Comfort zone

[BlackXList]

I try to challenge myself to work outside of my comfort zone fairly frequently (still within photography, but outside of the areas I feel comfortable).

There are two main reasons for me, the first is to work on a weakness.

My current one (as I've mentioned before) is the 35mm focal length, I'm pretty comfortable at the other focal lengths I own, but I can't seem to click with 35, so I'm shooting a lot of it to try and overcome that weakness.

When I've got the hang of it (not claiming I'll master it), but when I have achieved a level of comfort with it so that it no longer feels like a personal weakpoint for me, I'll be taking on using flash. not something I'm often a fan of, but it's an area where I could and should learn more, so I will.

The other reason I do it, I can best explain in terms of playing a musical instrument.

Once you become proficient with an instrument, to a point where you have internalised the techniques, and feel comfortable, you'll have developed a semi conscious muscle memory of what to do, and certain patterns will become almost automatic when you're playing.

Sometimes it's good to try and break those patterns, and add to your vocabulary, and that's why I try out new things.

I'm perfectly willing to admit that some of the new things won't work out for me, but I don't lose what I already know by trying them.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Yes, I think one can get out of one's comfort zone by either trying something new, or committing to something familiar to a much greater degree. An example of the latter might be someone who's a more casual runner deciding to train for a marathon. Using the same analogy, the "trying something new" would be a runner deciding to try triathlons.

But to your original point, I think you can't truly get out of your comfort zone with regard to a specific type of endeavor until you've established a comfort zone in the first place. That is, there must first be some level of experience and competence that you've achieved -- otherwise you're just sort of trying various things, in a scattershot fashion.

Thanks for an excellent and thoughtful analysis. I sometimes take things too literally, or with too many preconceptions. Thanks also to others for helping me think this through more clearly, including ALL of those who have replied since you, though I'd still dispute blanket use of the term "comfort zone".

This is turning out to be one of the most useful questions I have ever asked in this forum.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Bob Michaels]

People certainly have different perceptions and definitions of terms such as "comfort zone". To some it relates to their photographic process, to others it is their environment. I personally tend to discount those that reference any photographic technical parameters as those seem to have an achievable plateau, similar to equipment, beyond which has a point of rapidly diminishing returns. So for me "comfort zone" relates to the environment I am surrounded by.

We also have vastly different motivations in our photography. Some seek an enjoyable time out, sometimes with friends, taking pictures. Personally, my motivation is to create photos that convey information or a message to the viewer. None of these motivations are better than others, they are just different.

I believe I best make photos that satisfy my personal motivations when I am out of my own "comfort zone". I do better when I am a bit uncomfortable about my surroundings. When I am complacent, I am just not normally on my best game. But put me in a foreign country where I do not know the language and have little idea about the culture or in some neighborhood where questions about personal safety are in the back of your mind and I do work I like best. Let me visit those environments enough where I begin to feel at home and my work slowly trails off. I see this in multi year projects when looking at my initial vs later work. We all respond differently but that is what happens to me.

 

[koven]

I think a lot of good street photographers would be good at landscape as well if they experienced nature more.

 

[35mmdelux]

No one ever did anything great by playing it safe.

 

[Margu]

every activity after sometime becomes just a habit. photography is just a habit for most people even though they might not wish to admit to that fact. and the same way that people hate to break their habits and routines the same way when you tell a photographer to break your habit (get out of your comfort zone) they automatically go into a defensive mode.

getting out of the comfort zone in photography could mean something as simple as finding out at least where one has formed a habit and trying to see if its possible to break that habit.

 

[TXForester]

Roger,

Generally, when I have heard that piece of advice, it is meant to get people to challenge themselves and not to say that people should change things around for the sake of it. For some people, buckling down and sticking with something long enough to master it may qualify as getting out of their comfort zone...

^^^this^^^

 

[thegman]

Time and again, I hear people say that it's good to get out of your "comfort zone". WHY? Get a comfort zone: learn to take pictures. Does it not occur to people that the best street photographers seldom do insect macros? Or that insect photographers are seldom much good at landscapes? "Getting out of your comfort zone" can easily be a euphemism for "never bothering to learn to to anything properly, and then pretending that incompetence is a virtue".

