Clarity and direction for 2026

‘Can we go now?’ I repetitively asked my teacher Mrs Roche, plucking at her sleeve after we descended deep into the historic mine at Beamish on a school trip.

I was eight, and not one bit interested in those historic machines and pictures of pit ponies and canaries (as much as I loved pit ponies and canaries). Nope, not down there.

‘Get me out of here!’  was all I could think.

As an adult sometimes I think life can get a bit claustrophobic, specifically when options seem to diminish. It’s why I chose to work for myself and not for a big company, and I suspect that’s how it is for you.

Freelance life is not for everyone, but for most photographers it’s a choice which involves a roller coaster ride of ups and downs, and in spite of this, most would not have it any other way.

Still, the confusion and uncertainty ‘out there’ has made life a bit harder over the last year or so.

When you’ve lost a few too many jobs which you bust your gut bidding, and you’ve had more quiet spells than usual, it can become hard to see the big picture and easy to feel a bit hemmed in or trapped – even when you work for yourself and you know that being a lens based image maker is your life’s calling.

Last week I talked about ‘shaking off’ that feeling of being irrelevant (you can read it here) and it applies to feeling trapped too- we are often the makers of our own prisons.

But I know that’s more easily said than done.

So as we approach the end of 2025, I want to remind you that now’s the time to revisit your direction, and if you want to work through a live one with me, you are welcome to join me here:

The photographer’s reset: Clarity and direction for 2026.

It’s a free (live) online workshop where I’ll walk you through prompts to set your photography goals and define your direction for next year. It’s not as in depth as the one in Bootcamp but it’s live and  might just be all you need to shift things along for 2026.

Because as you know, if you want to rise above the noise you need to start the year with absolute clarity.

I hope to see you there, and feel free to share this link with other photographers: https://christinaforce.net/the-photographers-reset-for-2026