View Full Version : How do you choose your subject.
Quandries:
I live in a small town in South Arkansas. There is no "street photography" because the Wal-Mart super center has rendered downtown a ghost town and with gasoline at $2.70 a gallon, I'm not driving to Monroe or Shrevesport or Little Rock. I don't have Raid's daughter. There is no landscape since all you see is Pine trees, cotton fields. gray Summer skies, and transmission lines. One can't see the denizons of the aeries and beaver ponds because of the foilage.
Pluses:
There is a restoration project of a cabin originally built in 1836 whose progress I have been recording. There is a Centennial garden where some of the local ladies plant Crepe Myrtles, Daisies, and rhubarb, along with a bunch of stuff that only they know. Great for Provia. I have a macro lens for my SLR's, so a Poke Sallet berry or bumble bee is fair game (and the Poke eats pretty good, too). Jimson weed is beginning to flower.
Definite future subjects:
In the Bible belt we have a thousand different churches per acre. I've thought that I would drive around at 10:30 Sunday A.M. and shoot some of them but I'm haunted by a guy after whom I'v read who said never to shoot a building. If I had some or Trevor's stained glass I'd certainly jump for that, but I don't. Tomorrow I'll hit the road-side markets. Watermelons, tomatoes, and squash ought to give me some practice on the use of red and yellow filters. And once in a while there is the knock-out, farmer's daughter in cut-off blue jeans.
How do you choose your subjects and projects?
I know a Moto Guzzi rider who takes great shots of disappearing America-towns that are much smaller than they used to be.
RF shots-non flower/wildlife/family-personal stuff, is still evolving for me.
How do you choose your subjects and projects?
I usually wander around with my camera and if I see something that strikes my fancy it becomes a subject.
There are many places I go back to, some of them several times a week. A local park and wooded area are places I'll hit twice a week each. There's always something new.
Sometimes I'll head out with a project in mind and drive 20-30kms to get to a spot to take a shot. Often as not, I'll get distracted along the way and something else will become my project.
Peter
Subjects choose my feelings and instincts
This is one of the reasons I enjoy reading and collecting photo books - for the inspiration. Even before I travel to a new place, I try to read up on it. For instance, I leafed through Josef Sudek's "Poet of Prague" before going there. Of course, I am not out to copy, not that I can, but it just inspires me. YMMV.
I was looking at "Lee Friedlander" this afternoon - amazing creativity. I saw a few ideas that got me started thinking about a couple of cool projects to try, now that I am done with all of my processing and scanning backlog.
Speaking for myself, I think I get as much satisfaction, and perhaps more education, looking at good photographs as I do taking pictures.
You wrote "There is no landscape since all you see is Pine trees, cotton fields. gray Summer skies, and transmission lines."
What exactly do you mean? That there are no mountains? Volcanoes? Beaches?
Show us what pine trees, cotton fields, and gray summer skies look like. SEE them.
By the way, Arkansas is a very beautiful state (not as nice as Texas, of course, but that's a high standard :-)
I can empathize with Butch. I live in small town where someone taking pictures on the street, especially of people, would be seen as very weird. It is much easier at events rather than the daily life thing. Try going to events. Other than that, look closely at ordinary surroundings and try to find an interesting composition. In my gallery, I like the picture of my front steps. There are also pictures taken at events like motorcycle meets.
I can empathize, but blakley has a point. You have to see what is already around you.
I also live in a small town, my neighbors know me to be the eccentric guy with the cameras and they put up with me. All of the pictures in my gallery except one was taken within a half mile of my home. A town as small as any ( Jefferson MD (http://www.jeffersonmd.net) Population, 5911 that includes the "Development"). There really is a lot to shoot, you just have to see it.
willie_901
06-23-2006, 20:00
In the Bible belt we have a thousand different churches per acre. I've thought that I would drive around at 10:30 Sunday A.M. and shoot some of them but I'm haunted by a guy after whom I'v read who said never to shoot a building.
Every day thousands of people photograph buildings. Why shouldn't you? If you are on public property you have every right to photograph a church. Take a drive and plan to photograph these churches during the golden hours at dawn and at dusk when the sun is soft. Photograph them in the rain. Photograph them at night. Go for it. If you like the results, email an image to each pastor.
I think you've answered your own question. You are interested in doing a project about churches where you live. You've found your subject.
Share your work with us.
willie
willie_901
06-23-2006, 20:03
...All of the pictures in my gallery except one was taken within a half mile of my home. A town as small as any (Population, 5911 that includes the "Development"). There really is a lot to shoot, you just have to see it.
Kevin
I really enjoyed your gallery. I think this is good work.
willie
ErnestoJL
06-23-2006, 20:05
I donīt choose subjects. Instead, I think they choose me.
And the choice exists when I start to see whatīs in my sorroundings.
Thatīs a simple task, to see.
Iīm in the arduous task of learning how to.