Cheers,

R.

When I read 'get out of your comfort zone' I read it in a different way, I see it as more along the lines of:

If you're a street photographer, stop photographing the backs of people's heads.

If you shoot landscapes, be prepared to get up early, get to where (and when) you need to be, and don't care if people are looking at your large camera on a tripod.

I don't see getting out of one's comfort zone as a euphemism for not doing something properly, it's having the requisite genitalia to really do something properly.

It's about not letting fear get in the way of what you want to do.

 

[Sparrow]

I think a lot of good street photographers would be good at landscape as well if they experienced nature more.

"experience is the name people give to their mistakes" ... Wild, perhaps

 

[Robin P]

Photography is my comfort zone, maybe trying drawing or painting would prove too uncomfortable because I can "see" an interesting subject but need a lens and light recording apparatus to render its lines and tones. My hand/eye coordination is not up to traditional artistic endeavours.
I photograph whatever strikes my eye as interesting be it landscape, architecture, vehilcles, macro, people or whatever so have never considered myself a specialist in one comfortable field of photography. Looking at the wide variety of subject matter in some of your books Roger makes me think that at one time you must have been searching for your own vague comfort zone while learning enough about other types of photography to take successful pictures of almost anything.

I do sometimes wish that some of these "street photography" enthusiasts who make such messy pictures would occasionally get out of their comfort zone and show us some of the interesting objects and buildings they must see on their travels.

 

[Roger Hicks]

A small epiphany here is that I have often got surprisingly large numbers of surprisingly good pictures in places I disliked: Istanbul and such parts of China as I have visited are immediate candidates. Contrariwise, much as I like Hungary, I get disproportionately few good pictures there. I'm still shooting the same mixture of subjects in the same way with the same kit, so in that sense there is a literal "comfort zone" that is nothing to do with photography.

Then again, I love both Malta and India, and I get plenty of good pictures in both: I'd go back to either tomorrow, whereas if I never see China again I doubt I'll miss it. So it's a very complex mix.

Robin's point about badly taken backs of heads is well made, but for me, that's not just comfort zone: that'd sheer stupidity and incompetence. Likewise thegmans's point about getting up isn't to do with a comfort zone photographically: it's laziness. You know that's the way to get better.

My original question was heavily influenced by the chap I'd just been talking to "We have competitions to encourage people to get out of their comfort zone. Themes have included fungi -- and they had to be growing, not baskets of mushrooms -- wrought-iron gates..." Now, I can imagine photographing wrought iron gates (in fact, I do, sometimes) but I have somewhat less than no interest in photographing growing fungi, and that's the sort of thing I was thinking about -- mistakenly it seems, in light of the excellent responses here -- when I first posted.

Cheers,

R.

 

[csxcnj]

Roger,

I can't debate what peoples' motives might be for trying new things, but, as examples of my earlier point.

In my life, I have tried swimming, basketball, golf, dancing, being witty, being charming, painting, singing, playing guitar, and a few other things . . . and I failed miserably at all of these.
Had I not done those things, I would spend my years "what if I had done this or what if I had done that."

Happily I got to explore those things and learned humility, if nothing else 😀

+1.
I know this is about stepping out of your photographic comfort zone (I don't really have one) but that applies to everything in life if you want to keep growing...to a point.

Having tried different things that interested me over the first half (hopefully) of my life I now have five avocational comfort zones I've settled on that interconnect: cooking seriously, photography, woodworking, rail fanning and fly fishing/tying/bamboo rod restoration.

I'm at a point in my life where I decided I needed to start focusing on a few things that I could devote my time to and achieve reasonably satisfactory results from. Each of those things mentioned have their own possibilities for stepping out of its particular comfort zone. With woodworking I mainly build period furniture with 18th C. tools, glues and finishes, but I am currently learning how to make a violin...definitely out of my WW comfort zone. With fly fishing just targeting a new water type/species is a comfort zone change and :bang: for a bit. With photography I am now learning large format 😱

 

[Sparrow]

A small epiphany here is that I have often got surprisingly large numbers of surprisingly good pictures in places I disliked: Istanbul and such parts of China as I have visited are immediate candidates. Contrariwise, much as I like Hungary, I get disproportionately few good pictures there. I'm still shooting the same mixture of subjects in the same way with the same kit, so in that sense there is a literal "comfort zone" that is nothing to do with photography.

