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02/08/2011 09:41:17 AM · #1 |
I'm becoming increasingly frustrated with my opportunities to get out and take some exciting photos. I dont live near mountains, lakes, the ocean, forests etc. The closest city is ~1.5hrs away. The only thing I have is this small town I live in that is surrounded by dead/colorless trees.
In other words, there's nothing really exciting to photograph, which leads me to taking unexciting pictures and I end up being unsatisfied with my photography "skills".
How do folks on this forum consistently seem to put up picture after picture? How do you find these compositions on such a regular basis?
I'm getting despondent and just cant find anything that excites me to photograph .. really would love to hear how folks deal with the deathly colorless winter? |
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02/08/2011 09:51:40 AM · #2 |
| Well I live near the ocean so I can get out and photograph that in the winter. But since you say you have nothing interesting near you, do you have a macro lens? I find winter macros to be beautiful. You can get ice covered branches & dead leaves still hanging ont trees, weeds poking up from the snow, the glistening of the sun on the snow, etc. I find when I am in a rut I just go for a walk with my macro lens and you would be amazed at what you see. You just need to look at things a little differently. |
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02/08/2011 10:01:15 AM · #3 |
Originally posted by KarenNfld:
Well I live near the ocean so I can get out and photograph that in the winter. But since you say you have nothing interesting near you, do you have a macro lens? I find winter macros to be beautiful. You can get ice covered branches & dead leaves still hanging ont trees, weeds poking up from the snow, the glistening of the sun on the snow, etc. I find when I am in a rut I just go for a walk with my macro lens and you would be amazed at what you see. You just need to look at things a little differently. |
Unfortunately where I live in GA, there's no snow and no ice. No macro lens for me either - yet, it's on my shopping list, but after buying my 50, 55-250 and tripod, I'm broke~! |
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02/08/2011 10:03:03 AM · #4 |
| In winter, we lose most of our colors, especially on cloudy days. But, the tonal range persists, especially when we get some sunlight and a break in the clouds. I'm an outdoor photographer, so the monochrome environment drives me to capture full tonal ranges and convert to black & white images via SilverEfexPro. (soon to be Silver Efex Pro 2). Today is a good example. It's -10F. Moderate snow is falling. We are dark overcast. I can't see the mountains. All water is frozen. Yet, I'm heading out in a few minutes to shoot for several challenges. It will be difficult. I have a subject and area in mind, which is where I'll go first. But, almost always, while I'm heading out to photograph a certain thing, other subjects walk into my scene. |
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02/08/2011 10:25:55 AM · #5 |
I have one relatively small area, the Ft. Worth Stockyards, that has given me a fairly high number of my challenge entries. Everytime I go there I am looking at it a different way, depending on the challenge topic. Granted, this is a colorful tourist-friendly location, but there has to be something near you with a bit of variety. Perhaps a town square? Antique and junk shops can be particularly target rich environments. I would expect there to be a lot of interesting folks who would be flattered to have you show some interest and want to take photos. Just some ideas.
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02/08/2011 10:37:19 AM · #6 |
you want cheap macro...
//cgi.ebay.com/52MM-MACRO-REVERSING-RING-CANON-EOS-DSLR-REVERSE-/280626549408?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4156a552a0
Also, i find that if i look for beauty, when it is beautiful out, i shoot just fine. But when it is ugly, i must look for ugly things.. The quality of a photo has nothing to do with subject material.. photography is the capture of light, not the capture of pretty things.. |
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02/08/2011 10:46:46 AM · #7 |
Originally posted by hahn23:
In winter, we lose most of our colors, especially on cloudy days. But, the tonal range persists, especially when we get some sunlight and a break in the clouds. I'm an outdoor photographer, so the monochrome environment drives me to capture full tonal ranges and convert to black & white images via SilverEfexPro. (soon to be Silver Efex Pro 2). Today is a good example. It's -10F. Moderate snow is falling. We are dark overcast. I can't see the mountains. All water is frozen. Yet, I'm heading out in a few minutes to shoot for several challenges. It will be difficult. I have a subject and area in mind, which is where I'll go first. But, almost always, while I'm heading out to photograph a certain thing, other subjects walk into my scene. |
Richard, I agree with you that now is a great time to be taking B&W photos. Since the outdoors seems to be stripped of color, I've been doing a lot of playing with B&W to make an uninteresting picture look more dynamic.
