Making The Most Of A Borring Place

LeftBehind · Sep 22, 2007

I love landscape photography, as well as portrait. I've been to many of the nicer inner-city areas that have landscape like feel, cut away from the suburban life, and got pseudo landscape photographs> I call this them because if you saw much more of the frame you would see residential housing or stores. As far as portraits I don't have a single friend or acquaintances that isn't intimidated by my relatively small SLR to the point where they refuse to let me take pictures. My question is how would you make the most of my ****ty situation? I work 38 hours a week as well as go to grade 11 full time, my craving for taking pictures is only piling up as i spend day after day flipping burgers so far away from my camera. I have two days off next week and hoping to make the most of them. If only I could think of where i would go to do it.
Winnipeg, Manitoba, if it makes a difference.

LeftBehind · Sep 30, 2007

nothing?

Hill202 · Sep 30, 2007

LeftBehind said:
I love landscape photography, as well as portrait. I've been to many of the nicer inner-city areas that have landscape like feel, cut away from the suburban life, and got pseudo landscape photographs> I call this them because if you saw much more of the frame you would see residential housing or stores. As far as portraits I don't have a single friend or acquaintances that isn't intimidated by my relatively small SLR to the point where they refuse to let me take pictures. My question is how would you make the most of my ****ty situation? I work 38 hours a week as well as go to grade 11 full time, my craving for taking pictures is only piling up as i spend day after day flipping burgers so far away from my camera. I have two days off next week and hoping to make the most of them. If only I could think of where i would go to do it.
Winnipeg, Manitoba, if it makes a difference.

You asked how to make the best of your situation...I realize that this is a photography forum but as a father of children your age, I'm suggesting you continue to focus on your education. You will get plenty of chances to take pictures throughout your life. Probably not what you wanted to hear, right? Get your high school diploma, go to college and maybe study photography. Then you can land a high paying job and live anywhere you want.

kundalini · Sep 30, 2007

I don't live in a city at this time, although I have in the past. With the right amount of creativity, you should be able to get that landscape shot you are after.

With the right mixture of persuasivness and (I started to say booze) and determination, you should be able to convince one or two of your mates to "let you get the experience" of shooting portraits. One idea I've been working on is for those that are doing the on-line dating thing. See what they have posted or thinking about posting and offer your services to improve their chances. Dig your heels in and never give up.

kundalini · Sep 30, 2007

Sorry, missed the part about your age. Education is paramount.

JIP · Sep 30, 2007

If you have time in your spare time you need to just take advantae of your surroundings. It is easy for someone to go to a beautiful national forest and capture wonderful images. A great personal challenge is to make stunning images of mundane topics. You know they say in the culinary world the measure of a person's real talent is to take what someone might consider "gross" ingredients like intestines or organs and make them sing while anyone can make a great meal with a good cut of meat or a beautiful piece of fish. I guess it is a good thing I am a photographer because the other analogy is not too fitting for me because I am a veggie but I hope you understand what I am trying to say. Also if you do live in the suburban "wasteland" this might be just the thing to try and illustrate with good images. Also a book like this http://www.amazon.com/My-Room-Adrienne-Salinger/dp/0811807967 might be a good inspiration for some of the portrait photos you say you like to do. It is a great book of portraits of teenagers in their bedrooms and is shot in such a way as to tell a great personal story about the subjects.

craig · Sep 30, 2007

Tough deal for sure. I have been there. Only answer is to get creative. For example. Landscapes can also include parking lots and apt buildings. Portraits can also include statues and cars or almost anything. Know that the more you shoot the easier things will become.

Love & Bass.

Iron Flatline · Oct 1, 2007

Look, your neighborhood and life-style seems incredibly mundane to you, while in your mind some person your age living in Turkey or Japan or India or Finnland gets to live this totally exotic and weird foreign life-style. Well, they feel the same way about your life.

Become a documentary photographer - record what it really means to be your age in your part of the world. Start a photoblog, or set a goal of getting a photo story published, or having a small exhibit.

Think of primary shots, like wide vistas interspersed with big-box stores. Shoot the pick-up trucks in the parking lot. Show a buddy's mom watching TV in an arm chair with little else but the glow of the tube washing over her - you will need a tri-pod for that one, or at least something to put the camera down on while you get the shot. Then think of supporting shots - blank stares at the check-out counter, a iced windshield from the inside in the morning, a dirty set of boots left at the door.

Seek out the other work of photgraphers. Yes, they may be light-years ahead, but they're also older.

Look how Allessandra Sanguinetti documents the life of two early teens in Argentina. Believe me, they think their life is incredibly mundane....

It may not be a great example, but if you focus on recording a life only you can see - because only you live it - you will have a mission that will allow you to become a better photographer. You will shoot, and learn to adjust your style to get the look-and-feel of the images you want.

