Some of the most important photographs I've ever taken were the ones nobody asked me to take.
Not the client sessions, not the assignments. The ones I took because I had given myself a reason to pick up the camera every single day. That decision changed how I see, how I photograph, and eventually, how I built this whole career.
If you've been meaning to do something creative with your camera, or even just your phone, here are 13 projects worth starting. Some take a year and some take a weekend, but all of them are worth it.
365 Photo Project
Take one photograph every single day for a year.
A wise friend once told me: "Take one good photo a day." It took me a while to actually start, but when I did, it changed everything.
My 365 project in 2018 is what jump-started my photography career.
Looking back at where I started and where I landed by day 365 still stops me in my tracks.
The point isn't to take a great photo every day. The point is to train your eye to find something worth capturing in ordinary life. You will get better.
You will also start to see your days differently... which might be the more valuable outcome.
Day-in-Life Photo Project
Photograph your entire day, either throughout it or once every hour on the hour.
This one is humbling in the best way.
We forget how much texture our ordinary days have. The coffee ritual, the commute, the light at 4pm through a specific window.
A day-in-the-life project forces you to notice all of it, and to find the frame in the mundane.
It is also, not coincidentally, one of the most powerful things a brand photography session can do for you. Documenting the real rhythm of your work and life in a way that stock photos never could.
The 30-Day Photo Project
Take one photograph a day for a month.
Think of this as a lower-commitment version of the 365.
Pick a theme, or don't.
Just commit to showing up with your camera for 30 days and see what happens. It's long enough to build a habit and short enough that it never feels like forever.
P52 Photo Project
Take one photograph every month.
I participated in a monthly loop with photographers from all over the world and it was such a great experience.
On the last Wednesday of the month, we each posted a self-portrait at 11:00 am. Seeing the same prompt interpreted across so many different locations, light situations, and personal styles is genuinely inspiring.
A P52 gives you a weekly creative anchor without the daily pressure.
Recipe Book
If cooking is part of your life, let photography be part of your kitchen too.
Document the dishes you make from memory, the recipes passed down without written instructions, the Sunday dinners that smell like home.
Gather the photos and the stories into a handmade recipe book. It will outlast any cookbook you could buy.
Make-the-Old-New
Photo Project
Find old photographs from your childhood, your family history, or your relationship. Recreate them today.
Same pose, same people (or the closest equivalent), same energy, decades later. The comparison between then and now is always more moving than you expect. You can also take this in a different direction and recreate iconic images from art history or film. Either way, it is one of the most creative exercises you can do.
And if you have old damaged family photographs you want to restore before recreating them, that is something I can help with. Check my photo restoration portfolio.
Send Photo Cards
Print a photograph, write the story of it on the back, and mail it to someone who matters to you.
Not for any occasion in particular. Just because you took something beautiful and you want to share it in a way that a screen cannot replicate.
A physical photograph in someone's hands is a different experience than anything digital.
Birthdays, holidays, or a random Tuesday in August are all good enough reasons.
Self-portraits
I used to be very uncomfortable in front of the camera.
A few years ago, I decided to change that. I wanted to understand what my clients feel when I photograph them, and I wanted to push myself creatively. I started a self-portrait P52 and by the end of the year, something had shifted.
Self-portraits are not about vanity.
They are about learning to look at yourself with the same curiosity and generosity you bring to photographing anyone else.
10/10, I would recommend this to anyone. And if you want to experience being in front of the camera with someone guiding you, a portrait session is a beautiful complement to the self-portrait work.
Black and White Photography
"Color is descriptive. Black and white is interpretive." – Eliott Erwitt
Challenge yourself to shoot in black and white for a week, or to revisit your existing images and see which ones transform when you remove the color. Black and white pulls the eye toward shape, light, and emotion in a way that color sometimes obscures. It is one of the reasons I include black and white images in almost every client gallery.
They are timeless in a way that nothing else quite matches.
Create a photo album
or a gallery wall
Curate your photographs. Print them. Put them somewhere you can see them.
This is the project that turns a hard drive full of images into something that actually lives in your home.
Choose a theme, a season, a trip, a person. Find the frames. Arrange them. A gallery wall is one of the most satisfying creative projects you can finish, because when it's done, it changes the room.
If you want help choosing and printing, that is something I genuinely enjoy helping clients with.
ABC photo project
Choose a letter of the alphabet and photograph something that starts with that letter, or something that looks like it.
This one sounds simple and turns out to be surprisingly challenging.
It forces you to see the shapes and forms around you in a completely different way.
Great for kids too, if you want to do a project together.
Gratefulness
Photo Project
Photograph the people, places, and things you are grateful for.
Not the big milestones. The small, specific, ordinary things: the corner of your kitchen in the morning, your dog asleep in a patch of sun, the person sitting across from you at dinner.
This project has a way of reorienting how you move through your days. You start looking for what to photograph, and in looking, you start actually noticing.
The "Just One Roll" Project
Limit yourself to 36 exposures and make every one count.
You do not need film for this. Set your phone or camera to a one-roll rule: 36 photos per outing, no deleting until you're home. The constraint is the point. When every frame costs something, even artificially, you slow down. You wait. You decide. It is one of the fastest ways to become a more intentional photographer.
Ready to Start?
Pick one. Just one. You can always add more later, but the only project that matters is the one you actually begin.
If you decide to start one of these projects I would love to hear about it. Send me a note at contact@odettephotoart.com and let's share your work with our community.
And if any of these projects sparks the idea of being photographed by someone else for a change, I work with clients across Miami on portrait sessions, brand photography, and dating photos. Any of them would be a good project to add to the list.
