Using Intentional Parameters...

"What Time Has Left Behind"

Today's image should speak for itself. Actually, every image should be able to speak for itself. When you read a photograph, you shouldn't need verbal help to tell you what theme, or story, or emotion has hopefully been woven through it. I'm not sure that I've considered that enough in the last year but am working to fix that. You can click on the deserted industrial shed to see a larger version. But I hope my intent for this image is clear whether you enlarge the image on your screen for better viewing or not.

The day I photographed this, I was feeling spent, mellow, I was far from the hustle and bustle of life... so I gave myself those exact emotional parameters to guide what I pointed the camera at, and all the creative decisions that followed. This was one of the photos that day that really came alive within the ideas I wanted to explore. In fact, anytime you give yourself a theme, a visual goal, or parameters of any kind, you make stronger photographs. These intentional parameters give you something to hone in on, to freely explore with the medium of photography. Consider it another tool to round out your "creative kit bag".  

Great composition is a must. A good exposure is necessary. The right light can be a bonus. But your images will always be lacking a little something if there aren't some intentional parameters to help guide your creative process. To tell the reader how to experience the photograph. 

That's my tip for the week.
Thanks for the ramble friends! Let's get out there and make purpose driven images, no matter what you raise your camera to!

Change It Up!!! ~Floral Friday

Rainy Day Magnolias, a photo by C.Duncan's Photography on Flickr.

Every creative person I know gets stuck. Moments where you're in a rut. You have artist block. Nothing seems new. Or interesting. You'd rather bury yourself in a carton of Super Chocolate Caramel Explosion ice cream and watch reruns of Wonder Woman... well... some of us anyways.

Thought I'd share my go-to list of things I do to switch things up and gain new inspiration. If you've been doing photography for many years, these will be old hat to you. But if you've never tried these, it can put the excitement back into photographing whatever comes your way. Here we go;

Set An Absurd Boundry ~ We all know the ideal conditions for shooting inside, outside, whatever. So give yourself a specific shooting condition and only shoot that way. Only landscapes in the rain. Only portraits at twilight. Shoot every day for an entire month only from your backyard, or along a specific stretch of road. Force yourself to get creative. And tell others about your
self-inflicted project so you follow up.

Use Your Gear... All of It! ~ Use your lenses in creative ways. Wide Angles for portraits! Yep, you heard me. Figure out how to get creative with your perspective and the POV you shoot from and get some cool portraits. Stop reaching for the obvious lens choice. Use your telephoto first when photographing architecture instead of the wide angle. Force yourself to see within a tighter, less chaotic frame. It's simply thinking outside the box but sometimes we're in a comfortable rhythm and can't see anything else, then wonder why our images seem uninspired.

Face Your Weaknesses ~ If you steer clear of macro nature shots because you can't seem to get what everyone else gets in the lens, start exploring what else you can aim a macro lens at. Over the course of a month, those skills will grow. If you avoid portraiture in general, start with a fun project with your family making crazy faces, or only your dog for a few weeks, in different light, in different locations, and hone those portrait skills you were afraid were non-existent. What you learn about yourself you'll be able to apply to what you do love. Or it may open up a new vocation for you completely. And how exciting would that be.

Invoke The Buddy System ~ Invite others to participate. The more the merrier, and everyone stays motivated, feeding off each others energy and experiences. This is what my friend Dave Pratt and I did with our Epic Personal Photo Challenge... we opened it up to anyone who loved photography and every two weeks a new person picks a theme we have to shoot in. We reveal all our images on the same Sunday and discussion runs rampant on what our individual approaches resulted in, and new ways to see a subject. It's fabulous and very inspiring. The fun is injected back into the act of photography, and you can tell by looking at the images each week. You can click the link above to join us if you'd like....

So have a fabulous Friday gang, and let's inject some inspiration back into our photography. Just change it up!

The Epic Personal Challenge! ~ Exploration Thursday

"The Big Bang"

The Epic Personal Challenge #1

Today's image is the result of a conversation I had with good friend and photographer David A. Pratt the other week. We've both been learning and working in photography now for a few years at around the same time, albeit from different countries and it's not unusual for us to encourage the other in some practical way, or exploring a new technique in camera, or in editing, or processing... well you get the picture. (pardon the pun)

The conversation involved which other photographers we'd been following that week, whose new work we admired and ended with us deciding to do a spontaneous bi-weekly photo challenge to keep our creativity honed. Easy enough to do on your own I suppose, but much more exciting when someone else is in on it too. And so began The EPC! (Epic Personal Challenge)

The grand thing about this is every other week we'll just pick a random theme and have to find ways to give our own interpretation of it in a photograph (not a new concept really but so much fun)... and the interesting part is waiting to see how the other is going to approach it. Last week's challenge was , you guessed it, Rust and Decay. But our approach and decision making in regards to subject matter, interpretation, and even processing were completely different. To compare the image above to Dave's resulting photograph and his description of it, you can view his image HERE. See? Vastly different.

While he found an object that exuded rust and decay with great textures and a really gritty sidelight suitable to the theme, I went in a different direction and chose to make the rust, found in the inside of an old wheelbarrow, it's own subject, giving an abstract feel the felt like some kind of crazy sky or atmosphere in space effect. I think the differences are fantastic... Dave's approach made me realize just how varied every interpretation will be, sometimes I get too caught up in my own style that I forget that the possibilities are endless. Photo challenges are the perfect way to have fun with your camera, have fun with your peers, and start seeing your world around you better. And after we revealed our images to each other, we decided we needed a round two!

So this bi-weekly challenge for the EPC is "Machinery" and already I'm finding this a very challenging theme. And loving it. The cool thing is, you never know what else you'll stumble across while out on your scavenger hunt for the assigned subject matter. I have three images now waiting for next week's blog that were exciting all on their own merit while I was out hunting decay and rust... so you can see how this kind of activity can be very important to your own personal exploration of your craft.

Dave and I are very social people as well... if we hear from enough of you that you'd like to join us for the EPC, I'm sure a FB group or page or blog can be put together... or if you'd like to simply follow along on your own, feel free to contact me or leave a comment with a link to your results so I can include you here on the blog as well in two weeks time. I'll be posting our results every other Thursday... and I'll have Dave do some guest blogging those days as well, so you can hear his thought process behind it all... what do ya say Dave? Hmmm?

If you'd like to see today's image larger just click on it above, and if you visit David Pratt's photo in the link above or on flickr, he'd love to hear your comments too. Thanks for the ramble gang! Have a great one!