What Do You See?

If you follow photography at all in magazines, on professional or educational websites, or on numerous blogs, you'll often see and hear an immense amount of discussion about gear. Articles about lenses: prime, zoom, name brand or after-market? And what do you attach that lens to? Full frame or crop body? Do you need filters and lens hoods? What about a tripod, camera back, back pack, memory cards, and card readers? Some photographers obsess about these things. And don't get me wrong, they all can be important components to getting started in the right direction with your own hobby or photography business.

But what about artistic talent? Some refer to it as "the eye." Have you begun to test the limits of your compositional ability? Do you ever feel like there's nothing left to photograph? Then you simply need to look harder and more often. I took my camera to my parents' house on Sunday for an afternoon BBQ. I certainly did not plan on photographing them, the food, or much of anything else. But I did force myself to remove the camera and attached lens from my bag and be creative. I looked around the yard and found plenty of things to photograph, in mid-afternoon harsh sunlight nonetheless. I wouldn't say I was inspired, but I had to push myself to capture things unexpected and beautiful.


This flower was one of my favorite "finds" in their back yard. I loved the color, isolated bloom, and wheel spoke design of the petal. Above and below are two different compositions. So even when I had found what I wanted to capture, I challenged myself to think about angles, lighting, and extraneous elements in the photo. What will you test yourself with next with camera in hand?

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Eric
Eric Lovelin Photography