You Should Always Try To Enjoy Photography
Whatever you want to do or achieve with your photography, one thing you should do is enjoy it.
No matter what hobby or career you have, if you’re happy doing it, you will enjoy it.
However, if you don’t like what you do, it will just be an unpleasant chore.
The more you enjoy your photography, in all probability the better you will become at it.
Whether you’re a professional photographer or a hobbyist, always make sure you enjoy photography.
I expect very few people bother with it if they don’t enjoy photography, why would anyone bother?
Maybe you don’t enjoy it as much as you used to, but don’t want to give it up.
Perhaps you still want to take photographs, but you just don’t want to do so now.
Then you should look at ways that you might reignite your lost love for using your camera.
Start taking photographs again
Sometimes the best way to dig yourself out of a rut, is to force yourself out of it.
Always bring a camera with you, wherever you go.
If you’ve got a smartphone, and most of us do, then you probably do bring it with you anyway.
Force yourself to take it out every day and take a photograph of something or other.
At first you will be forcing yourself, but you’ll gradually start enjoying it again.
As you would be taking one or more photos every day, you could turn it into a project.
Decide to take at least one photograph everyday for a whole year, and see it through.
You could post them online everyday, or print one and compile a 365 photo album.
It’s possible to do mini projects within the year one, like picking a different theme every week.
Enjoy a new form of photography
Many people stick to one genre of photography, perhaps you’re one who did so.
It may be the type of photos that you concentrated on that you no longer enjoy as you used to.
The what you may need to do is see if there’s a different branch of photography that can attract you.
Have you ever tried landscape photography, which gets you outdoors and travelling a little, or even a lot.
Wildlife photography will also get you outdoors, possibly for days on end, and into very rural places.
If you have an interest in any sport, then you could consider taking some photos of that.
Street photography may be an intimidating possibility if you’re shy, but worth the effort if you can get yourself to try it.
You don’t have to go outside to have fun with and enjoy your camera and photography.
Shoot indoors as well
There are several types of photography that are suited to being shot indoors.
Unlike outdoor photography where you shoot things mostly as they are, indoors you generally compose and set the photos up.
Still life photography is all about choosing props and arranging them as you like before you shoot.
Then you can create a completely different arrangement with the same props, and take another photo.
You can change the backdrop, lighting, lens etc. and take multiple photos using the same items in them all.
Food photography is a form of still life but with some food as the focal point of the photograph.
Macro photography is shooting very small things so close that they fill the entire frame of the photograph.
Of all forms of photography macro probably has the greatest scope for yielding surprising results.
That’s because tiny items can be magnified many times, and show up almost microscopic detail very clearly.
These are just a few suggestions of the many different types of photograph that you can decide to try.
Undertake a photography project
As well as taking random photographs you could decide to work on a photographic project.
I’ve touched on this above with the suggestion to take a photo everyday for a year.
There are an unlimited number of photographic projects that you could undertake.
I’m just going to suggest a few here which could start thinking of some of your own.
You could photograph a particular place like a country, a region or a city.
Then you could just concentrate on particular features of the place such as the water features there.
Photographing flora on a weekly basis for a time shows the changing seasons and the progress of time.
Then photographing the life in an aquarium can be great fun and thoroughly frustrating at the same time.
Fish are very fast swimmers, and totally immune to the practice or concept of posing.
There’s great scope for a photo project when you shoot events or holidays such as Christmas.
As well as recurring occasions there are always one off special events that happen and may never do so again.
I didn’t have a project in mind when I shot lots of photos at the yacht race in 2009.
These are just a few examples of places and occasions that you can shoot as you find them.
Use your imagination
There are other photographic opportunities that you can set up and control yourself.
Again you can think of original ones of these for yourself you don’t have try these ones.
However I’ll list a few so that you can use them as a starting point.
A suggestion can be a great stimulation for your imagination to become brilliantly productive.
Fruit is small, colourful, and a wonderful material for a wide variety of still life images.
Taking photos of items of a particular colour, on the same coloured background, sounds pointless.
It can produce very interesting photos though, with more variety than the idea suggests possible.
Taking a photo of the shadow of a glass object doesn’t seem too sane either.
It does cast a shadow and if it’s coloured glass, it can cast a beautifully coloured shadow.
You could just find an interesting object that you could photograph from different angles and perspectives.
This is just the tip of the iceberg for crazy and silly photographs you can record with a camera.
Being creative with photographs
The fun and creativity doesn’t have to stop at just taking photographs.
There’s just as much, if not more scope, for producing great images, when they’ve been transferred to a computer.
You could use parts of photos to make images like the mirror photographs that I write about here.
Making upside down reflection photographs is another suggestion for using photos as mirrors of themselves.
We’re all used to repeating patterns used in things like wallpaper, floor covering, curtains, clothing and other items.
Generally these patterns are created as graphics either with art materials or graphic software.
They can be created just as well, and with grander possibilities, by using photographs.
Photographs have been used to create comics and comic strips for decades.
It’s very easy to produce your own comics with photos, just add a little imagination.
I think it’s an area where there’s great unexploited possibilities awaiting.
Learn to enjoy photography
If you’ve lost the zest for photography, and would like to regain it, try some of these suggestions.
Even better use them as a starting point for your own imagination to kick in.
Photography is such a big field that there’s something that will get you excited again.
If you’re just starting out as a photographer then you’ve picked a great pursuit.
Just make sure you find the way that will allow you enjoy your photography.