Ernesto
Familiar stuff seems uninteresting only because it's familiar... Take a fresh look at it, but photos don't have to be OF something; they can be abstract patterns of light and dark, and arrangements of shapes and shadows. Of course they can be of something if you like, but should include some hint of what you think about it. There's people in your town, right? People are strange, and always doing something noteworthy even in a small town. I live in the big city, population up to about 13k now I think, and there's always something. Like just today I took a long route to the post office down an alley or two and among other things I found to shoot there was a couple sawing a board at the alley door of a restaurant. I walked up and asked if I could take a shot of them working, as that beat working myself, and used up a couple of frames. They were making a sign for some childrens' charity event. "People doing things" is often a good subject... Go out and see!
back alley
06-23-2006, 22:17
And once in a while there is the knock-out, farmer's daughter in cut-off blue jeans...
sounds very good to me!!
I just walk down around a coffee shop or bar and ask folks, 9 out of 10 times folks don't mind, but then again they are not candid shots.
boarini2003
06-24-2006, 15:31
Quandries:
I live in a small town in South Arkansas. There is no "street photography" because the Wal-Mart super center has rendered downtown a ghost town and with gasoline at $2.70 a gallon, I'm not driving to Monroe or Shrevesport or Little Rock. I don't have Raid's daughter. There is no landscape since all you see is Pine trees, cotton fields. gray Summer skies, and transmission lines. One can't see the denizons of the aeries and beaver ponds because of the foilage.
Pluses:
There is a restoration project of a cabin originally built in 1836 whose progress I have been recording. There is a Centennial garden where some of the local ladies plant Crepe Myrtles, Daisies, and rhubarb, along with a bunch of stuff that only they know. Great for Provia. I have a macro lens for my SLR's, so a Poke Sallet berry or bumble bee is fair game (and the Poke eats pretty good, too). Jimson weed is beginning to flower.
Definite future subjects:
In the Bible belt we have a thousand different churches per acre. I've thought that I would drive around at 10:30 Sunday A.M. and shoot some of them but I'm haunted by a guy after whom I'v read who said never to shoot a building. If I had some or Trevor's stained glass I'd certainly jump for that, but I don't. Tomorrow I'll hit the road-side markets. Watermelons, tomatoes, and squash ought to give me some practice on the use of red and yellow filters. And once in a while there is the knock-out, farmer's daughter in cut-off blue jeans.
How do you choose your subjects and projects?
I know what you mean, but with a different way of seeing things, you can always find incredible shots, no matter where. Many of Robert Frank's best ones were in the middle of nowhere. I think the church idea sounds really cool. Or the fact that Wal-Mart is there can actually be a good thing for photography. Who knows, there might be some good shots of old ladies in the parking lot or something. With the right light and angle, even the tedious can look heroic.
I would just take my camera everywhere I go, easily accessible. I pretty much guarantee you you will find something. Picasso once said, "When inspiration comes, she shall find me working."
Todd.Hanz
06-24-2006, 15:41
Still life my man, still life! Shoot the churches and details of them, pews, altars, doors, steeples, bibles laying around.
Todd
existrandom
06-25-2006, 07:37
hi all,
i live in a city where 7 million people lives; another set of problems...
yesterday my friend brought me to the childhood neighbourhood he lived as a child 20 years ago; the distict has been undergoing *massive* re-developmet, we spend the whole day tracing the where the old places, streets and old people were, with a map, and a "psychological" one as well, checking across each other, not without some success; except that i wrongly set the meter!
i was contributing to a book project of documentation funded by the district coucil, thus the interviews and the photo-shooting with my friend... but i become very interested in the little stories my friend told me, increasingly so that i am toying with the idea of doing a serial on my own, about my friends and their childhood places
"people and its environment," very old theme, but i enjoyed immensely the time
I believe it is very common not to find anything to shoot at in your own neighborhood... I struggle with that all the time. Butch, if you post good pictures from your hometown, I would bet that they would look exotic to me. Here where I live it is the midsummer party this weekend and the sun shines 24/7 at the moment...just last night I was outside at midnight watching the sun --without my camera-- :D I would bet that that would be exotic thing for most of you to see...? :)
PS: I live in Rovaniemi city, Finland.
Sometimes even the most mundane subjects to you are of great interest to someone on the other side of the world. For myself, there are subjects that chose me rather the other way round.
mike goldberg
06-25-2006, 20:05
Some great comments above...
Here's one from the Bible, Deuteronomy, I think:
"And he raised his eyes and saw."...
Here's two ideas:
- Look at what's available in your town with a fresh vision.
- You'll use up less gas on the highways near your town looking for the new.
Good luck,
Mike
This is one of those questions we all ask ourselves, and spend our lives answering. I don't think I'll ever be able to say with certainty what my subjects are. I can't count the times I've realized, reviewing my work, that when I thought I was photographing one thing, I was really photographing something else, entirely. Sometimes instinct overpowers reason, or even creativity, and we don't know it until some time later. I try to relax, remain alert, and resist any impulse to project my preconceived ideas on the world I see, or those with whom I share it. Kind of the polar oposite of previsualization. Good luck, and just keep shooting.
Jay
vBulletin® v3.6.8, Copyright ©2000-2013, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.