Originally posted by Yo_Spiff:
I have one relatively small area, the Ft. Worth Stockyards, that has given me a fairly high number of my challenge entries. Everytime I go there I am looking at it a different way, depending on the challenge topic. Granted, this is a colorful tourist-friendly location, but there has to be something near you with a bit of variety. Perhaps a town square? Antique and junk shops can be particularly target rich environments. I would expect there to be a lot of interesting folks who would be flattered to have you show some interest and want to take photos. Just some ideas. |
Steve, all we really have is a little "zoo", a botanical garden (with nothing in bloom right now) and a downtown square (being a college town, it's all bars and restuarants and boutique clothing stores, so nothing really exciting like an antique shop). I'm doing the best I can with what's available, but there's nothing that appeals to me at a personal level. The only thing I would enjoy doing is some street candids in B&W, but with all the threads about photographers being arrested and harrassed, I'm too nervous to go taking pics downtown. |
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02/08/2011 11:15:19 AM · #8 |
Good question. For me, winter is a good time to practice the zen of photography. I go to the least inspiring location & just be there until I see something to shoot. Be alert & calm. Stop thinking. Put away all expectations. Put the camera on full auto & just wait for the impulse.
When the light is flat & grey, I use the time experimenting with extremes in camera settings and camera angles to get as much tonal range as possible.
Winter is a good time for tabletop photography, too. Window light in winter can create some nice still life shots. I like to sit by the window at Starbucks & find how how many different ways there are to shoot a little paper napkin while I drink my coffee. I've had some fun covertly shooting product displays at Pier1. You could go to WallyWorld & get some "people of Wal-Mart" shots.
Or you could just hibernate, creatively. Use the time for lateral drift & see where your game is in Spring.
Message edited by author 2011-02-08 11:20:50. |
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02/08/2011 11:16:28 AM · #9 |
| I'm not suggesting you become an "ambulance chaser", but my neighbor has a police scanner (former cop). When he hears an event of significance "happening", he'll come over to my house and tell me what and where. The photojournalism thing can jump the adrenaline. If DPC would issue official press passes, we would see a lot more PJ shots. |
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02/08/2011 11:21:16 AM · #10 |
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02/08/2011 11:22:05 AM · #11 |
Sometimes, the winter blahs can be beautiful just by themselves when you keep your eyes open.
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02/08/2011 11:29:08 AM · #12 |
My November Guest
My Sorrow, when she's here with me,
Thinks these dark days of autumn rain
Are beautiful as days can be;
She loves the bare, the withered tree;
She walks the sodden pasture lane.
Her pleasure will not let me stay.
She talks and I am fain to list:
She's glad the birds are gone away,
She's glad her simple worsted grey
Is silver now with clinging mist.
The desolate, deserted trees,
The faded earth, the heavy sky,
The beauties she so truly sees,
She thinks I have no eye for these,
And vexes me for reason why.
Not yesterday I learned to know
The love of bare November days
Before the coming of the snow,
But it were vain to tell her so,
And they are better for her praise.
— Robert Frost
*************
That's exactly the way I see it. I actually moved from Southern California to Cape Cod when I retired because I want those cold, bleak months. I love 'em.
Learn to glory in the harshness of the season.
R. |
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02/08/2011 11:43:35 AM · #13 |
That's what I need to do: retire! London winter - I get up and go to work in the dark, come home in the dark. In between it's cold, grey and often raining (though not today and I might get a challenge entry) but mostly it's like the OP says - uninspiring.
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02/08/2011 12:01:10 PM · #14 |
Garry, im right there with you. I haven't entered many challenges lately becuase the weather here in NJ has been horrible, extremely cold lots of messy sleet and snow. i don't have a lot of time to set up in door shots.
two weeks ago the i knew a Saturday the sun would came out in what seemed like forever. I woke up early and went out at dawn and just drove around, no one was on the road and it was really still.
Most of the photos ended up being uninteresting to me but did get an amazing landscape shot of a hole at a local golf course all snow covered with the sun just coming up. fantastic oranges on the white and blue shadowed snow. Ever since I seem to have gotten some inspiration back.
the pictures are out there, you just need to find them.
Message edited by author 2011-02-08 12:02:15. |
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02/08/2011 12:23:26 PM · #15 |
I also lose inspiration during the winter months. Mainly because what I enjoy photographing isn't there in winter months, and like you, where I live the trees are bleak but there is no snow to make them interesting.
I face an even greater challenge because I do not own a car, only a bike. And all of my exploits with my camera involve biking places.
Now imagine biking around for an hour with winds at 40 miles per hour and not coming up with a shot you like. It makes me just want to stay home.
