Keeping Fresh

A Narrow View

After last Sunday and Monday, when I took a lot of photos, the rest of the week was rather restful, at least from a photography standpoint. I'm hoping to do some bird photography on Monday, which will be a nice change from the more serious photos I have been taking lately.

 Last week at the photography club two of my images were up for evaluation, which was a little intense. It was that evaluation that got me to try the graffiti photography I did last Sunday, so I a challenged myself to take something that was above and beyond your average snapshot. I've only had comments on my photos from people on the web, friends and family, but not from local peer photographers, so that is why I was a little tense about the evaluation. In any case, my photos ranked well, with both of them scoring in the low 20s out of 30 points. Considering I got scores on par with those of intermediate photographers in the group, I think I'm doing okay!

So what does all that have to do with keeping fresh? Not a lot to be honest! I think what keeps me fresh is not limiting myself to one subject for my photography. Obviously there are people who must shoot one type of subject, because that is how they make their living, so it can be important to specialize. That being said, when you make a photograph there are some options for you. One area of photography that I love to pay with is depth. Often I'll take shots from a few different viewpoints so that I not only see the subject from different angels, but also to see how deep I can make the image. One of the photos I entered for evaluational got 23.5 out of 30, in part because I used an angel that gave a feeling of depth.

I think the most important thing to do in order to keep your photography fresh is to have fun. When your photography becomes work, it dies in some ways. I say that because when you become to critical of your work you can kill creativity. It is very easy to start shooting something and then look at your pictures, and think, 'these are boring images.' Do not get trapped by that, if the images seem boring to you, shoot it differently. Play with depth of field, it can add a new dynamic to your image. If you have a DSLR, switch lenses, a new perspective can make a big difference! If you are photographing people, think of ways to make them laugh, or enjoy themselves, because if they are having fun, not only will they look better in the shot, but they will be a lot easier to work with!

That's all for today, I'm going to do some shooting.