The fun-o-meter in photography can be quite the rollercoaster. When you buy your first camera, its up high, when you take your first photo with the new camera, its down low, when you pre visualize your shots, its up high, when you look at the photo its low again. Learning your camera settings is important and once you do, if you dont push yourself to keep learning your progress will stall and thats no fun. This week I share 5 ways to introduce more fun with your photography.
1: No Social Media
Social media can be a great source of inspiration if youre looking for it but more often than not its where we see other photographers work and feel like we dont measure up. Getting off social media for a few weeks will help open up the creative side of your brain.
2: Remove all Controls
Use a GoPro or just your phones camera to go out and shoot but dont look through the screen. Look at the world with your eyes and try to place the camera where it needs to be to capture it. This exercise becomes stronger as it forces you to audit your own photos from a critical perspective.
3: Destroy your Photos
As photographers we tend to treat our photos like gold. To really break out of a rut we need to accept that our photos always have room for improvement and not to take them too seriously. I like to shoot in black and white and color on my photos using the ProCreate iPad app. This also helps me to see hidden compositions of color within the frame what I might not have seen naturally.
4: Print your Photos
Printing your photos can make a huge impact on how you shoot. From being able to hold your art in your hand to seeing that shooting at ISO 1600 wasn’t as bad as you thought, to reinforcing the fact that you are fully capable of taking photos that you love. Printing photos is magical.
5: Create a Styled Shoot
A styled shoot does not have to be a big production. Come up with a photo in your head and then make it happen. It could be a photo of your dog wearing a funny cheese hat thats then photoshopped in front of the Eiffel Tower. Focus on nailing just 1 photo, and the rest will fall into place!
Fun Photography Exercise: 100 Photos in 15 minutes.
What you shoot and how you shoot it is up to you. Just dont take the same photo twice. See the world different to capture something unique then post your favorite photo in the BPP Facebook Group.
