Today’s Post by Joe Farace
“The poor boy changes clothes, And puts on after-shave, To compensate for his ordinary shoes…”—Paul Simon
Paul Simon once said that talent evolves, changes and grows over time. Take his own career, for example, “Sound of Silence” doesn’t sound anything like “Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes.” I think kind of creative evolution also applies to photographers.
It has been my experience that once a photographer reaches a certain level of skill it seems that all of us have a tendency to become complacent and keep shooting the same kind of image over and over again. And I’m as guilty of this as anyone else. (If you have time, please read my post entitled It’s Simply a Matter of Style that addresses some of the aspects of this phenomenon.) And why not? You know how to make those images and every time you shoot a new one the people on the on-line forums and at your camera club say that you’re a master.
Back in the day, when I attended the Maryland Institute, College of Art, one of my professors gave all of us student an assignment to photograph some people we know and some other people that “we didn’t know.” At that time I wasn’t much of a people photographer and the thought of photographing strangers terrified me. But I gave it a shot anyway because it forced me out of my comfort zone. Was I successful with that assignment? I’m not sure but at least I tried and it ended up helping me many years later when I dove into glamour photography while writing Part-Time Glamour Photography: Full-Time Income.
That’s why I suggest that you Try Something Different. If you’re a landscape photographer, go downtown or a to busy city location and do some street or urban landscape photography. Shoot a few infrared images or maybe give HDR photography a try. Get inspired and some ideas by looking at work by some of the masters such as Joel Meyerowitz. If you’re a people photographer, try photographing dogs getting inspiration from shooters such as the late Elliott Erwitt. Look at other photographers’ work in the books I’ve linked to in any of my recent Joe’s Book Club posts and force yourself to step outside your favorite genre and make other kinds of pictures.
I expect that something amazing will happen, if only slowly at first; Your photographs will get better and better and you’ll also start to enjoy the new experiences you’re having.
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Along with photographer Barry Staver, Joe is co-author of Better Available Light Digital Photography with new copies are available from Amazon for $21.50 and used copies starting around five bucks.