So tell people you're a student working on a project. Older people always think education is unbelievably important, and will help you when you're working on something. Maybe create a flyer or a piece of paper that spells out what you're working on - a lot of people believe what they read. And if you ever get busted, explain it's the only way you can get the shot, you're just trying to be a good photographer, not a health department snitch.

Good luck. Post a lot. Share your images. Ask questions. Ignore the dumb-a$$es who give you snippy answers.

Peanuts · Oct 1, 2007

Well, coming from the general same age category I will also say just push a head and at don't shut any doors on yourself. Could you drop a few hours of work and designate this as time to hone your photography skill? Make sure that you are doing it for the enjoyment, once it becomes a secondary job, some of the glamour seems to fall out of it.

This past year afater graduating from grade 12 I was given the choice whether to take a year off to work and travel, with photography fit into the middle, or I could attend school for 4 or 5 years to obtain my undergrad. My word that was a hard decision but I went for the undergrad. Part of the reason is directly attributed to photography, by placing that down in some of the extra written portions of applications and discuss how photography allows one to take different perspectives on things etc. I strongly believe this sets an application apart from the general: I was in speech and debate. I volunteered. I was part of student council (which are all very important! and if you can combine the two great! My last year in HS I was the Senior Leader of Photography... sounds like a high up position and it was fun!

)

Speaking of which, I best get my sleep for a midterm tomorrow and then packing for a photography related trip. (no joke!)

LeftBehind · Oct 1, 2007

Thanks for all your replies. Too be honest I donut really give a **** about school i get mediocre grades and do next to nothing and I'm completely fine with it. I've let photography take front seat in my life, so i'm off to take extrodinary pictures of ordinary things.

P.s: Iron, I'm VERY jealous of your m8, she's beautiful, i got into a fair amount of **** for researching her instead of doing drafting work today

.

Hill202 · Oct 1, 2007

I must admit that these guys have offered some great advice and it will probably help you with your photography and that is what you were looking for. Iron Flatline and Craig's advice will also help me get past the rut I'm in.

I'm one of those old guys,that Iron Flatline referred to, that believes education is very important. I won't change my stance on that one. This is however a photography forum and I suppose my advice was not very helpful. I certainly hope it was not considered "snippy".

Good luck

skieur · Oct 1, 2007

Hill202;992634 I'm one of those old guys said:
Actually you are absolutely correct, Hill, Education is very important. My high school grades were nothing to write home about, but I still completed a 4 year university degree, teacher's qualifications, and at community college a technician's certificate in film and television. I taught all levels from elementary through to university courses for teachers, did television scriptwriting, production and direction, multimedia productions and presentations, acted as media consultant, organized and managed a media centre and along the way also took thousands of photos for journalistic purposes, public relations, advertising, textbooks, publishers, weddings, and education. The range was from hanging out of an airplane to shooting from skis and dealing with guard dogs and angry security.
It was interesting, exciting, never boring, and the money was good. What more could one ask for? However education was an absolute necessity for dealing with upper management levels in various organizations and so was literacy in organizing and presenting proposals to be funded.

skieur

JIP · Oct 1, 2007

I do have one thought for you. Instead of flipping burgers for a job why don't you work at a Ritz camera or something instead. If you have to work This will at least keep you thinking about photography while you are working.

Iron Flatline · Oct 6, 2007

Let me be clear about something: I am all for education, or more specifically about learning things that actually help you in life. You don't get the privelege of making that particular choice until you've completed the basics, which in this case is high school.

The "education" I refer to is samizdat education - whereby people go through motions to receive degrees and accomplishment certificates which in turn impress people who are only reassured by these papers because they went through the same motions. This is more prevalent here
in Europe where I have prospective employees swamp my inbox with all kinds of lengthy resumes, and attached diplomas for all kinds of little courses and skills.... but they don't actually know anything. They have no actual skills. But they don't know the difference, and are genuinely hurt and befuddled because they can't find work. It breaks my heart, but they've totally bought into a system whereby they keep getting more "education" - which impresses some middle-management yokel - instead of just going to work and figuring it out. They're not even given the opportunity.

Self-publish a book, LeftBehind. Document your life. Create a lot of images, and then compile them via Lulu or Blurb or one of the many other services. This will teach you more than anything else - about how people respond to someone who actually goes out and does something, about how people react to creativity, about how to be different. Don't slack up school, it's the minimum effort to be allowed to play in the game later on in life (rather than just being a spectator like 98% of the rest of the world). Then negotiate for art credits from school, put it on your resume... flaunt it, pimp it, do another.

Just BE something, don't just sit there and be one of those people to whom life just happens, as though it's the weather. It's yours, get off your ass and do something.