My advice is to find one thing you do like photographing in the winter, and then photograph that a lot. The only things I have been happily photographing lately are the two cormorants that are wintering at a local pond. My last two free studies have involved pictures of them, and I could easily submit a 3rd for this month if I chose.
Its kind of cool actually, because these flighty birds have lost all fear of me. I can and have stood an arms length away from them, stamping my feet, trying to encourage them to fly so I can get a flying shot...and they just stare at me, lol. |
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02/08/2011 12:32:44 PM · #16 |
Beautiful postcard weather, spectacular scenery and all the equipment in the world are what they are: distractions.
You cannot train your eyes to see by or expect your heart to sing by seeking what is easy to see, what everyone else has already taken, sold and plastered on every available surface.
Instead, I wish you dreary, miserable skies, a good measure of grief, sorrow or ennui so you may be able to feel the ground you walk on, equipment plain enough for unobstructed use and the thrill of finding everything exactly as it is.
Adversity is undervalued. Use it, use, use.
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02/08/2011 12:34:30 PM · #17 |
Originally posted by Fiora:
.... these flighty birds have lost all fear of me. I can and have stood an arms length away from them, stamping my feet, trying to encourage them to fly so I can get a flying shot...and they just stare at me, lol. |
To get the birds to emote, you need to whisper to them. Most humans yell or talk at them. It's a new experience for them to have a human whisper in a sub-audible manner.
When they've listened to your whispering for a while, just become completely quiet and motionless (like a predator would). That will provoke flight. |
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02/08/2011 12:35:43 PM · #18 |
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02/08/2011 12:38:51 PM · #19 |
Originally posted by hahn23:
I'm not suggesting you become an "ambulance chaser", but my neighbor has a police scanner (former cop). When he hears an event of significance "happening", he'll come over to my house and tell me what and where. The photojournalism thing can jump the adrenaline. If DPC would issue official press passes, we would see a lot more PJ shots. |
One thing you might want to consider doing...is talking to the local fire department and ask if they want a photographer. I'm on my local department and I bring my camera on all fire calls (but not when I'm working on the ambulance). Sometimes I get to take photos...sometimes I'm too busy.
However...the real question is...do you even NEED any kind of press pass? Press passes are for more official type things...not for accident scenes...anyone can photograph an accident scene (just don't park on the side of a state/US highway...it's illegal).
You never know until you ask... |
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02/08/2011 06:36:28 PM · #20 |
I'm also really stuck for ideas at the moment and haven't been out in a while but one thing I just purchased was a cheap £30 flash and some £10 triggers that I've been playing around with and they open up a lot of photography opportunities in your own home.
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02/08/2011 07:01:37 PM · #21 |
| im not sure if its the way you want to go... but bar/college towns tend to have a lot of people who will model for TFP - maybe check on model mayhem etc for people in your area? |
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02/08/2011 07:34:54 PM · #22 |
Originally posted by zeuszen:
Beautiful postcard weather, spectacular scenery and all the equipment in the world are what they are: distractions.
You cannot train your eyes to see by or expect your heart to sing by seeking what is easy to see, what everyone else has already taken, sold and plastered on every available surface.
Instead, I wish you dreary, miserable skies, a good measure of grief, sorrow or ennui so you may be able to feel the ground you walk on, equipment plain enough for unobstructed use and the thrill of finding everything exactly as it is.
Adversity is undervalued. Use it, use, use. |
That advice will get you this - 
Brilliant advice. |
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02/08/2011 08:27:00 PM · #23 |
| You could always move to the southern hemisphere? It's going to be 34C and sunny in Perth today. :) |
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02/08/2011 09:24:47 PM · #24 |
Light through fragile brown leaves, seed pods, dried flowers, ice/snow/rain on almost anything, birds (so much easier to find when the trees are mostly bare), pinecones, winter berries, frost ... and that's just the natural stuff. I love the textures in a winter garden or meadow. More subtle than the riot of color you find in spring/summer/fall, but there's a lot to see if you look closely.
Here's one from last weekend that has a nice, wintry palette:
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02/08/2011 10:00:28 PM · #25 |
Originally posted by Qiki:
You could always move to the southern hemisphere? It's going to be 34C and sunny in Perth today. :) |
Maybe not the perfect idea, either.
Here in Brisbane, we had many weeks of relentless rain.
Then we got flooded.
Now it is so incredibly hot and humid that I'm trying to minimize the number of seconds spent away from the nearest airconditioning unit for fear of spontaneous self combustion. |
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