Today I'm thinking about ways of looking at things. It's a question about what we're trying to accomplish as photographers. Anyone can use a camera, or camera phone, to record events, objects or scenes. Hopefully the reason we spend insane amounts of money on super-cool camera gear is not to just record those scenes at a higher resolution. I would like to think there is something beyond that.
At the same time I know that for a lot of people photography is not an end in itself. It's just a tool to record where they've been. It's like having a permanent record that proves you actually did go to Disneyland. They can look at those images and it jogs the mind to remember that time. Probably not an accident that Sony named their latest little camera app "Play Memories." They know that's a big part of their market. But I would guess a big part of that market demographic does not spend a lot of time reading photography blogs either.
How do you move beyond just recording 'stuff'. What is the process of finding a fresh way of looking at the world?
Try some new photographic techniques. If you haven't done HDR, especially if you dislike the HDR photography you've seen, try doing it. Maybe try doing a focus stack. If most of your images are color, spend a week doing monochrome. You could try shooting from a worm's eye view, or a bird's eye view. The idea is to change you mindset.
Some new gear should help. Try some neutral density filters, a 4 stop filter is a good place to start. Or color filters. If you haven't worked with flash or light modifiers that might be a good place to go. It will force you to take time and set up a composition. You will have to pay attention to white balance.
One of my favorite things to do is to change lenses. I've been at this for awhile so I have a decent collection of specialized lenses. Wide angle, a 400mm super telephoto and a 105mm Macro. Using any kind of special purpose lens make you see the world from a different perspective.
The image for this post was done with the 105mm macro with a 1.4 teleconverter, used on a crop sensor camera. That long focal length macro is definitely an oddball combination. And after doing the conventional no-brainer butterfly shots, wings spread on a bright flower, it makes sense to start looking for the odd angles and different points of view.
Getting out and trying something different reinvigorates the mind. It gets you out in the world with a new challenge. It might not work magic every time, but one in awhile you'll get a shot that surprises and delights you.
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