Then again, I love both Malta and India, and I get plenty of good pictures in both: I'd go back to either tomorrow, whereas if I never see China again I doubt I'll miss it. So it's a very complex mix.

Robin's point about badly taken backs of heads is well made, but for me, that's not just comfort zone: that'd sheer stupidity and incompetence. Likewise thegmans's point about getting up isn't to do with a comfort zone photographically: it's laziness. You know that's the way to get better.

My original question was heavily influenced by the chap I'd just been talking to "We have competitions to encourage people to get out of their comfort zone. Themes have included fungi -- and they had to be growing, not baskets of mushrooms -- wrought-iron gates..." Now, I can imagine photographing wrought iron gates (in fact, I do, sometimes) but I have somewhat less than no interest in photographing growing fungi, and that's the sort of thing I was thinking about -- mistakenly it seems, in light of the excellent responses here -- when I first posted.

Cheers,

R.

... I've always found competition an odd concept to apply to photography, or any art for that matter.

I'm probably just a grumpy bugger these days but I recall a time when art was valued differently ... and the artist decided where to seek their inspiration, not have it imposed by some self proclaimed pundit or web-based guru promoting their next exorbitantly priced workshop or a pay to enter curated exhibition ... just capitalism raising its bloody head where it's not appropriate, yet again.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Unless I am misunderstanding -- and I may be -- some people appear to suggest that learning new things, or working hard at things we want to do better, can be synonymous with "going outside your comfort zone". For me, it's the exact opposite: learning new things that I want to learn, or working hard at things I want to do better, Bis my comfort zone. To me, going outside my comfort zone suggests being pressured to do things I don't want to do, just because someone else thinks I ought to try them.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Dear Stewart,

I am less than convinced that there was ever a time before photography competitions, at least after photography was invented, so either capitalism never went away or it was never that much involved

Cheers,

Roger

 

[shadowfox]

If you're a street photographer, stop photographing the backs of people's heads.

I often read that as a derogatory comment in "street photography" talk.

Yet I've seen some photos with the back of people's head that just blew my mind. Because the back of the head is positioned or used very effectively within the composition, and the rest of the image tells a very interesting story or perspective.

At the same time, I've seen countless "front of people's heads" (a.k.a faces) photos that bored me to tears.

So my point is, the individual component of a composition does not matter as long as the composition itself is carefully and creatively put together. And to me, this is what makes "candid" or "street" photography so fascinating because the photographer does not have control over the subject other than timing and positioning.

 

[shadowfox]

Roger,
I also agree with some, that "getting our of your comfort zone" reads to me as "push your limits", not "commit to more than you can handle and make an excuse out of it"

 

[Sparrow]

Dear Stewart,

I am less than convinced that there was ever a time before photography competitions, at least after photography was invented, so either capitalism never went away or it was never that much involved

Cheers,

Roger

... true, I'm probably yearning for John Majors evocation of the 50s while listening to Jeremy Hunt talking bollocks on Question Time ...

... but I would contend that there was a time in the UK's mixed economy post war past when we recognised value in things that didn't involve their cost

The idea that I need to follow someone else's advice and get out of my comfort zone presuppose that we share an ethos and ethic, and that I'm incapable of motivating myself without recourse to some cheap slogans that sound to have come from a second-rate business motivation day ... it, and its like have no place in a creative area, like telling Benjamin Britten he was wasting his time walking on the beach in the afternoons

 

[Robin P]

... like telling Benjamin Britten he was wasting his time walking on the beach in the afternoons

It's educated witty comments like that mark out this web forum as a cut above the rest 🙂
Thanks for making me smile, and for letting me feel smug because I understood what you were writing about.

 

[Sparrow]

It's educated witty comments like that mark out this web forum as a cut above the rest 🙂
Thanks for making me smile, and for letting me feel smug because I understood what you were writing about.

... thank you sir, I'm dyslexic so I developed a good memory early in life