The second post of my ‘Frustrations of the Blogger Photographer’ series. To check out Number 1 click HERE
Photo a day regimes
When I say one photo a day regime I’m sure that most of you will know what I refer to. It is where you take and post one photo a day for an entire year or longer.
The issue I have with these, is the lack of creativity involved in most of the photos people take. It is possibly the single biggest killer of the term “photographer”. However, I understand how hard it is to produce one very nice photo every day when you have a full time job and maybe a family to look after and focus on. It is indeed very hard to do this even when you have the whole day free.
Those points aside, I think very few people come out of their 365 days a better photographer than when they went in, they possibly came out worse, or have totally removed their interest in photography. These types of tasks are very repetitive experiences, and they are impossible to achieve on a day to day basis if you do not go further afield and explore brand new areas.
Maybe the point of them is to get people out into the open world, to spend more time each day outside and looking at things in a different light. So what I propose is instead of filling up the internet with one bad shot every day (which you possibly rushed in at the end when you realised you were running out of time) take one day at the weekend, travel somewhere slightly further afield than your usual route to work or school and make a day of it, go alone or with one other companion, have a nice long walk through an area you have never visited before and take photos. Take the time to produce a few well considered photographs that you can touch up a little on the computer when you get home. By doing this, not only have you had a great day out, the chances are you have learnt a lot more about photography and your camera, knowledge that you can make use of on your next trip in one or two weeks to a new location.
By doing this you are building up your own knowledge of the areas around you & your camera, increasing your photographic skill & your eye for photos. Plus, as a bonus, you are helping to reduce the flood of bad to average photography that is sweeping the internet.
Tom Barden
