Admittedly, I like my comfortable places. My big squishy chair in the corner of my living room beckons me every night when I arrive home. I curl up in my chair, wrapped in a blanket to contemplate the day's events. Whenever I've had a rough day, it is to my chair I go to relax and refresh. And then there are days I sit in my chair and never want to get up.
Photography can be kinda like that.
We all have our comfort zones in photography, the styles and subjects we work with well and could photograph blindfolded. (Not really recommended unless you want to break into art images.)
For me, it's flowers. I can "fall" into the details of a flower with my camera and let its petals wrap around me like that blanket in my chair. Flowers are my go-to subject when I don't know what else to photograph or how to treat a scene. Or when I'm just being lazy.
On the flip side, we all have those styles and subjects we feel entirely uncomfortable with. We stress over the idea of photographing in these situations and find our "niche" so as to avoid them. It's so easy to say, "Thank you for the compliment, but I'm really a nature photographer. Here let me give you the name of a friend of mine who is really good at family portraits. I think you'll be very happy with her."
But if we always take the easy road, will we ever grow as photographers?
It was with this thought in mind when a friend mentioned she should have me come over to photograph her grand-daughter. I said, "I'd love to." And then I gulped. I had only photographed one other baby. What do I do?
What if I mess up? What if I just can't get the baby to behave? What if she doesn't like the images? What if I drop the camera . . . on the baby? What if, what if, what if.
What if I stop fretting, do some research and show up at the session with a smile on my face? Aren't those better questions to ask? So I did and kept reminding myself that it will be ok. No matter what, it'll be ok.
In the end, I'd like to say everything turned out wonderfully, but the light was a little off (luckily I knew how to deal with that) and the baby fretted and fussed (mom and dad knew what to do there). At one point we put the blanket over mom and had her cradle the baby - something I thought of from some very creepy images I had seen in my internet travels.
Even though the photo session wasn't perfect, it was fun. We all had a good attitude and enjoyed the afternoon. Oh, and grandma loved the pictures.
Is it time to become uncomfortable in your photography?
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