Last week, I posted about the power of sharing your work and about magazines and sites where you can get information or browse through interesting work by others.
What I just found out to be a great way of actually finding out what moves you photographically, is browsing through portfolios on 500px or in the brand new yet superb Wild Eye gallery and to add pictures that really move you to your favorites. And now it comes: your favorites end up together in one folder so that by taking a look at that folder, you will find out straight away what kind of pictures move you: thight shots, wide shots, saturated shots, close-ups, B&W shots, …
You can then use this infromation in at least 2 ways. You might actually find out that you are stuck in a rut, since you are always shooting what actually moves you, in which case it could be a great exercise to get out of your comfort zone, to go out there and do the opposite. Or as in my case you can actually find out that the type of picture you like is actually quite absent in your own portoflio. My favorites have a high amount of animal silhouettes against a rising or setting sun, while I actually have very few or none of those, giving me a great assignment, since I’ll be going out to look for them.
Talking about favorites, check out this one from Sietske, she hasn’t been writing till now, nevertheless, I decided to start posting some of her work, this one is from a fantastic sighting in Nairobi National Parc earlier this year. Myself, I had a lot of similar pictures, yet none could beat this one, enjoy!
Canon 450D, Canon 300mm f/4 L IS USM, 1/125, f/11, ISO 200
That’s it for now. With one last request, there’s a few questions on the Pics from the Wild facebook page I would love to get your view on. Check them out here, looking forward to hear from you.
In my previous post, I shared some words of thanks and talked about the importance to interact with others to up your game. And that brings me to the point of information: there is so much information out there, and so many places to look for it. Luckily, living in Kenya, my choice in terms of magazines is made a bit easier, yet the web is full of information. And to prevent ending up behind the computer all day, you have to focus and go for a few links that inspire you and follow them.
Here’s what works for me. First of all, there are 2 magazines I can get on a regular basis here in Nairobi (and say what you want, reading on paper remains more pleasant than staring at a screen): Outdoor Photographer and BBC wildlife magazine. The first one didn’t impress me at first, too many adverts, … yet as I went along, I started reading it with more and more interest. Each edition focuses on a specific type of photography: macro, B&W, … great stuff. The wildlife magazine is no photography magazine in se, yet has great pictures, a nice monthly competition and a monthly photography masterclass article (which can also be found as pdf files in the photography section of their site, along with tips and galleries).
Both magazines run assignments and contests through their sites, competitions around a certain topic, and I find these great for inspiration, competitions like: yellow, spot of color, golden hour, abstracts, … simply make you go out there with a different viewpoint, they help you seeing images everywhere. To me it also works to browse through the entries, looking at the thumbs, checking out which ones draw your attention and then asking yourself why they do so?
Canon 350D, Canon 75-300 @ 75 mm, 1/500, f/13, ISO 200
Finally, I would also want to share the Veolia Environment Photographer of the Year site, it has some great and inspiring shots and to me it also shows that although some of the shots have obviously taken a lot of preparation, your shots don’t necessarily have to be rocket science to be a winning shot. Often, keeping it simple also works really well. You can find the winning shots in their online gallery, great stuff. One of the pictures that struck me especially is the On the Track picture that got highly commended in the Urban wildlife category.
All this being said, nothing beats picking up your camera and going out there, either alone, or in the company of others and then discussing your pictures with others (face to face) and sharing your work online. It is by doing so that you get feedback, that you start understanding what kind of emotions your pictures communicate to others (or not). Going out of your comfort zone often goes a long way in making you understand what works and what doesn’t, which of your images move others and which don’t (and the funny thing is that at this point of my photographic journey, this is often quite different from what I think myself). A good example of this is the rhino in the picture above, myself, I always found the more tight shot which I published before the most interesting one of the shoot, yet in general the wider shot inserted into this post gets way more reaction, which is good to know.
Keeping up with this blog really works for me, it keeps me on the edge, simply because I am creating something, with the journey being more important than the destination, wherever or whatever that may be. Besides that I, also started sharing through Facebook, Twitter and 500px.
If you have some time, go and have a look, and feel free to like the facebook page and some of the pictures on 500px. Let me know what you think and feel free to share with others whom might also like it.
