I live in a very visually boring place

[Rephargotohp]

ROADTRIP!!! Lots of Beef Jerkey Twizlers and Rockstar

Roadtrip equals $$$$$$$$$ LOL!

It's not like Gas is $3.79 a gallon....Crap! Fail

 

[blackrose89]

Maybe more of what I should be saying is we don't have a lot of variety here.

 

[Rephargotohp]

Maybe more of what I should be saying is we don't have a lot of variety here.

Yeah, you really haven't been to Kansas have you? LOL

No offense Kansasians

 

[blackrose89]

Again, people who were born in south Florida HATE it. Maybe I'm being biased lol!

 

[LightSpeed]

You're into this for a whole entire month!


Try to shoot something everyday for the next 6 weeks.
And when you shoot, shoot a lot. Get to know your camera.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Sounds like you're wasting more energy whining about what you can't do, than actually doing what you can. You need to learn to see the world differently. That starts with what is within 10 feet of you. If you can't produce 10 interesting images of what is within ten feet of you right now, traveling to a "pretty place" will be wasted on you anyways.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Again, people who were born in south Florida HATE it. Maybe I'm being biased lol!

No, you are just whining, and lack creative thinking.

 

[blackrose89]

You're into this for a whole entire month!Try to shoot something everyday for the next 6 weeks.And when you shoot, shoot a lot. Get to know your camera.

Shooting feels somewhat pointless until I get my camera seeing as I found out my compact is faulty and unable to focus. It's not like I'll be able to actually get any good shots. Maybe just work composition for the time being. My iPhone focuses pretty well could work for the for the time being lol!

 

[paulanton]

Oh Blackrose, yee of little faith. Every once in awhile I get down to your area on business, unfortunately I don't have time to go out and explore much. But i have seen some beautiful things I wish I could have stopped and captured. Like sunset over the everglades, or one of those bigass herons looking for breakfast on the edge of the water in the morning mists. I think you need to try and step back and look at things thru new eyes, try to imagine angles and different lighting. Step out of your routine, get up at 4 in the morning and have your camera set up, ready and waiting for the right light to catch those moored sailboats in the bay just before the sun breaks the horizon.

You probably look right past things that people from other places think of as amazing. You see them everyday and think nothing of them. Try looking at your suroounding like it's the first time you've seen them and I'll bet you start seeing things that you want to take pictures of. When you look at something don't just glance over it, take a minet or two and really look, the details, the positioning, how it relates to things around it. If it's interesting try to capture what interests you, if not, move on. It takes practice to look at things that way. but it is rewarding when you start seeing things that nobody else notices.

 

[blackrose89]

Again, people who were born in south Florida HATE it. Maybe I'm being biased lol!

No, you are just whining, and lack creative thinking.

Its not about not being able to get nice photos, ive got quite of few photos I am fond of. it's about wanting the experience in these other places.

 

[Rephargotohp]

Sounds like you're wasting more energy whining about what you can't do, than actually doing what you can. You need to learn to see the world differently. That starts with what is within 10 feet of you. If you can't produce 10 interesting images of what is within ten feet of you right now, traveling to a "pretty place" will be wasted on you anyways.

Great now I have photos of:

a Hooker
A Cigar
A jar of Jiff
My Old Fuzzy slippers
Two Photoshop User Magazines
5 Quarters
Lint uinder My couch
Marshmellow Fluff ( goes with the Jiff)
Tone nail clippings
And Mount Rushmore

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Excuses, excuses.
Pictorial Photography in America 1920

Pictorial Photography in America 1921

Pictorial Photography in America 1922

 

[blackrose89]

Excuses, excuses. Pictorial Photography in America 1920Pictorial Photography in America 1921

How is itAn excuse? I never said once I CAN'T get nice photos. I've never ONCE said my photos are lacking. In order to make an excuse there would have to be something i am making an An excuse for in order for said excuse to happen, which has not happened. A desire is not an excuse.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Excuses, excuses. Pictorial Photography in America 1920Pictorial Photography in America 1921

How is itAn excuse? I never said once I CAN'T get nice photos. I've never ONCE said my photos are lacking. In order to make an excuse there would have to be something i am making an An excuse for in order for said excuse to happen, which has not happened. A desire is not an excuse.

This is your excuse:

]Shooting feels somewhat pointless until I get my camera seeing as I found out my compact is faulty and unable to focus. It's not like I'll be able to actually get any good shots.

To which I responded:

Excuses, excuses.
Pictorial Photography in America 1920

Pictorial Photography in America 1921

Pictorial Photography in America 1922

 

[pgriz]

Our human brain tends to skip over stuff we know and we are familiar with. So we see... nothing, because it is all familiar. Part of learning to "see" again, is to force away our familiarity and then we can actually "see". Look at anything around you that is familiar. Now forget you know what it is. Describe it without using any of the usual words you would use to describe it. Describe it to a visitor from Omega Prime that has no clue what the object is and what it is used for. Describe it in terms of shape, weight, opacity or translucency. Is it a conductor or insulator? Can you make music with it? What is "it" related to? Is there a story that can be told? BJ has used the exercise of photographing ten things within ten feet to force himself (and us) out of our usual visual shorthand.

I have a friend who escapes the winter in Montreal by going to South Florida every year. He comes up with amazing images all the time and leaves those of us stuck in the north feeling envious. Every bug, lizard, bird and plant seem to blossom in front of his camera. I ask him what exotic location he was in - and he shot most of his stuff in either the front yard or close to it. Discard what you know. See everything again for the first time.