At the beginning of 2016 I decided it might be a good idea to look for a photography forum to join or a challenge to be a part of, in order to pick up new ideas, and to encourage myself to take a more experimental approach with my own personal style. Luckily I stumbled upon the Dogwood52 challenge which had only just started up at the time and thoroughly enjoyed being a part of its community, while having a weekly goal to work towards kept me accountable to something besides myself.

I somehow managed to stick to these weekly postings, despite the fact that life sometimes got too busy to be always concentrating on photography, but even when what I created wasn’t the most interesting, it was always useful.

I gained a lot from my participation in this challenge, and have watched my approach to photography and technical skill completely change by forcing myself to work with others, to explore new locations and to stop treating creativity as if it’s something that can be exhausted.

The new challenge will pick up again next year and I plan to keep it going. So if any of you photographers are looking for something to help mix things up a bit and decide to join in with the challenge, let me know! I’d love to see you there.