What is a Photo Journal and Why You Need One
With the rise of digital photography in the past 20 years, we are less afraid to make mistakes when taking photographs.
In turn, most photographers come home with hundreds, if not thousands of photographs after a photo shoot or trip, which is a big pile that contains uninteresting shots, lots of redundant frames, and hopefully some great photographs.
It is fairly simple to scroll through the photographs, find the ones you like, edit them if you feel like it and move on. But wait a second…
What did you learn by doing this? What will make your next photo shoot better than this one? Did you think what made you like the good shots? How about the bad ones? What are some mistake patterns in your photography?
Answering these questions require a conscious effort, and the best way to do so is by keeping a photography journal.
But don’t fret! A photo journal does not need to be complicated, and therefore, here is a guide to get you started.
Need a template? Download your copy from Pursue Light!
What is a photo journal?
A photo journal is simply a medium where you pick select shots (good and bad!) from your photo shoots and reflect on your efforts as an artist.
It is a concise account of what you hoped to create, what you created and what you have learned from this experience. In other words, It is a way of reflecting on your photographs systematically.
It is important to remember that a photo journal is not a travel blog. It is much more focused on what you created and what you can learn moving forward.
Therefore, the most effort in keeping a photo journal goes into reflecting rather than extensive writing.
What are the benefits of keeping a photo journal?
Evaluating your photographs on a fair basis
Keeping a photo journal puts you into the task of choosing your good and bad shots after each photoshoot and debriefing yourself on what you are doing right and what you could do better.
You are not only choosing your bad shots and nitpicking on them, you also need to choose the best shots from that photoshoot (even if they are average by your standards) and highlight the things you have done right.
Additionally, a photo journal helps you understand what you enjoy about creating certain photographs, and potentially find your interest towards things you have not tried before.
It can also serve as a tool to understand the shots or styles that you don’t enjoy and reflect on the reasons behind. Is it because you cannot succeed, or do you simply not enjoy it?
Seeing your progress
If there was only one good thing about keeping a photo journal, it would be the benefit of witnessing your own progress by simply shuffling some pages.
This is why being consistent about keeping your journal is so important: It helps you build the evidence of your progress for you to see!
Seeing the issues that plagued your work, and how these were replaced over time by more refined concerns, and how your style has evolved within just the last few months or years will only motivate you even further to go out there and make the best of your photography.
Revealing repeated mistakes
It may or may not be obvious to you whether your bad shots are suffering from the same type of mistakes. Although a photo journal is more about reflection, it also keeps the “statistics” of what you are doing wrong and how often.
This gives you clear objectives for consciously correcting your mistakes to produce better photographs.
By knowing specifically what mistakes to look out for, you can implement your own corrections in your following photo shoots, and repeat this evaluation cycle to determine if you could address the issue for good.
Does a photo journal need to be detailed?
You are the limit for how long or how detailed your journal entries should be.
An important consideration, however, is to keep it short enough so that you don’t burn yourself out and keep coming back for writing more and making it a habit.
It is really a matter of how deep you would like to go in your photographs.
In certain situations, you may want to take your time and reflect deeply. In others, you may want to just take note of your glaring mistakes (ones you could potentially avoid), and also list things you are happy about.
How to start photo journal?
There are a lot of ways you can keep a photo journal, but here are some suggestions for the most practical and least weary one you can start today. Regardless of the option you choose, don’t forget: Start simple!
To get a headstart, you can download a Photo Journal Template from Pursue Light!
Choose your medium: Digital or Paper?
This might seem like a trivial detail, but the most important part of a photo journal is keeping it consistently. Therefore, you should choose the option that would not deter you or become an excuse to skip it.
Are you often with a laptop or tablet/phone where you could keep your journal? If so, keeping a digital journal can be easier to integrate into your routine.
Are you an avid notebook user for several other tasks? Chances are it will feel more natural for you to keep a paper photo journal.
Whichever option you choose, make your decision based on your reality, and not what sounds more romantic.
If you are not a regular user of pen and paper, keeping a journal may turn into a grind very quickly, whereas you could potentially type on your phone in your bed at the end of the day.
