I need an inspiration - what do you shoot when you are not in an interesting location

MeddlinG

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Hey,

I would like to ask you - what do you shoot if your only possibility is to go for a like 10 min walk but you want to shoot anyway? Did you take some interesting shots this way? How did it go? Today I went for a looong walk, came home, imported all of my pictures and was kind of disgusted - today I realized how bad of a photographer I am. Not that it would discourage me - not at all, I am a DSLR beginner who is trying to learn the hard way - 35mm prime lens + full manual mode. But from the like 150 pictures I imported I deleted exactly 142 - they were either extremely boring or really bad technically - or both. But even those I kept are nothing too much, the best stuff I got from today's photoshoot are pictures like

All sizes | 130725_d7000_prochazka_k_vltave (5 of 8) | Flickr - Photo Sharing! this

or

All sizes | 130725_d7000_prochazka_k_vltave (7 of 8) | Flickr - Photo Sharing! this

As far as I understand I am bad (which is good, because being bad is the first step to being good and realizing it is the second one), I can't really imagine how to take exciting shots from my location. But there are some. So I'd like to know how do you find exciting shots in your "boring" location.
 
Read about abstract photography. Try to isolate textures, lines, shapes, contrasts, or some other simple element. That bridge is full of possibilities :) I like to look for the most basic of compositional elements, and make abstract images.


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I struggle with the same thing. I've been thinking about it recently and I'm thinking that there are three things (apart from the technical stuff) that really make a photo: Light, context and perspective. We can use both technical and compositional skills to get there, but the photos I really like contain all three elements.

You could try a challenge, like in the technical challenges section or just shoot your own eg, only photograph round things, blue things or whatever.
 
I go on daily walkabouts and errands and always with my camera.
And always have images to post to flickr my daily outlet.
And always see something I never seen before even tho have walked by that location a hundred times.
Start looking Slow down look down look up and start isolating subjects.

I never go out with expectations of what to shoot.
I let the world present situations if I just see them.
.
 
I go on daily walkabouts and errands and always with my camera.
And always have images to post to flickr my daily outlet.
And always see something I never seen before even tho have walked by that location a hundred times.
Start looking Slow down look down look up and start isolating subjects.

I never go out with expectations of what to shoot.
I let the world present situations if I just see them.
.


This is a lot like the philosophy of one of the world's best photographers, Jay Maisel. He does pretty much all of those things (except the posting to Flickr part...).

I have long thought that orb9220 has a pretty good eye.
 
That's way too many photos at one stretch (even a long stretch!). Take time to see what you're looking at.

Maybe don't try too hard and spend time noticing things more, or just spend some time looking thru your viewfinder thinking about the framing and composition etc. without necessarily even releasing the shutter every time.
 
Try this exercise: Look for images, but don't take your camera with you. (at least for 5 or 10 minutes......)

Sometimes, you see much more if you're not encumbered and you spend more time looking. Otherwise, you'll 'see' an image and immediately want to use your camera. By not having it with you, you'll spend more time looking. Once you've looked a while, you'll go get your camera and then you can concentrate on taking what you saw.
 
When ever I'm out with the camera walking (Im surrounded by the DC area and beautiful parks) I always just enjoy the scenery first then I go into my "photo" mode. As someone who does a lot of photography and a lot of street photography for fun I tend to see life in frames or squares. As I'm walking down the street I'm not seeing the guy riding a red bike I'm seeing "once this subject gets between theses two trees with the sun rays shining through thats going to be a nice image to capture." Whether I actually take the picture is another thing but that's just how I think a lot of the time. There is always a photo that can be captured
 
I am very much a noob with photography as a whole only had a dSLR since March this year. I walk the same area very often and every time I come back with new pictures, I average around 60 per trip on this route at least 5 will get moved to my "best photo section" that will be shared with friends and family, the rest will be kept for memories. 5 Dont sound very many that is mainly due to the fact of my noobiness with under or overexposed or something else i dont wrong in settings. Since having a dSLR I rarely go out on this walk without it I decided before leaving what lens ill take. If I dont take dSLR ill use camera phone and just shoot anything that jumps out to me. If I happen to go with nothing and see something interesting ill use my hands and take a mental image of it.
I always go out to most other locations planning to get some birds, animals or sunset scenes but I rarely succeed getting them. But never do I worry about it I shoot anything and everything the world is so very interesting there is something there to shoot for everybody.
Just think less and enjoy that relaxing walk and let the images come to you.
Maybe ignore the manual mode while walking and use A mode or P mode on Nikon, you can look back over the settings after the walk and learn from them, then you have less time to worry about settings and more time to enjoy yourself, manual will come with time .
 
There is no such thing as an uninteresting location only uninterested people.
 
I struggle with the same thing. I've been thinking about it recently and I'm thinking that there are three things (apart from the technical stuff) that really make a photo: Light, context and perspective. We can use both technical and compositional skills to get there, but the photos I really like contain all three elements.

You could try a challenge, like in the technical challenges section or just shoot your own eg, only photograph round things, blue things or whatever.

add mood to the list
 
Guys and gals...you can't produce a masterpiece every time you shoot. OK, the pix in the OP are boring. But they are still nice shots.

Did you try them as BW? If nothing else experiment with your stuff until your sure it is nothing to save.
 
I am very much a noob with photography as a whole only had a dSLR since March this year. I walk the same area very often and every time I come back with new pictures, I average around 60 per trip on this route at least 5 will get moved to my "best photo section" that will be shared with friends and family, the rest will be kept for memories. 5 Dont sound very many that is mainly due to the fact of my noobiness with under or overexposed or something else i dont wrong in settings. Since having a dSLR I rarely go out on this walk without it I decided before leaving what lens ill take. If I dont take dSLR ill use camera phone and just shoot anything that jumps out to me. If I happen to go with nothing and see something interesting ill use my hands and take a mental image of it.
I always go out to most other locations planning to get some birds, animals or sunset scenes but I rarely succeed getting them. But never do I worry about it I shoot anything and everything the world is so very interesting there is something there to shoot for everybody.
Just think less and enjoy that relaxing walk and let the images come to you.
Maybe ignore the manual mode while walking and use A mode or P mode on Nikon, you can look back over the settings after the walk and learn from them, then you have less time to worry about settings and more time to enjoy yourself, manual will come with time .


Under or over don't matter. Use LR to fix em or HDR em. Just keep blasting away.
 
I don't think salvaging images by trying all sorts of editing procedures will help the OP. The point is getting interesting compositions, that is the most important step. Post processing comes later.
 

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