Life as Seen from a Bench? - photo suggestions wanted

PhotoTurtle · Oct 18, 2014

It is almost mid terms and we are supposed to start thinking about what we want to do for our final projects as this will be individual choices.

I've noticed there are benches all over town - bus stop benches, park benches, benches that seem to have no purpose just sitting out on a sidewalk where there are no buses or parks, just businesses.

Anyway, I am playing with the idea of making my theme "life as seen from a bench" and going around to different benches at different times of the day, on different days and just take pictures of people and things that are out and about.

Has anyone done that? Do you have some suggestions on how to make this a really good project or should I scrap it and think of something else?

If you have any photos taken from a bench, please feel free to share.

dennybeall · Oct 18, 2014

"as seen from a bench" would just be pictures taken from waist high. Perhaps "of a bench"? Lots of things are "a bench", like park bench and judges bench and a certain spot on a cliff and ?????

KmH · Oct 18, 2014

Benches at the County Court House

Dagwood56 · Oct 18, 2014

Life as seen from a bench... the idea I have would be to take photos from right behind each bench so that the bench could be seen, but so could what a person would see from that bench - such as a park fountain, a flock of pigeons feeding on the sidewalk, a statue etc.

PhotoTurtle · Oct 18, 2014

That's a good idea Dagwood. I will play with that idea.

Village Idiot · Oct 19, 2014

Light the bench on fire. Fire makes everything better.

I told a HS girl at my girlfriend's church to do the same for her photography project and she it was awesome. I told her: "I know."

itsaphillipsthing · Oct 19, 2014

I agree with Dagwood... if you could get behind the bench and get it in your shot (maybe just barely) so that you could see the bench itself, but more importantly, what would be seen from a person's POV while they were sitting there... Could get interesting!

BillM · Oct 19, 2014

Love the idea, so much so that I might skip yard work and go take some bench shots myself lol

PhotoTurtle · Oct 22, 2014

In class yesterday when my teacher was reviewing some of my most recent photos he asked about some of my street photos and how I got those shots. I told him that I found a bench that didn't really seem to belong there, sat down for half an hour and just took pictures of the people and so forth that were around at the time.

Without my even asking about doing a project he said "That sounds like a good project - find benches that don't make a lot of sense where they are and take a photo of the bench and what's around that bench if a person were to sit there for a half hour or so."

So I am definitely going to do a bench project for my final assignment with the class.

sm4him · Oct 22, 2014

BillM said:
Love the idea, so much so that I might skip yard work and go take some bench shots myself lol

But to be fair, how good does something really have to sound to make one want to skip yard work to go do that instead?

BillM · Oct 22, 2014

Well considering the majority of my yard work is done with a pooper scooper it doesn't take much for me to want to skip it lol

BillM · Oct 22, 2014

Good luck with the project, looking forward to seeing the results :icon_thumleft:

Derrel · Oct 22, 2014

PhotoTurtle said:
In class yesterday when my teacher was reviewing some of my most recent photos he asked about some of my street photos and how I got those shots. I told him that I found a bench that didn't really seem to belong there, sat down for half an hour and just took pictures of the people and so forth that were around at the time.

Without my even asking about doing a project he said "That sounds like a good project - find benches that don't make a lot of sense where they are and take a photo of the bench and what's around that bench if a person were to sit there for a half hour or so."

So I am definitely going to do a bench project for my final assignment with the class.

Well, why not! I mean it's "a concept". It has defined parameters. It sets the stage. It will bring at least some continuity to the shots you take. It is at least a framework to work within, and I think that alone will help the photos made to have at least some common thread running through them.