Three ways to shoot more interesting photos.....

[leslie_cheung]

<p>___________ (fill in the blanks, gals/guys)</p>

<p>1. Close your eyes and imagine as if you were six<br>

2. Go to a foreign land alone for a month<br>

3. Take the city bus or ride the train instead of driving yourself</p>

<p>Come on, let's play...pretty please?:) </p>

<p><a href="http://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/2012/01/how-to-shoot-far-more-interesting.html"></a> </p>

[MichaelChang]

<p>1. Pretend you're 16 years old. <br>

2. Shoot (blind) without using the viewfinder or LCD to compose.<br>

3. Shoot a session from your pet's point of view, minimum 50 shots. </p>

[hjoseph7]

<p>4) A tall glass of Chardonnay can stimulate your imagination(just make sure you have AF). </p>

[gordonjb]

<p>1. Any time something catches your eye and you think it might be interesting to photograph, turn around and find something more interesting that you overlooked en-route to the obvious.</p>

<p>2. Self imposed restrictions. If you usually machine gun a scene with a large number of frames then restrict your frame count for a given shoot to only a few frames. Conversely if you usually take a few frames and then move on, spend more time shooting a subject and exploring the options. Only shoot mailboxes today or only shoot at 1/4 sec. etc.</p>

<p>3. Go to the TRP page, look carefully through the first few pages of images. Consider that to be an exercise in how not to take an interesting image. Being contrary is often under appreciated.</p>

[steve_t.1]

<p>1- Lock yourself in your bathroom and don't come out until you've made 20 creative photos of the bathroom interior (no photos that include yourself).<br>

2- Get out of bed one hour earlier than normal and go somewhere nearby to capture the world before it wakes up.<br>

3- Spend the day with your most under-utilized lens, become more flexible to your perceived limitations of it.</p>

[krisheylen]

<p>4- Go on a walk and force yourself to take a picture every 30 (or whatever number) steps you take.</p>

[Palouse]

<ol>

<li>Walk the same route for a week (+/-) but each day use just one lens, changing every day.</li>

<li>Pick a theme for a day.</li>

<li>Visit an art museum.</li>

</ol>

[stephen_hipperson]

<ol>

<li>Don't look at others' pictures</li>

<li>Take your picture, print it out, delete the digital file.</li>

<li>Get a (more interesting) life.</li>

</ol>

[ed_v.]

<p>1. Mount a prime lens.<br>

2. Switch it to MF.<br>

3. Turn mode dial to M.<br>

4. Believe that I ever do this...</p>

[AlRohrer]

<p>Slow down, get closer, think about your subject, try different compositions, take <em>three</em> totally different shots, but <strong>do not </strong>press the shutter button until you know what you want!<br>

This is my new years resolution.</p>

[sarah_fox]

<p>(1) Consider the one thing about which you are most passionate, and then think of ways to photograph it. This seems obvious, but hardly anybody actually does it.</p>

<p>(2) When photographing something that everyone else has photographed, don't press the shutter until you've figured out how to do it differently. (For instance, not the usual telephoto shot from this scenic overlook...)</p>

<p><img src="http://www.graphic-fusion.com/phsedonacedarsm.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p>(3) (Related to #2) When everyone else's lenses are trained in one direction, see what you can find of interest in the other direction. (Yosemite's Half Dome, illuminated with a somewhat poor sunset, is in the other direction.)<br /> <img src="http://www.graphic-fusion.com/phtenayalakesm.jpg" alt="" /> F</p>

[Sanford]

<p>1-EDIT<br>

2-EDIT<br>

3-EDIT</p>

[stp]

<p>1. Mentally enter a prestigious photo competition where every photograph you take will be on display and viewed by hundreds of thousands of people, and then make your photographs.</p>

<p>2. Enter a photo festival, but use only a disposable camera for all of your pictures.</p>

<p>3. If you do landscape photography, just sit in that landscape for an hour doing nothing but sensing the landscape before you take your first photograph.</p>

[David_Cavan]

<p>First of all, Sarah, on your first photo, I have that same composition from exactly the same place, under slightly different light. I did a double-take when I saw your posting!</p>

<p>My three things, which are also on my 2012 resolution list:<br /> 1. Carry the camera as much as possible - one of my best 2011 photos was because I had the camera in the trunk of the car, on the way to work, and opportunity met preparation.<br /> 2. Get away by yourself, slow down, and take the photo you want as opposed to rushing to meet someone else's schedule.<br /> 3. Watch people more - this is a tough one for me because I'm shy about the camera.</p>

