Weekend Wisdom With Matthew Jordan Smith - Special Projects

Just click on the banner above to listen to the podcast!

 I know it's not the weekend, and we normally air new episodes on Saturdays. Sometimes life just gets in the way, so consider this either early or late, since it should have gone up last Saturday. Either way, if it bothers you, maybe the strength of the topic will make up for the dating. LOL

Matthew and I are talking about special projects in this new episode. In this context, special projects can be just about anything you do with a camera in your hand. The benefits of projects like this are twofold.

First, it helps you stay focused on your creativity. This is especially important when your bread and butter business isn't as glamorous as you had hoped. A special project allows you to be in complete control and can be virtually anything you decide to capture.

Second, you never know when a special project can become something bigger than you planned. Special projects can turn into exhibits, gallery showing, books and even new business as Matthew talks about in the podcast. He once showed images from a project he was working on, and in the audience was a business manager from a company in China. He loved Matthew's work. The result was Matthew heading overseas for a month photographing a group of Chinese executives and picking up a new client.

Matthew's spent the last three years working on his current project, Future American President. It's a remarkable book, and currently he's working on getting into a second printing with an opportunity for more people to have a customized cover with a photograph of their child. 

Future American President has a Kickstarter component scheduled to end this Sunday. He's put together a special offer for any photographer donating just $2.00 or more - a free download of two of his most popular instructional educational videos. Click the link below to find out how you can be part of the Future American President experience.

In the mean time - if you don't have a special project, what are you waiting for? Pick a subject you're passionate about and then start to build a series of images. Projects can be as simple as a 365 or even once a week program, capturing a particular image each day or week, to a serious book project you hope to publish someday.  

Most important of all is finding an outlet just to be creative and have the choice of how you capture each image, completely under your control.

---

Future American President