Tip #15: Take A Risk

Poisonous Automeris (I think) Moth Larvae - Selva Verde, Costa Rica
Canon 5D Mark II + 180 f3.5L @ f3.5 in the Rain

Repetition makes the moment of image capture automatic. The tools we use to produce art should never impede the process, but instead enhance the opportunity. Yet, the very practice that facilitates mastery can also stifle vision. Let’s call this apparent contradiction “the photographic rut.” 

Yellowstone at Sunrise - Color Tweak in Aperture 3.1
Canon 5D Mark II + 17-40L

Rut - A fixed mode and course of life that is dull and uncompromising. Alternatively, a technique for producing boring and uninspired images.

Wedding Theme - Malibu California
Canon 30D + 17-85mm IS

While there is no one recipe for busting established paradigms or enriching a dogmatic pratice, consider the following ideas when you try to break free from those self-imposed shackles of mundanity.

• Use your least favorite and most uninspiring optic (lens) for a week. Leave the other gear home and force a new type of vision.
• Pump up your iso to enhance the noise in your images. Noise is reminiscent of grain and it adds texture to an otherwise flat image.
• Suffer through inclement weather. Shoot the atmospherics, the wind, and the precipitation.
• Go for long exposures. Purposefully allow your subject and background to become a  blur.
• Change your genre. If you are a nature photographer, try photographing a wedding or people on the street. Bring your skill-set to a new subject.

Tip #15: Take a Risk

Twilight Fowl - Rieks Lake, WI
Nikon D100 + 300mm f2.8 ED-AFS w/ 1.4x TCE Converter

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