epp_b
No longer a newbie, moving up!
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2008
- Messages
- 2,135
- Reaction score
- 12
- Location
- True North Cold and Freezing
- Website
- www.eppbphoto.com
- Can others edit my Photos
- Photos OK to edit
Lately, I've been trying to narrow down the scope of what I shoot so that I can focus on excelling in a few areas instead of being just "OK" in many areas.
What I've come up with are three lists:
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1. Photography of things that have always interested me anyway
- Concerts (music is in my blood)
- Cars (mostly their aesthetics and design)
- General Artistic / Abstract
- Dogs
These are just things that have interested me long before I got into photography. I kind of buy into the theory that you shoot best what you know.
2. Photography of things in which I don't necessarily have an inherent interest, but which I do like to shoot anyway
- Landscape / Nature
- Architecture
Here's what I'm having the most trouble with: I love landscapes, perhaps more than anything else, and I think I'm pretty good at it. The funny thing is, I'm very much a "homebody"; I don't like traveling, which is something that is becoming more and more obvious to me as a requisite for good landscape photography. Probably 90% (maybe more) of my landscape shooting occurs within a two mile radius of where I live and, after two years, I feel like I am completely out of opportunities in this place. I should also explain that I live in the flat prairies; everything's pretty much the same for mile upon mile (you could watch your dog run away for a 3 days and all that)
I love using lines, shapes and especially symmetry in architecture photography. But, again, there are few, if any, real opportunities nearby.
3. Photography I really don't want to do
- Portraits
- Weddings and the like
I think it's pretty obvious what I mean by this. I'm socially underdeveloped and just not a personable guy. Too many years spent sick at home as a child, not enough human interaction and so on.
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So, what do you think? Is it possible to be exceptional in many areas or does you think one needs to select a narrower scope of subjects?
What I've come up with are three lists:
--------------------------------------------------------
1. Photography of things that have always interested me anyway
- Concerts (music is in my blood)
- Cars (mostly their aesthetics and design)
- General Artistic / Abstract
- Dogs
These are just things that have interested me long before I got into photography. I kind of buy into the theory that you shoot best what you know.
2. Photography of things in which I don't necessarily have an inherent interest, but which I do like to shoot anyway
- Landscape / Nature
- Architecture
Here's what I'm having the most trouble with: I love landscapes, perhaps more than anything else, and I think I'm pretty good at it. The funny thing is, I'm very much a "homebody"; I don't like traveling, which is something that is becoming more and more obvious to me as a requisite for good landscape photography. Probably 90% (maybe more) of my landscape shooting occurs within a two mile radius of where I live and, after two years, I feel like I am completely out of opportunities in this place. I should also explain that I live in the flat prairies; everything's pretty much the same for mile upon mile (you could watch your dog run away for a 3 days and all that)
I love using lines, shapes and especially symmetry in architecture photography. But, again, there are few, if any, real opportunities nearby.
3. Photography I really don't want to do
- Portraits
- Weddings and the like
I think it's pretty obvious what I mean by this. I'm socially underdeveloped and just not a personable guy. Too many years spent sick at home as a child, not enough human interaction and so on.
--------------------------------------------------------
So, what do you think? Is it possible to be exceptional in many areas or does you think one needs to select a narrower scope of subjects?