Getting back, with new perspectives

The past month, I’ve focused on landscape photography. There are a few reasons for this, but partly that I’ve been visiting some beautiful places and mainly that I haven’t been inspired by the places I’ve been to do any sort of social documentary photography.

However, being back in Austin finally, there isn’t much of a subject for landscape photography. Texas is relatively ugly state, overall. Texas has everything you want, geography-wise, but none of it is first-class. Or second-class. Or even third-class. It exists. That’s all you can say about it.

But I can’t just put my camera down. I feel I’m really becoming a photographer. So I decided to start a project that I’ll be talking about more throughout the year. But starting that project, which combines a little bit of landscape photography with a little bit of social documentary got my juices flowing again, so this morning I went downtown and shot a little.

It felt really good to get out again after a long while off of it. It being a holiday Monday, there wasn’t a lot going about downtown, but with the overcast skies, everything was lit by a really nice softbox which I enjoyed, something we don’t get too often in Texas.

I’ve also really been loving my colors and style lately. In my first post, I talked about how I felt I hadn’t found a style that was conducive to a body of work. But since I’ve been trying this high-key, low-contrast, somewhat vibrant editing style, I more frequently love the photos I’m capturing than ever before. And that’s a really nice feeling.

I’m finding, too, in my photos lately, that' I’m trying to capture more of the scene. I think I’ve talked about this in the past, where I felt it was important to capture the scene and not just people, which is why I don’t love the work of people like Bruce Gilden, but in reviewing a lot of my past work, the scene I've captured didn’t feel complete, it didn’t feel like it added to the story. But in this set of images from this morning, I feel I’ve done a good job at capturing both the subject and the scene to tell a complete story. Take this photo below for example:

I could have easily gotten a tighter shot of this man taking a morning siesta on a city bench, and thought that was a good photo because he was an interesting subject. And previously, I probably would have shot him from the front to see his face. But I love this image so much more than the thought of that one. By widening the field, I’ve shown where he is. It isn’t just any old city bench, but a bench on West 2nd which is a really nice part of downtown. And his bucket hat occluding his face drives home the siesta without having to see that his eyes are closed. And then the slight dullness in the greens of the trees makes the blue pop so much more. It’s hard to miss him in the frame even with so much going on around him. I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but I think this is a fantastic photo.

I also tried to play with motion, as seen in the photos above and below. This was mainly possible thanks to the overcast of the morning. And I think this newfound experimentation has come from my love of trying out the Brenizer Method that I talked about in my last post. Trying out new techniques in one area (namely landscape) has led me to try other camera techniques in other areas of photography. I’ve always loved photos with motion, but whenever I tried them, they felt like mistakes. Albeit, the photo above isn’t perfectly tracked so the runner isn’t perfectly in focus, but the feeling of the photo is drastically different than it would have been with a freeze-frame image.

Similarly, the photo below captures the cyclist completely blurry, whichI think adds to an otherwise benign photo.

So ultimately, it was difficult for me to feel inspired by street photography in Austin lately. And honestly, it still does, even after a morning like today. The thought of taking photos around Austin just doesn’t fill me with a sense of drive like it used to. But I don’t just want to abandon this style of street photography. And I don’t want to only take landscape photos when I’m in a beautiful place. I think finding inspiration is as much about your surroundings as it is your state of mind, and I’m trying really hard to change my frame of reference with regards to street photography where I live.

And three things that are helping me do that are:

  1. a sense of fulfillment at finding a style that I like

  2. creating a project for me to work on for the remainder of the year

  3. trying new techniques with my photos, whether in-camera or with panorama stitches

So, I don’t know. If you’re not feeling inspired, try spicing things up and trying something different. Not necessarily new. Just different. Like shooting in only black&white. Or only shooting the color red (I actually really love a color hunt day, those are great for getting you out of a funk).

Yet again, I’ve rambled through a blog post and created a 1,000 word essay about nothing. But hey, you read it.

Stephen

Another Brenizer Method photo. 

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A new camera enters the arena

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Finding Style