On the QT | The Official Newsletter of GWA April-May 2016 | Page 25

Did you review your financial statements,
particularly your income statement, from
last year to determine your most profitable
work? Ideally you’ll want to spend more
time on the most profitable parts of your
business and less on the other things you
do.

Are your systems up to date? Are there
ways you can streamline the way you work
to make it faster, easier, or more efficient?

CREATIVE AWAKENING

Do you have ideas for new projects, stories,
concepts or perhaps a book that have been
rolling around in your head for a while?
Now is the time to start working on them.
I’ve been thinking about bringing flowers
into my studio for portraits — a new and
continuing theme I’ll explore in 2016. I also
want to create a year-long series of images
showing the progression of the seasons in
both our garden and our woodland.
Writing your ideas down and sharing them
with a few friends can be a big motivator to
actually work on them.
Have you been eyeing the work of another
photographer and wondering, “how did
they do that?” While you don’t want to
become a copycat, we all find inspiration in
the work of others. Examine the images of
those you admire, pick them apart, analyze them and see if you can emulate the
elements that attracted you to their work.
Keep the best, drop the rest and over time
you may find that you have a new direction
to your photography.

Klamath plum (Prunus subcordata) blossoms,
photographed near Weed, California.

IF IT AIN’T BROKE, DON’T FIX IT
There’s likely to be a lot in your photography and your business that is working well.
Just because it’s spring doesn’t mean you
should throw everything out and start over. I
think evolution rather than revolution is the
way to go. Add something new, throw out
what isn’t working and keep doing everything else that has served you well in previous years. It’s a little like planting perennials:
a little work now can last a long time.

GWA member Mark Turner photographs gardens
and the natural world year-around from his home
in Bellingham, Washington, near the balmy shore
of the Salish Sea. He’s been licensing his photography for publications and other uses since 1994.

Emerging hosta foliage.

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