Sunday, March 20, 2011

Take Advantage of Your Neighborhood


I feel that many photographers don’t take enough advantage of the photographic possibilities around their home or neighborhood. I believe this comes from a two thought process. I feel many people search through the magazines and photo websites looking at beautiful images of far off places and focus only on getting to these locations to shoot that same scene. The other reason is people get so used to the things they see everyday that it becomes common place, they lose interest and excitement in the everyday; I would guess that this is extremely common.


If we open our minds up to the photographic possibilities in our homes, our yards, our neighborhoods and cities, we’ll start increasing our image files and sharpen our skills for when we do visit that far off destination. Make it a point on your drive to work or to the store to look for subjects, start a photographic essay of your neighborhood, set aside a day or a morning each week or month that you’re going to work on that essay. Once you start photographing the “common” scenes, I believe this will help to expand your vision and increase your skills as a photographer.

This cross is in a cemetery not far from my home, I pass it quiet often and from the road, the cemetery is very ordinary looking. A few weeks ago I decided to drive the gravel road that circles the property and I saw this cross on the top of the hill. I made a mental note that the setting sun should be directly behind the cross and that I should come back to photograph the scene. This whole detour took about five minutes. Saturday, as me and a friend were waiting on the full moon to rise, I decided this was a good time to visit the cross and try the image I had pre-visualized weeks before. I think it worked out fairly well.