What is your "Comfort Zone"?

[Roger Hicks]

"Get out of your comfort zone" is common advice. Why? Unless you are so awful and unimaginative that just about anything will be an improvement on the garbage you are churning out, then surely you will take your best pictures in your "comfort zone". To me, a "comfort zone" means knowing what you're doing.

In your "comfort zone" you can concentrate on your pictures, not on how brave you are being or how far you are departing from your previous work. For some people (not me) this "comfort zone" may involve misery, privation and bullets whistling around them [Don McCullin, at least for much of his career]. For others (again not me) it may be taking environmental portraits [Jane Bown]. Or rock stars [Elliott Landy] or just the woman you love [Elliott Landy again]. For our own Bob Michaels it includes Cuba; for Tom Stanworth, Afghanistan.

Do you try to get outside your "comfort zone"? Why? How? And as the thread title asks: what is your comfort zone?

Cheers,

R.

 

[michaelwj]

"Get out of your comfort zone" is common advice. Why? Unless you are so awful and unimaginative that just about anything will be an improvement on the garbage you are churning out, then surely you will take your best pictures in your "comfort zone". To me, a "comfort zone" means knowing what you're doing.

"Get out of your comfort zone" is often used to get people to try something different. How did Don McCullin know he would be a good conflict photographer? He was obviously a competent photographer before he took his first conflict shots, so at some point he moved out of his comfort zone.

Lots of people may move out of there comfort zone, and find somewhere they're more comfortable, but you'd never know. If no one ever moved out of their first comfort zone, then I'd argue that we wouldn't have a lot of very good photos.

Personally, I was comfortable shooting landscapes, but moved away from that to try something else. I'm now more comfortable shooting people in environmental portraits I suppose than I ever was shooting landscapes, but when I first started shooting people it was not as comfortable as the landscape work I had been doing.

I think of a comfort zone as a local minima, but not always the global minimum of photographic fulfillment.

 

[FrankS]

The comfort zone is a very comfortable and nice place, but nothing grows there. It's about learning by trying something new. IMO

 

[BenJT]

I think "get out of your comfort zone" is often intended for those who want to or are trying to do something, but don't have the balls to do it.

A comfort zone is just that, where your comfortable, not having to deal with high levels of stress and anxiety. Some people relish in that, some people shy away from it completely.

There have been plenty of times I've missed an opportunity because I didn't want to step out of my comfort zone, and there have also been times I've just gone for something and put myself in a vulnerable position, which 100% of the time is worth it. Its rewarding.

 

[SolaresLarrave]

This idea means to me to go and take a street photograph that may put me in a risky or awkward situation. I won't do it. Like photographing people after they have let me know they don't want to be photographed.

Perhaps I'm doomed, but I won't do it. Am I a coward? Probably, but why ruin someone's day to feed my ego?

Now, professionally (I'm a college professor), I have no problem doing something that puts me out of my "comfort zone," like teaching something new or in an innovative way, or tackling a topic others don't dare approach...

 

[Hsg]

I can only photograph in my comfort zones, if I try to photograph outside of my comfort zone, I get bored.

For me, photography is no longer about seeking challenges and "trying" and acting as if I'm after something. For me photography is about being in my comfort zone and feeling the shots appear one after another.

 

[Godfrey]

Getting out of your comfort zone is simply one means to expand it. That's all.

G

 

[kxl]

"Get out of your comfort zone" is akin to "stretch your wings." Try something new or different to augment your skills and your knowledge at the risk of minor failures. It's a common aphorism in corporate America, often as a corollary to "Think outside the box."

In my day job, both are important, if not necessary, as a measure of competency. So, professionally, I do get out of my comfort zone on a regular basis.

Photography is a hobby for me. My comfort zone lies in using gear with which I am very familiar to take photos of people, nature or just about anything that catches my eye when I go to a particular destination. I have physical limitations that constrain my mobility, which dictates how I shoot (perch somewhere and disappear into the background). That is where I am most comfortable.

Do I have any interest in getting out that comfort zone? No, not within the same context and purpose as I how I conduct my professional life where it is quite critical for survival. Again, photography is a hobby for me. But if an opportunity presents itself and if I find it interesting, then I might do it.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

My comfort zone is with few dozens of pictures I like.
... From 100K+ frames I took so far.

 

[thegman]

I think to get out of one's comfort zone in able to achieve what you want is a positive thing. If you're doing it for the sake of it, then maybe you'll learn something, maybe not.

It seems pretty common for street photographers to admire work made by others who are not afraid to get right up in someone's face, but themselves seem to only take photos of people's backs. I think if you can get out of your comfort zone and maybe do something you're a little afraid of, then maybe you're more likely to achieve what you actually want.

It seems that most of us in the modern/Western/"civilized" world are ruled by our own little fears, "What will people think!?", "What if travel the world and can't get a job when I get back?!".

Living in comfort is great, but to do it exclusively seems like a route to dissatisfaction.

 

[noisycheese]

My comfort zones are landscape photography, street photography macro photography and documentary photography.

My discomfort zone is lighting. I'm still trying to figure out all the diffuser, reflector off camera flash and bounce flash "ancient secrets." :bang:

 

[Darthfeeble]

I'm uncomfortable in my comfort zone. It's boring there.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Nick Danziger keeps going back to Africa so he's comfortable there. Ansel Adams kept shooting in Yosemite: he was comfortable there. David Bailey was (and still is) comfortable with fashion. "Get out of your comfort zone" is merely an incompetent and inaccurate way of saying "Try something new". Until you're comfortable with the new thing you're doing, i.e. you've established a new "comfort zone", you're unlikely to get good pictures.

And, of course, you have to want to try something new for its own sake, not just because it's new. Macrophotography of insects is well outside my "comfort zone" but that's because I have zero interest in it. In other words, you need to be comfortable wanting to try a particular new thing: another aspect of a "comfort zone".

Cheers,

R.

 

[Sparrow]

... yes, and advising the study of other photographers photos is another odd one ... why would anyone want to take anything but their own style of photograph

 

[Keith]

Not sure what my actual 'comfort zone' is ... but I do know I feel more alive photographically when I'm out of it.

Butterflies in the gut and sweaty palms soon become memories.

 

[lukitas]

'get out of your comfort zone'
A phrase used by sports coaches, appropriate for highly competitive endeavours.
In the context of photography, it makes me shudder. I am not an athlete. Photography is not an olympic sport. 50 push-ups on my pinkies will not make me a better photographer, only a slightly fitter one. With arthritic fingers.

I like to get into my comfort zone, feel at home with the light, the settings on the camera, the frame covered by the lens. When I feel entirely comfortable, from the texture of my socks, to the strap wrapped around my wrist, I can concentrate on taking pictures.

 

[Robin P]

With the recent cold weather we've been having I've been out of my comfort zone too regularly when going out with the camera.......

 

[Baby of Macon]

I'm trying to get out of my discomfort zone...

 

[iamzip]

"You know why I quit playing ballads? 'Cause I love playing ballads."

-Miles Davis

 

[daveleo]

Roger this is very interesting, and an issue that plagues me.
My comfort zone has always been "portraits" of single objects and some still lifes (you can see my web page below). I seriously love doing that, and (IMO) am good at it. But .....

In my mind, I have beaten that theme to death, and badger myself with "Jees, Dave, not another still life!"

For several years now I have been trying to get people into my pictures. Not posed, just people doing something. But I can't get that done right, so I fall back and do another still life photo. (Maybe it's a "control" issue?)
It still excites me to do still life scenes, but I want to do new things . I just can't move into that larger world.

"Comfort" is a two edged sword.