I don’t know about you, but sometimes I simply run out of ideas on what to shoot.
When you start loosing creativity, its a good idea to create some rules and guidelines for yourself with a simple photography challenge.
When you have a set of rules, it narrows the possibilities and helps focus your creativity in a narrow way. Let me give you a personal example.
Make it a game
I had been hanging out with a friend in downtown San Diego and was walking back home at night.
This was a backlit wall at a Chipotle restaurant I walked by, I saw the pattern and walked into the store to photograph it. I really liked it and this is what kicked off the idea to photograph some patterns on the way home.
I was kind of bored, so I decided to make a little game for myself and keep myself entertained.
This was a shot of the columns outside the courthouse.
My wife was at home waiting for me, so I decided on the walk home I would text her black and white minimalistic pattern photos and see if she could tell where I was during my walk home.
It was a quick 1 mile walk back near places we always walk by so there was plenty of different patterns to shoot!
This was an interesting wall I saw while walking through a Weston Hotel
I didn’t have any photo gear with me, I was just using my iPhone to take the photos.
Rules made it simple
With my own self-implied rules and limitations of shooting minimalistic patterns, I suddenly had a ton of creativity! Instead of wondering what to photograph, I started seeing patterns in almost everything!
This is a mirrored ceiling at the Weston Hotel I walked by – the whole hotel has a triangle theme to their design. It kind of reminded me of a Star Wars-style image, like I was looking out of a ship while hitting warp speed!
As I was walking back it forced me to analyze small patterns in things I walk by every day to try and stump my wife while she was guessing the route I took.
Even something as simple as where three different materials connect seemed interesting to me:
In the photo below, I was walking by a parking garage and used the iron gate to intersect the interesting choice of tile flooring to make even more shapes.
I had to try my best while handholding my phone to keep all the lines as straight and clean as possible. Shooting this textured ‘button’ concrete outside of a building required me to hold out the camera perfectly level since I was shooting at the ground.
I love the look of diamond-plate metal and used it as I walked by the cover of a drainage ditch cover.
Even the texture in different buildings walls were good uses of minimalistic lines I could use to my advantage.
I really liked the way these shadows were laying over the concrete squares and had to get my shoes in there!
This was a really cool mural on a building I passed that happens to be about 30 feet tall!
Now I’m getting into our building and shot this photo of one of the mailbox areas – keeping my squares as true as possible which required getting low and shooting them straight on.
At this point I was almost home and knew my wife would know the buttons to the elevator…
Finally, I’m standing at the steps near our door – I’m still keeping the lines as straight and true as possible and included my shoes to be ‘in’ the photo.
Overall it was really a fun way to pass the time on the walk back and my wife pretty much knew where I was progressing as I was walking back from her guesses.
Now its your turn
The next time you go out with your camera make sure to decide on a theme to shoot while you are out – no matter how simple. The goal here isn’t to create award-winning photos, its to get you in the frame of mind to capture themes.
Anytime you start incorporating themes into your images you will come out with much better photos. Just like if there is a congruent theme throughout a music album, the theme in your photos will pull all your images together.
Here are a few themes to start with:
- Colors as themes (shoot only ‘blue’, ‘red’, ‘green’, etc. on each shoot)
- Shapes
- Minimalism
As you get more comfortable with the idea of this, start branching out into more conceptual themes. Here are a few more examples of these:
- Progress
- Life
- Growth
- Darkness
- Man made
- Challenge
- Ease
- Happiness
Let me know what you think and share your themes!
If you like this idea, make sure to share some of your photos and the theme you were going with in the Hacking Photography Facebook Forum Group.
If you aren’t a member yet simply request admission and I’ll approve you so you can post your images.
In case you aren’t a member yet, I created the Facebook Forum for subscribers as a place to learn from fellow photographers as well as help others who need help. Feel free to ask any questions, share tips, and more there.
I love this, Mike! Thanks for the challenge and ideas! I’ve become a bit boring with my photography, so this will be fun!
I think you should put your coloring books away and shave. I did that stuff when I got my Brownie before your dad was born :))
H Mike, this looks all very interesting, a whole new dimension in photography as I am always telling our club members think outside the box. So you certainly have thought outside the box or set of rules that we sometimes get stuck in a rut and do not experiment. So thank you for sharing these ideas with us, as we all need to try something new to keep our minds active with what to experiment with next. regards Douglas
Brilliant!
Thanks Doug, I had a lot of fun with it!
hahah, I stopped shaving when I quit my job and don’t intend to shave anytime soon :)
I’m glad to hear that will help TK!
Thanks Larry!
Great ideas Mike. I love your photos. So creative. Other ideas- shoot your garden or other people’s gardens at different times of the year and different times of the day. Nothing is ever the same from one day to the next. Also shooting different people in different locations. I love just driving or walking somewhere new and trying it out as a portrait location. So much fun.
Great article Mike. I think I need to set myself a theme!