Celebrating the Every Day in your Photography
How many times have you heard, or have you thought “Oh I could take that photo if I lived there/owned that/had a beautiful dog/house/baby etc. to work with”?
We’ve probably all had these thoughts once or twice ‘Perth/your hometown is boring, there is nowhere to go’ or ‘my kids never let me take their photo’ or ‘I’d love to capture the beautiful speckle-face-purple-warbler but it’s such a long drive away to get to that nature reserve’.
Everyone we speak to at Venture Photography Workshops – experts and beginners – have commented at one stage or another that they are in a photography slump. It happens – it’s part of the creative process. Hard as it might be to imagine, even well-known travel photographers can arrive at their next stunning destination and feel like there is nothing inspiring to shoot (I should know, because I have. 🙂 )
More than that though, and the point of this article – is when they are not in a slump – it’s worse – they are making excuses about why they are not taking photos!! There is nothing good to take photos of! “Nothing changes, my routine is the same every day”.
But … this is where we are lucky! We are photographers. We see beauty everywhere. Sometimes we just have to remember there is beauty in the everyday, in our routines, our lives, our homes, our friends, our family, our street, our city. We are surrounded by beauty, but it takes a little thought and practise to see it. Creating images out of the ordinary is what makes us special. We are PHOTOGRAPHERS!
The possibilities might actually be endless. Write a list of your day, then document it. Here are some ideas – dinner prep, your desk, your breakfast, a group of your favourite objects – think light, colour, patterns, shadow play. Then edit your photos – choose a theme – vintage tones, black and white? And you haven’t even left the house yet.
There is never an excuse for having nothing to capture. How often have you seen a photo taken by someone else and you never even noticed the shot even though you were there at the same time? Be that person – find that shot! Keep clicking until you do!
Celebrate and elevate the subjects that you would normally not give a second glance. Find the magic in the homefront and in the every day. Now, that’s a worthy challenge for a photographer – don’t you think?
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