My greatest photography challenge

A few years ago, I had a photographer say to me that anyone can take a good photograph of a flower. His thought was that a flower, in and of itself, was beautiful and therefore, it was impossible to take a bad photograph of a beautiful subject. At the time, I really didn’t believe this but I didn’t debate him about the topic. Over the years, I have seen terrible photographs of flowers. I’ve seen horrible photographs of beautiful or handsome people. I have seen fantastic photographs of subjects that were less than beautiful or handsome. On top of that, modern equipment and software, especially with “built-in” filters and presets, it is easier to create “artistic” styles, but does that mean the result is beautiful?

I love modern gear. I love modern software and filters, presets, and such. I have nothing against altering reality. I have nothing against attempting to copy reality, although that is often not my style. Those things don’t pose a challenge to me.

My greatest photographic challenge is not a genre. It is not a location or session. My greatest photographic challenge is not software or editing. My greatest photographic challenge is not a time of day, weather, or season of the year. My greatest photographic challenge is me. I pose the greatest photographic challenge to myself. How? I pose the greatest photographic challenge by my not clearing my mind of preconceived notions and ideas. Often I find I have already decided in my mind what I want to do at a session before I even arrive at the location. I don’t think it is bad to have concepts in mind but do not open your mind to what is possible once you arrive at the location is a horrible mistake. Even if I have been to a location hundreds of times, I haven’t been there today. The weather may be different, the sky may be different, and I may be different. Over the next steps of my photographic journey, one of my goals is to open my mind and eyes to what is possible and work to not miss an opportunity that may never present itself again. Likewise, I challenge you all, don’t get locked into a style, genre, or preconceptions of what you want to photograph and how. Open your mind to the possibility of something you didn’t think about. Look at subjects and the environment in ways you haven’t thought about before.