I’m sitting here editing through the year’s take as several contest deadlines loom over my head. I don’t know how I will get everything ready and sent off. As with every other year, I’m sure that I’ll just end up ignoring a few contests in pursuit of my own sanity. I could talk about the ups and downs of photo contests forever (and probably will).

The one thing I’m looking for, and not seeing as much as I’d hoped, is photographs with soul. (The photograph above is a failure, but it gets at what I’m talking about in some way that I can’t explain.)

Great photography comes about when your entire being is tuned into the absolute NEED to photograph. And even that’s no guarantee.

To be a great photographer, you need to have your soul involved in the process and your mind must be free.

Just walking around and pointing your camera here and there will result in meaningless…stuff. Having quick deadlines and requirements compounds the problem. Balancing a chaotic life, ever-tighter deadlines, and the creative process has been my biggest challenge this year. When I finish looking through my 2008 body of work, I hope I can say I didn’t fail.