[lauren_macintosh]

<p>Make a note tell someone how much you like their work.<br>

when you critique a photo tell the truth in a way that I like it because ______ than just I like it:</p>

<p>If you see something that every body else has photographed, see if you can make it better or<br>

different</p>

<p> </p>

[steve m smith]

<p>1. Make sure there's something interesting in front of your camera before you press the shutter.</p>

[Lou_Meluso]

<p>1. Get out there! Half of good photography is simply showing up (with a camera of course). There are darn few photo ops on the couch, or in front of the television.</p>

<p>2. Understand the camera is the least important element in the process. See first, then bring the camera to your eye. When the word "wow" forms on your lips, make the exposure. Trust your feelings.</p>

<p>3. Look beyond the "thing" of the subject. Define and compose with it's essential forms and shapes. It's that graphic underpinning that will give your images strength.</p>

[Ian Taylor]

<p>Stop spending so much time online. </p>

[rapyke]

<p>1. Mount one lens and shoot with only that lens for a week.<br>

2. Turn off the auto focus and/or tape the zoom into a fixed position.<br>

3. Go somewhere new - Half a world away or the side of town you never visit.</p>

<p>I might also add:<br>

Set out to take ONLY cliche images... a cute cat, flower with much bokeh, etc. All the more interesting shots will jump right out at you when you are forced to take only cliche/done-to-death pictures...</p>

[leslie_cheung]

<p>Personal likes thus far:</p>

<blockquote>

<p>2. Shoot (blind) without using the viewfinder or LCD to compose.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Every digicam comes also as a free lomo:)</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Go on a walk and force yourself to take a picture every 30 (or whatever number) steps you take.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Good, easy doable by anyone.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>1-EDIT</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Edit is damn important but you can't edit out good ones if you don't have any *interesting pics* to begin with.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Watch people more - this is a tough one for me because I'm shy about the camera.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Yep, not enough people do it. And it's nice if you have a camera with ya.</p>

<blockquote>

<p> Look beyond the "thing" of the subject. Define and compose with it's essential forms and shapes. It's that graphic underpinning that will give your images strength.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>+1</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Stop spending so much time online.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Yeah, Ian. But Flickr, Facebook and even a personal blog is okay? Hmm...</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Get a (more interesting) life.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>+1 and look <a href="http://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/2012/01/how-to-shoot-far-more-interesting.html">here</a> for more ideas to how...</p>

[phil_cuddy]

<p>look around with only one eye open, this is how your camera see's the world...</p>

<p>this often sublty changes what things look like, often something can appear great in 3d, but close one eye and the interest is gone. of course the opposite is also true, somethings just look great in 2d</p>

[dan_south]

I thought of two ways to answer.

 

1. Determine WHY your photos are not "more interesting". Seek the advice of others, if necessary.

 

2. Develop a plan to address the root causes of the identified problems.

 

3. Work consistently on the plan and continue to evaluate the results until you are pleased with your progress.

 

 

But if you just want general advice...

 

1. Take photos of things that you find personally interesting or in places where you enjoy spending time. Your own sense

of interest might come through.

 

2. Take photos of people while they are actually DOING something:: tossing pizza dough, playing softball, changing a

light bulb, loading film into a camera, cleaning a toilet, anything.

 

3. Take photos that compare and contrast two things, such as a big dog and a little dog playing, a small church at the

base of a large building, and old car parked beside a new one, a slender person and a large person, a short man and his

tall wife, etc.

[Brad_]

>>> Three ways to shoot more interesting photos

 

I recently saw a photo of a guy with a sprung mousetrap on his tongue. Thinking of giving that a try...

[Spearhead]

<blockquote>

<p>I recently saw a photo of a guy with a sprung mousetrap on his tongue. </p>

</blockquote>

<p>What a coincidence! I happen to have one of those:</p>

<p><center><img src="http://spirer.com/edwardian2012/content/images/large/_57P4885.jpg" alt="" width="792" height="594" /><br>

<em>Ian and the Mousetrap</em></center></p>

[Spearhead]

<blockquote>

<p>(1) Consider the one thing about which you are most passionate, and then think of ways to photograph it. This seems obvious, but hardly anybody actually does it.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Most of the photographers I know do this. I certainly do:</p>

<p><center><img src="http://spirer.com/images/wormeater.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="525" /><br>

<em>Woman in a Bikini Eating a Live Worm</em></center></p>