People like to see people in pictures
In my online classes with the BPSOP, I’ve been finding that so many photographers are always playing it safe. Either from always shooting at the same height, the height of the eye to the ground, zooming in with their lens instead of using their feet, or looking for a different POV.
When I’m walking around shooting with the photographers that are taking my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind”, I see it up close and personal all the time. It’s one and done, and it really doesn’t matter what the subject is.
Now I’m all in favor of my mantra…” more shots per hour”, but that’s after shooting lots of variations. I can tell you from fifty-three years of experience that taking one shot of anything and going home with a ‘wall hanger’ is slim to none. Vegas would probably put it at 50-1.
Life is too short to always be safe. Always ‘coloring inside the lines’ keeps you on the road to mediocrity. Sure, it just might get you that third place ribbon at your camera club’s competition, winning you a 16GB compact card…if that’s what you want. Hell, by triple mounting your photo with color mats that are in harmony, you might even move up to a second-place ribbon…that would be special and now a 32GB compact card.
I say ‘color outside the lines’, and take the path less traveled. Imagination keeps us young, it’s the gas and oil that keeps our mind running. Shoot with a lens you would never think of, get some dirt on your shirt by laying on your stomach, add some props, and editorialize your photo. People like to see people in photos, so think about putting them in your pictures. Don’t photograph what you see, photograph what you would like to see.
Think of yourself as an artist that has chosen the camera as your medium. To my way of thinking, a camera on a tripod is just like a blank canvas on an easel.
Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshops schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.
JoeB
