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Nice article by Thom http://[url=www.bythom.com/goal.htmhere[/url]. He's focussing on having photography goals to constantly improve oneself.

What he didn't mention is a type of goal that you could set yourself when strolling around (either in a field or a city, a museum...): Can you think of a "theme" before seeing the real subject and setting the goal to find and capture it?

Am I clear enough? Well, think of a sunny day in fall/autumn and all the leaves that are still hanging around or are already swept to the ground in their glorious or rotten colors. So autumn-leaves are the "theme". Can/do you built an image in your mind and go out and try to find the perfect representation of your vision? Do you look at what you find from different angles and try to match them with what you had in mind? Just take the right lens for this task with you and leave the rest of your equipment behind? Forget about the nice ducks swimming on the lake because they don't look like leaves?

Me, I'm running around with my dog and wife a lot along the same routes so there is not much that surprises me. But at least I try to fix the perspective by selecting a specific lens and leaving the other gear behind, just to school my eye in seeing interesting things that are adequate for that perspective. It helps to see the same things in a different "light" and sometimes you get some interesting shots out of this way to set a goal.

Just like this example where I just took the fisheye with me and wanted to get up-close and personal with something out there in nature:

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Interesting read Thomas, I take it you are now 'goal-full' ? [joke]
But Thom does have some valid points.
I know most of us here have one in common - knowledge goal
We are all here to learn , though not structured. We learn by asking and hoping for right answers and those who browse learns too !
Maybe its time to get Gordon to publish those tutorials he promised so we can all learn structuredly

P/s - Nice shot from the fish-eye. You must have got down real low to get that. Became a macro-eye

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Nikon D7000 and a bunch of Nikkors

As Ken (Rockwell that is) likes to say: wide-angle lenses are not "to get it all in"!
I think you have to get so close that the shift in perspective makes you feel that the subject in the foreground "jumps in your face".
With the Nikkor 10.5mm fisheye that is esp. easy, as it focuses to 0.14m. And that is "distance from the sensor", which means your subject can be as close as 3 cm from the front lens
And well, no - I'm not goal-full apart from the above-mentioned "look for certain types of perspectives, subjects".
One addition though to Thom's measurable goals: You can post your pics at flickr and and set a goal as to the number of hits/views in one week...

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses