GeneW said:
6. Document your home town. Nothing fancy, just pictures of streets, buildings (even gas stations and groceries), street lights, landmarks. In 10-15 years it's astonishing how interesting these shots become when things have changed.
Not just astonishing how things change... astonishing how little I know about the town I've lived in for 10 years. I started taking my camera with me and looking for photo opportunities 2 months ago when I bought my first RF, the Zorki. Of course there's little streets I haven't been in yet, but that's not the only new thing that I saw. I started looking around for passages where cars can pass but that are not streets. Those are very weird places sometimes. I stopped that project because it became boring: too many buildings, too little life. Now I'm noticing more and more that didn't catch my eye before. The tops of buildings are weird sometimes: little gardens and verandas, old facades turned into modern buildings and it only shows at the top where things get ugly... Very difficult to photograph, though
🙂
So for me, a change of camera (SLR to RF) brought a chance in the way I'm looking, because I can carry my Zorki everywhere easily. Currently, this "different" way of working is gving me GAS, too: I won a cheap iiic with the Summitar I bid on (no slow shutter speeds on the Zorki), now I need a new light meter that can actually measure in the dusk, ... GAS or no GAS, I'm taken more pictures than I've done in a long time. The next major event for me will be "Leuven Kermis" (annual fair here), so I can get all the people photography skills together and see what I can get out of it.
Getting kicked out of the confinement of my way of working has worked wonders. Luckily, I'm free in my photography, no strings attached. I've only done a handful of paying assignments before, so I'm not in your position. But I find assignments make me work in different ways. They spill over in what I do with my regular photography, and vice versa. You say that, when you try something special, the Powers That Be don't like it. Do you ? Then just go for it, and if they order all the other pictures but not that one, then keep it in a special place, the first place where you'll want to look when you're working on your retrospective. Keep that spirit: if you want to try something, do it. It's their choice if they pick that picture or not. If they do, they'll know why and they'll support you to do more of that. It's my motto: do what you like, and you get good at it, and because of that, you'll be appreciated.
I guess that was a rant as good as any other rant... Time to go to bed now
🙂
Peter.