Also, keep in mind that you will potentially need to reference your photographs by file names unless you can print your shots easily and add them to your journal.
This should not be a deal breaker, but if you would like to have your photographs in front of you as you write, and find them there when you come back to your journal, then perhaps you should consider the digital option.
Paper will still work when you are out and about as long as you like carrying your notebook with you and scribble on it as you wish.
When to write to your photo journal
Ideally, you can write to your photo journal even after taking only a single photograph that day. Remember, the photo journal is not about length or details, but the experience of recording your thoughts soon after you have your photographs.
Typically, you would want to write an entry after taking several photographs during a trip or photoshoot. After a long and tiresome day, however, it may be better to leave the review of the photographs and writing of a journal entry to the next day.
Believe it or not, sleeping over photographs can give you a clearer mind to think over your work. If you had a great photo shoot and are feeling pumped to write about it, don’t wait and do it!
What I would recommend you avoid, however, is writing several days after taking the photographs.
When you feel like you are being lazy about writing, remind yourself that all you need to do is pick a few photographs (which you have probably done), and write at least a couple sentences about your experience. That's it!
How to choose photographs for a photo journal
As I mentioned before, the most important part of keeping a photo journal is keeping things simple and avoiding making it a burden.
Once you are going over your photographs after a photoshoot, determine a number of good and bad shots that you will set aside. A good rule of thumb is choosing 3 of each category, though feel free to do more or less to your hearts content.
As you are reviewing your photographs, you can have more good/bad photographs than your target number, but you can always eliminate these further to end up with the target number of photographs.
For good photographs, keep in mind you are not looking for a masterpiece! You are looking for photographs that caught your eye, one that may not be perfect, but still has elements in that you are glad you employed.
Even after a disaster photo shoot, try to choose some images that come closest to being good!
For bad photographs, you are likely to have a lot more candidates. However, that does not mean you should choose random shots to reflect on.
Instead, focus on shots where you can identify multiple issues. You may not know how to correct them, but this is fine.
Also, always try to choose a photograph that just “does not look right” for which you cannot tell exactly what is wrong. Such shots are incredibly helpful if you spend the time to crack them!
What sections to have in your photo journal?
A photo journal is quite personal and you should tailor it to your own needs over time. At the same time, you want your entries to have a similar format for future reference, therefore, try to employ similar sections across your entries.
If you are new to photo journals, here is a good set of sections to get you started.
How was your overall mindset: Tired? Stressed? Chill? Pumped?
Things that might have affected your performance: Limited time, rushing yourself, being too self-aware, shying away from shots
Things that might have improved your performance: Shooting alone, being away from crowds, taking frequent breaks, putting the camera down for a while to ingest the scene, not worrying about making a shot out of everything
For each photograph you chose, answer the following questions. You can write a single answer for good and bad photographs, and refer to specific shots in your answers.
What was the photograph in your mind?
How does this photograph compare to what you imagined?
What did you do right?
What did you do wrong?
Could you make it right?
Next time a similar scene comes up, what should you do?
Conclusions: Specific things to look out on your next shoot
Next Steps
If you would like to get a head start with your photo journal, you can download a Photo Journal Template that is built around the abovementioned guidelines!
All you need to do is grab your photographs (and a cup of coffee!), think about your most recent photoshoot, and fill out a journal entry!
Think you have more to add to your journal? The photo journal template from Pursue Light is in an editable format, so you can edit it to make it yours!
Do you keep a photo journal? Does it work for you? Do you prefer a paper or digital photo journal? Let us know what you think in the comments, or feel free to drop me a line with your thoughts!
Conclusion
A photo journal is a relatively subtle yet very powerful tool for a photographer to have in their arsenal. Keeping a concise and focused photo journal after each photoshoot not only helps you see what you are doing wrong, but also encourages you by highlighting the things you do right.
Oftentimes, we rarely sense the progress we make in any given subject, as we are “in” it, doing and learning. A photo journal is the perfect way to make your progress a lot more visible to yourself, which in turn will boost your self confidence and creative drive!
If you enjoyed this article and the photo journal template from Pursue Light, please consider sharing this article with fellow photographers! Also, please consider subscribing to the newsletter to be informed when a new article is out!
