Does Familiarity Lead To Missed Photo Opportunities?

[wgerrard]

Do you miss opportunities for photos because you familiar enough with the surroundings that you don't see them? I.e., the photographers version of Been There, Done That.

I was in London and a few other places in the UK recently. I used to live there and, I hope, know the place passably well. But, now that I ponder the results, and look at other photography of London, I see that I missed opportunities for photos. Why? Because the interesting becomes the mundane after you see it often enough. I just walked on by and didn't really see.

Every happen to you? How did you start seeing afresh?

 

[Walt G]

Every happen to you? How did you start seeing afresh?

Just imagine that you had to leave where you live, never to return.

Capture all the images you would want to remember.

 

[barefoot]

Fresh eyes. I definitely see more opportunities in places I'm unfamiliar with.

 

[Gumby]

Taht is an interesting phenomenon... I've noticed (lived) it too. I find it difficult to overcome. Another related pheomenon that I've noticed is that of, "I can shoot that tommorrow/next week/etc." It is just as troubling because sometimes interesting scenes just don't last that long.

 

[wintoid]

Inevitably the passage of time makes a seemingly mundane photo significant. For example, had I taken photos in the many record (vinyl LP) shops I used to frequent, I would have an interesting document of a world that no longer exists. London phone boxes are rarely used for making telephone calls these days, just tourist snapshot fodder, and our iconic buses are now horrible long bendy things.

The same is true when you photograph people you know. People change, both in appearance and habits (or even die).

Not exactly what you were asking about, I know, but hopefully not completely OT.

 

[Keith]

Searching for and discovering photo opportunities in my immediate environment is really important for me.

Petronius's photography has been an example here IMO!

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

No, but I notice things most people ignore or miss. Its my job, and yours too if you want to be a photographer. People look at my photographs of Indiana all the time and ask where I found them. 90% were in the county I live in, where the viewers I'm referring to also live. They live their whole lives and never see, and when a building is torn down or a place disappears, no one remembers it was there because no one saw it in the first place. Except me. I saw and I make them remember.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Happens to me too. But then, many of my best pictures -- or at least, the ones I like most -- are graphic shapes, and after a while, you've taken all the obvious ones and quite a few of the less obvious ones too. Then there are the narrative shots, that tell a story -- how many new stories can you find? -- and even the record shots: once you've recorded it all, what's left?

In fact, it occurs to me that this thread ties in quite well with the concerns discussed in the module on my site about narrative, graphic and record shots: http://www.rogerandfrances.com/subscription/ps graphic & narrative.html

Cheers,

R.

 

[surfer dude]

Everything changes, all the time - where you live and elsewhere. The light changes. Sometimes there are millions of people out and about, sometimes very few or none. Sometimes you yourself are in a receptive mood, other times closed off. It is morning or it is evening, autumn or spring.

There are no rules about it. Wherever you are, sometimes you make pictures, sometimes you don't. Sometimes the place you live strikes you as the richest vein of images ever.

 

[Dave Wilkinson]

I was in London and a few other places in the UK recently. I used to live there and, I hope, know the place passably well. But, now that I ponder the results, and look at other photography of London, I see that I missed opportunities for photos. Why? Because the interesting becomes the mundane after you see it often enough. I just walked on by and didn't really see.

It happens to me occasionally - I live not far from the beautiful and historic city of York, and usually spend one day there - each week, still a popular tourist place, even in winter, I've explored the ancient alleyways since boyhood. Every now and then, the expressions and remarks of visitors from all over the world remind me how fortunate I am! - and invigorates my picture taking.
Dave.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Everything changes, all the time - where you live and elsewhere. The light changes. Sometimes there are millions of people out and about, sometimes very few or none. Sometimes you yourself are in a receptive mood, other times closed off. It is morning or it is evening, autumn or spring.

There are no rules about it. Wherever you are, sometimes you make pictures, sometimes you don't. Sometimes the place you live strikes you as the richest vein of images ever.

Dear Phil,

Or as the old joke has it:

If I've told you once, I've told you a million times: don't exaggerate...

After seven years in the same small French village, novelty is ever rarer. I'm not complaining: I just find that it doesn't help my photography to stay home, photographing the same limited range of people (1200 villagers), old stone buildings (beautiful though many are), river walks, etc.

Some photographers get great pics with familiarity. I salute them, but I'm not one of them. There often seems, too, to be an element of 'holier than thou' with such people, just as there is with the 'one camera, one lens, I'm purer than you' brigade. (I'm not accusing you of this but you must have seen it on occasion.)

Cheers,

R.

