Critique the Community: Personal Project

Welcome to the September installment of the Critique the Community! This month's critique theme is going to be "Personal Project," and we want to see your best photographs that come from a personal project. These should be something you shot for yourself rather than for a client, an assignment, or a paycheck.

We actually ran a Personal Project critique back in July 2022, and with so many of you shooting new bodies of work since then, we wanted to open it back up. A personal project can be anything you've pursued purely because you wanted to make it: a long-term series, a single image you finally got around to shooting, or something you started just to keep your skills sharp between paid jobs.

This month's theme, "Personal Project," is intentionally broad and open to any genre, so don't feel limited by what you normally shoot professionally. Feel free to enter your best landscape, headshot, portrait, wedding, product photography, or documentary image so long as it came out of a personal project rather than client work. There are basically no rules on what the image can feature as long as it was something you pursued on your own.

Rules

1. Each photographer may submit up to three images.
2. This month's contest features a pretty broad theme, therefore any type of photograph is acceptable. However, the image must come from a personal project you initiated yourself, not a paid client assignment.
3. 10 Images will be chosen by Lee and Patrick for the video critique.
4. Finally, every image submitted MUST HAVE some written commentary on how the image was created, what gear was used, what challenges you faced, and why you started the project in the first place. Any photo with a single sentence description will not be included.

Prizes

Top 3 Images - The top 3 submissions will receive their choice of any Fstoppers photography tutorial found in the Fstoppers Store.

Our elaborate and exhaustive photography tutorials not only help photographers immediately start taking professional quality images, but most of our tutorials also share business and marketing techniques that can help make photography a full time income. With genres like Headshots, Landscapes, Architecture and Real Estate, Fashion, Macro, and Product Photography, there is something for every photographer no matter what genre you specialize in. This prize is valued at $299.

Good luck to everyone who enters and we look forward to seeing your best "Personal Project" photographs!

Cover image by Justin Manders.