I don't have/work on what I'd describe as "projects" but my definition may be different due to my career. Rather I'd describe what I do as pursuing "perfect" images for various species in my mind's eye. Or re-creating past images that were near perfect content but had technical issues or some minor issue. But I don't pursue those things to the exclusion of other subjects.
One example for me is my annual pursuit of a perfect sea otter image. Every summer we make half a dozen week long boating trips on Prince William Sound. One of those weeks each year is a (more or less)dedicated photo tour. We always visit a bay that has historically had a high population of sea otters and particularly moms w/pups. Last week we made that trip. This year it wasn't very productive due to a combination of unusually low number of animals and poor shooting conditions. But we persevere...
The perfect (northern)sea otter image in my mind's eye:
1) Is actually an image of perfectly smooth/colorful water with an otter passing through it.
2) If it's a mom with pup on here belly they must both be making eye contact(both eyes) with the camera
3) If an individual animal must have good eye contact and one rear foot/flipper should be above the surface with water dripping off
4) Must have a great display of whiskers and perfectly sharp.
5) A great reflection is a bonus but at minimum needs to be a single reflection(i.e. not multiple across the tops of waves/ripples)
6) Needs to be at a low POV but not so low that it brings the horizon into the image.
7) Must have enough pixels on target to allow printing (near)life size(i.e. about four foot horizontal dimension)
Here is a near perfect shot but was shot years ago and has a few technical issues. Looks great in this format but isn't high rez enough for my print criteria. If I could to re-create this one with current day equipment/skills I'd be content(yeah right...).
And here is the best I managed this past week. Great eye contact, good whiskers, got the flipper out of the water. But the water is too rippled in FG, wake is too prominent, not enough bow wave, etc, etc.
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