 

[stig_dahlin]

I've had the same boring experience of everything in my surroundings beeing "out-photographed" and uninteresting until I started digitizing my old negatives from 1965 and onwards. Suddenly I saw all the pictures I never took. They were in my mind but alas! not in the negative folders. I was forced to look at my wellknown surroundings with, I don't really know, but a somewhat other "field-of-view". Anyway, it was all fun again, and that's what it's all about, isn't it?

 

[Chris C]

I'm actually struggling with this right now, and have been for a pretty considerable time. Living in the same city all my 25 years seems to be bringing my down creatively. I've slowly started coming out of it, but I still just feel bogged down by my surroundings often. I get a mix of the "seen-it-all-befores" and "i-can-take-that-tomorrows".

 

[oftheherd]

Taht is an interesting phenomenon... I've noticed (lived) it too. I find it difficult to overcome. Another related pheomenon that I've noticed is that of, "I can shoot that tommorrow/next week/etc." It is just as troubling because sometimes interesting scenes just don't last that long.

That and lack of time to devote to photography. After all, I live close to and work in Washington, DC. Even for me there are photos there I know others haven't seen or at least aren't made part of the popular scene. Sad really.

 

[surfer dude]

Hi Roger,

After seven years in the same small French village, novelty is ever rarer. I'm not complaining: I just find that it doesn't help my photography to stay home, photographing the same limited range of people (1200 villagers), old stone buildings (beautiful though many are), river walks, etc.

Where abouts are you in Aquitaine? We lived in Salignac-Eyvigues near Sarlat for a year back ten or so years ago. It is such a lovely area. Great light. Surprisingly bad coffee though I seem to remember!

 

[Roger Hicks]

I'm actually struggling with this right now, and have been for a pretty considerable time. Living in the same city all my 25 years seems to be bringing my down creatively. I've slowly started coming out of it, but I still just feel bogged down by my surroundings often. I get a mix of the "seen-it-all-befores" and "i-can-take-that-tomorrows".

Dear Chris,

A brilliant analysis, not least because it points up the truth that (a) you haven't and (b) you probably can't.

But even with that aperçu to spur me on, it's a grey Sunday here, and I can't summon much enthusiasm for going out and shooting -- though I might spend some time in the studio (now partly moved from one room to the other).

Cheers,

R.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Hi Roger,

Where abouts are you in Aquitaine? We lived in Salignac-Eyvigues near Sarlat for a year back ten or so years ago. It is such a lovely area. Great light. Surprisingly bad coffee though I seem to remember!

Dear Phil,

The far north: about 15 km from Thouars, the last city to fall to the French in the Hundred Years' War. Now regarded as Poitou-Charentes. Where we live is drained wetland, much like the Somerset Levels; drainage operations were started about 1000 years ago by the monks of St. Jouin de Marnes, whose collegial church is widely regarded as the finest example of Angevin Gothic.

The coffe is variable, but mostly (Frances assures me -- I don't drink it) very good.

Cheers,

R.

 

[craygc]

It also goes that other way ...I notice especially when people arrive in places like Asia for the first time they tend to get sensory overload and photograph everything in sight. I know that when I first moved to China (even though I had lived in south Asia for many years) it took a month or so to adjust and really start to see beyond what was merely pedestrian.

 

[Al Kaplan]

I'm a founding member of the local Greater North Miami Historical Society and it's amazing how many buildings and places there are/were and nobody seems to to have any photographs of them, not even lousy snapshots!

Another thing in short supply are pictures of people who are now of historical interest, unless they were a wealthy developer or the mayor at the time. What photos do exist rarely have any caption information with them.

In older urban and suburban areas there are little groups of stores that were located where people could walk to them. There was usually a barber shop, an independant drugstore with a soda fountain/lunch counter, a hardware store, a dry cleaners, and perhaps a tailor shop or dress shop. You bought your meats at the butcher shop then went to another shop for fruits and vegetables. There were fish markets that only carried seafood.

I have no photographs of the older little strip mall where Dan's Camera Repair was once located but I do have some interiors showing Manfred casually standing by the counter adjusting a camera in his hands. How about photos of the interior of a TV repair shop? I have photos of Eddie DeKneght surrounded by TV sets in various stages of disassembly awaiting parts inside of Delta TV & Stereo. There are probably people reading this that are too young to remember repairable television sets! But again, no photos of the block of shops showing the neighborhood.

Sometimes the most pedestrian photos are the most valuable.

 

[Avotius]

yes absolutely, being here in Chongqing where everything is different from where I grew up i a great way to find a lot of things to take photos of, being here for 6 years....you get desensitized to all of it.