Thinking about shooting different subjects......

[D7k1]

I am mostly a landscape (cityscape) and Birder now. But I am seriously thinking about subject matters to get back into. A long time ago I did a lot of studio work as part of my job (Think thousands of images a year) and I lost all interest in any kind of studio work. Before birding I did a lot of macro work, now just occasionally and not that seriously. Being retired I have three hobbies that keep me busy, Photography/video, Music, and Astronomy. But Photography/Video has been both a hobby and at times a profession for me and at times I tend to focus on only one aspect. A while ago I got a small light box and 3 LED lights with the intention of doing some small/macro studio work. Never happened, this year it is. Biggest difference is now I have the G9 and it's amazing HighRes function. I used to work with a RB67 and shot negative Polaroid film for catalog work, I loved using that big camera and those wonderful negatives as well as the slides I shot for the final product. I can do that now and produce view camera like quality. This is a case of one more capability in a camera giving me inspiration.

I have spent years building habitat on my .8 acre with its woods and small stream, but have really documented the smaller critters (I ran a trail cam for the larger ones) that live here. 5 species of salamanders and many species of spiders that most people never see. I've got the Oly 60mm and two Canon 500D's for my 75-300II and PL100-400 for over 1:1 reproduction. All I have to do it as Nike says "just do it".

So my plan is to keep shooting with my friend one day a week for birds, go on my meetup groups shoots, and then spend at least one day a week shooting one of the two types of imaging. For the table top stuff I decided that I will go to Second hand stores and look for small inexpensive things from early decades and those will become some of my table tops.

Do you have any plans to move into photograph areas this year that you haven't done in a while or have never tried? If so tell us about them, perhaps you will inspired someone.

 

[Panolyman]

I've never done what you'd call "proper" portrait photography.
I've come up with an idea to photograph various people in our comparatively small village, using my recently acquired Olympus 45mm f1.8 lens.
I'm pretty terrified by the notion but on approaching a couple of residents, they seemed surprisingly keen.
It's become apparent that there are lots of skills lurking amongst them: painters, craft-makers, wood-turners, tool-makers and other engineering types.
I'm hoping to "zone in" on their skill sets in their various homes and workshops and have thought to call it '2020 vision: life in R***' (our village name).
I just need to pluck up a bit more courage to get started.

Sorry about all those "I's" folks.

 

[ac12]

I have a LONG list:

• using my 4x5 view camera
• using 6x6 MF camera
• making a wet darkroom
• learning portrature
• learning to use Photoshop
• helping my wife with macro/close up photography
• trying to form a photo group within the high school yearbook class. Class is not large enough to do that, and the kids are too busy with other stuff.

 

[NoTan2]

I have too many hobbies and photography sometimes seems like too much effort. So that's the first new direction I'd like to take - take some more photos.
After just buying a new E-M1.2 as motivation, having owned a reasonably good tripod for years and with plenty of lenses, I'd like to try landscapes.

I'm also interested in old buildings. There aren't all that many around here but plenty of aquatic scenery instead so I might as well go with what I've got.

 

[agentlossing]

The direction I've been going for a little over a year maybe is taking snapshots. Yeah, that sounds simplistic, but I'm trying to explore just what snapshots are and can be, aside from the rather obvious (and rather unfair) connotations of lack of skill or boring subject matter. I'm also trying to quantify my findings in writing. It's been an enjoyable project thus far.

 

[pake]

I love to photograph - no matter the genre. Since I'm a gearhead and spend too much money on this hobby of mine, I've decided to try and get something back too. The thing is that living in one of the biggest cities in Finland means there are LOTS of good photographers and it isn't easy getting customers. Especially when you don't have the portfolio for it. So one needs to choose a niche genre. I want to shoot live performances, events and animals. I also love shooting circus & pole dancing - and dancing in general. I've always loved animals so that is one thing I want to be good at.

So... Where is this all going...? I guess what I'm trying to say is that I need to start shooting more dancers and pets to get someone to pay for those shots. I've also learned to like shooting (people) portraits too but since there are dozens and dozens of (far better) portrait photographers in my region I don't think I should/will waste my time there.

My wife is a co-owner of a pony so I guess the first step is to spend more time at the stables and learn how to take great photos of horses. And then try to get someone to buy my photos of them.

 

[Bushboy]

1. HDR pictures.
I have just discovered this button on my cam. I want to look further into the process. Most times, the blended exposure image just looks so gorgeous.
2. Also I want to experiment with long exposures.
3. Become more familiar with my camera, understand the menu, and use it easily, with tearing my hair out.
4. Use my IMAGINATION, and think much more about what the camera can do, rather than simply taking the snapshot.
5. Get decent internet access so I can learn more. Having only phone internet is killing me...
6. more.

 

[ac12]

1. HDR pictures.
I have just discovered this button on my cam. I want to look further into the process. Most times, the blended exposure image just looks so gorgeous.
2. Also I want to experiment with long exposures.
3. Become more familiar with my camera, understand the menu, and use it easily, with tearing my hair out.
4. Use my IMAGINATION, and think much more about what the camera can do, rather than simply taking the snapshot.
5. Get decent internet access so I can learn more. Having only phone internet is killing me...
6. more.

It it the old 80/20 rule.
We do 80% of our stuff with only 20% of the functionality of the gear. That leaves a HUGE 80% of the camera that we have not made use of.
There are stuff that in 12 years of using my old Nikon, I never used.
I would love to try HDR, but things always got in the way of my learning to use it.

