Ways To Keep Photography Exciting: Part 1

Photographers, artists and other creative professionals often say something to the effect of, “If you love something enough, you don’t need to work at it. It should be natural.” I believe that ‘natural desire’ takes you so far. Whatever you thought you naturally loved, you may notice that once in a while you had to keep it exciting. We thrive on distractions. We get dopamine squirts whenever our phone lights up with a new message or new e-mail. Often times these are not our own doing – we are in a position where those distractions happen to us. The distractions I encourage are the ones we instigate ourselves and have some control over. The solution to that is pursuing conscious photography projects. Here are some ways I found to fall in love with photography each time I pick up the camera.

Figure skating is and always will be something I love to see through my viewfinder. For 12 months between 2010 and 2011 I chased as many opportunities as possible to shoot, that I had enough images to fill tons of portfolio books. I have one portfolio book for pairs in competition, for single skaters in competition, for behind-the-scenes, for exhibition galas only….! I met lots of people and learned many things along the way. And it was all thanks to a choosing a focus and direction.

Create a list of themes that you want to shoot obsessively. Here are some ideas:

Here are some examples of photographers who have caught the attention of many by specializing and creating a style that of their own:

Levitating self-portraits (Yowa Yowa) by Natsumi Hayashi

Every day by Noah K

Conceptual photography by Brooke Shaden

“All high art comes through unyielding obsession.” (Stephen Sandoval)

Ready? GO!