The Tor Challenge has opened me up to my photographic fears and preferences. I now see fears as that, and feel more capable of photographic challenges. I still have my favorite things to photograph- food people and abstract. Yet, how I approach them is changing. The challenge was most important in giving me a reason to try new things. It was also an excuse to make photographs everyday, something I wasn’t making enough time for. The Tor Challenge gave me the excuse to take my camera, when before I would have just left it at home.

I think the thing that made the Challenge effective was the writing down of goals. Making a list of things that need to be photographed made it much easier for me to make photographs. I love cupcakes; they are cute, sweet and edible. If I want to be taken seriously as a food and desserts photographer I should have pictures of these delicious pastries in my portfolio. Because one of the assignments in the Challenge was to photograph cupcakes I now have some images, as well as ideas for where to go next time I shoot cupcakes.

I also found that I don’t really want to be taking photographs everyday. The process of going through my images, and editing the ones I like gives me the same adreniline rush and fills my creative needs. While I have found it important to be taking a lot of images, it is the working with those images that really completes the creative process.