Project 52 Photographer Charles Tibbs

Charles Tibbs, Phoenix photographer weighs in on his experience with Project 52.

“First I want to thank Don for taking so much time out of his busy life to teach and mentor us for an entire year, this just tells you how passionate he is about what he does.

Where do I start, I started the project about 3 months in and slowly got up the nerve to post my first shot which was the Macro project and thought to myself “this is not going to be to bad at all”. Boy was I in for a big surprise, the assignments at time were very frustrating for me, I had to push myself beyond my comfort zone and think out of the box to get the shot. I did not always succeed, hell I had more failures during Project 52 than homeruns but it was the failures that made the next shot better.

For instance, shooting concepts like the “HOT” project killed me and was an EPIC failure on my part, I could not get my original idea to work so I just took something real quick and submitted it. This is something that I have to really work hard at overcoming, frustration and just thinking through the shot from concept to pushing the shutter. On the flipside, there were a few projects that I nailed and there was nothing better than hearing Don say “wow, great job Charles that’s what I was looking for” this kept me going each week searching for this critique.

What I think I will never forget from Project 52 is that you need to think about the small things while making a photograph if you want to be successful like making sure there are no wrinkles in a shirt or that thebottle and glass are not too close together. I also learned that you are your worst enemy in this business and that if you don’t put yourself out there you will not succeed.”

More from Charles after the jump.

“I am looking forward to continuing with Project 52 2012 and hope to see some of the friends that I have made over the last year. 2012 is going to be a pivotal year for me, I feel that I am close to really putting myself out there and making a go of this passion of mine and with the encouragement and tutelage of Don and the others from the group I feel that I will be successful when I ready to make that jump.”