieving these can help up the odds of success. Given the current pace of change in the stock photography industry even successful stock photographers need to consider if their current strategies and plans will continue to work in an evolving marketplace.

Success should obviously be defined. This is up to each individual photographer; but if you’re actively contributing stock it is presumably in the pursuit of some monetary reward. However, this shouldn’t necessarily dictate your whole outlook and planning. Indeed, while being mindful of what works and is likely to sell, freeing yourself to shoot more personal / out there / interesting stuff could well be productive in both creative and financial terms.

Personally I’m thinking shooting more varied / experimental stuff could be beneficial in potentially developing a style / niche that can help set the individual photographer apart from the masses of generalist photographers. This recent post at Photofocus is well worth a read for photographers and makes me think a less is more approach to stock photography with a distinct style that finds favour in the market could well be a good approach for 2010. So I may start off shooting more with a view to focusing down on a tighter style and/or subject once its ‘revealed’ itself. Then again I’m not making any resolutions to break!

Happy New Year.