 

[mumu]

I haven't changed genres. I still love doing street photography but I only used to do it while traveling. But now, thinking about what my daily activities will be like when I retire (5-10 years from now), I've started taking transit into the city to walk around and do street photography locally. Forcing myself to "dig" into a location to find photo opportunities has been quite a journey of discovery. I'm starting to recognize more patterns and cues that suggest good photo ops (a lot of it has to do with reading shapes and shadows). Instagram has also helped. I started a photo acct on it 2 mos. ago and have also started following a lot of great photographers and that's been a real inspiration plus I'm seeing so many great ideas. The trick is to use other photographer's work as a springboard rather than simply aping what they're doing.

 

[Equable]

Panoramas for me, but with a lot of “if’s”. If I like it, if I am any good at it, if I ever actually get outside. We’re up to storm “Jorge” here, anything up to 70 mph winds, torrential rain etc. but not as bad as some on the uk mainland whose homes are literally underwater.

 

[Panolyman]

I haven't changed genres. I still love doing street photography but I only used to do it while traveling. But now, thinking about what my daily activities will be like when I retire (5-10 years from now), I've started taking transit into the city to walk around and do street photography locally. Forcing myself to "dig" into a location to find photo opportunities has been quite a journey of discovery. I'm starting to recognize more patterns and cues that suggest good photo ops (a lot of it has to do with reading shapes and shadows). Instagram has also helped. I started a photo acct on it 2 mos. ago and have also started following a lot of great photographers and that's been a real inspiration plus I'm seeing so many great ideas. The trick is to use other photographer's work as a springboard rather than simply aping what they're doing.

No, no no; once you've retired you won't have time to do anything like what you are planning.
Your chance to do it is now, as you've already found out in your explorations.

 

[Bidkev]

.
.
I've been planning to do night photography for a while now but the city is a 45minute drive away and added to that I'm invariably too knackered by the end of the day to be motivated to get off my arse and drive there.

I've also got back into yakking and my first trip on my local dammed lake (without a camera) inspired me to always carry my camera in future due to "new to me" exposed landscape of the lake. Being at 58% capacity it revealed lots of dead trees and structure that I hadn't seen before but sods law, we had two weeks of rain and it's "top up" resulted in the once again submerging of this landscape so that's another opportunity gone.

Apart from the above, I seem to have lost my mojo of late but I have had these spells of "photograpahic inertia" before so I'll just wait it out for the time being. I think the heat and humidity here play a huge part in mojo loss for me. My den/photographic room is pretty small facing mid day sun with no air con so even a bit of home macro isn't easy with the fan blasting. I attempted some yesterday but it was 32d in there so I retired to the air conned lounge. It's at times like these that I just get my tackle box out and make a few lures or re-spool and service my reels or watch fishing vids on youtube under the air con.

 

[Sleepy Capybara]

Last year I started getting into macro photography. I always had macro lenses on Nikon gear but it was little Oly 60mm that really gave me a push. This lens motivated me to take macros. I plan to continue macros this year once the weather in PNW gets better.

 

[felipegeek]

I can't say I have a specific genre of interest. I really like damn near everything photography related.

I've done:

• Portraits - mostly cosplayers at comic cons, some street portraits
• Citycapes - In Miami and now New York City but generally smaller views from the ground (other than the shots from my apartment balcony). Many NYC cityscape photogs go up in the tall buildings and helicopters to get the killer views.
• Street photography - roaming the streets of NYC especially usually looking for shadows, reflections and such where I'm not really pointing the camera directly at a person the street.
• Pets/Domesticated Animals - Did some of that for a veterinary foundation in Miami and various other opportunities when animals were present.
• Nature - Used to shoot a lot in the backyard when I lived in Miami as I had a mini-forest of native trees and plants that attracted a lot of insects, birds and the occasional critter. I shot flowers often and NYC has many of them in spring/summer. I took a couple trips to the Western North Carolina, Everglades and the Florida Keys mostly bird shots (few BiF), and one trip so far to Walkill, NY to photograph owls with a couple local photogs.
• Landscape - Some but limited and definitely without any sense of discipline about it, not like a dedicated landscape photog would do.
• Architectural/Buildings - My attention is especially drawn where light and shadow contrast/converge in a scene.

Push myself into new or renewed interests:

• Film photography - I've started the year shooting again with a box of 30 x 7-year expired color film rolls I brought from Miami. I've gone through about 12 rolls so far with mixed but still satisfying results. I really love the Minolta SLR cameras and lenses I've been mostly shooting with but also a Canon Rebel 2000 (I actually bought it in NYC in 2000 ironically).
• Learn to develop black/white film and start shooting and developing my own work. I've met a couple film photogs in NYC that develop and scan and I soon qualify for free (but for lab fees) continuing education classes through my employer, an arts college in NYC.
• Street Photography - more direct interaction both getting the 'in the moment' candid and the asked-for street portrait.
• Architecture/Buildings - Get to know people for access to better locations and altitude for those killer shots.
• Nature - Go to the many parks and coastal areas of the NYC region and beyond to see and photograph many (new to me) kinds of environments and animals.
• Portraiture - Work on reviving my basic lighting and studio photography skills and kick them up a couple levels.
• Organizing and exploiting my work - I have 127000 photos, several thousand may be reasonably interesting to very good photos that I could use for.....
• Getting myself positioned to build a portfolio in one or more genres to enter competitions and get an image or two shown in a couple exhibitions.

Maybe spreading myself too thin with all that but my opening statement says it all. Thanks to @D7k1 for the prompt. I needed that to put some more thought into what I'm doing.