Everyday Photography

I think the best photos are the ones to photograph of everyday life.


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Don’t get suckered by the exotic

Red dot on head of suit. London tube, 2014
Red dot on head of suit. London tube, 2014

The mistake: we think we can only make good photos while we’re traveling or abroad.

In reality: the best photos are the photos of our everyday life.

Fantasy

Flash photo of silverware. Prague restaurant, 2017
Flash photo of silverware. Prague restaurant, 2017

Why fantasy is the enemy of happiness

I think a lot of us see photography as escapism. We are dissatisfied with our everyday lives, and we hope that we can travel with our camera, and see the world, and find some everlasting joy.

But — what if, we could use a camera as a tool to appreciate our everyday lives?

What if we realized that our life (that we currently have) is already the best life possible?

Everyday photography

RICOH GR II selfie in mirror, double eye surreal. Prague, 2017
RICOH GR II selfie in mirror, double eye surreal. Prague, 2017

If you make photos of your everyday life, you are telling yourself:

I already have the best life possible, and I am going to photograph my everyday life– the small things which bring me joy in life.

What to photograph?

Broken wheel hubcap. Prague, 2017
Broken wheel hubcap. Prague, 2017

Photograph your daily schedule. Photograph your selfie.

You wake up, photograph yourself in the mirror. Photograph your morning coffee and breakfast. Photograph your commute — either if you’re stuck in a car, or when you’re in public transportation.

Find joy in photographing your loved ones, your food, or the objects in your home.

Stairway. Prague, 2017
Stairway. Prague, 2017

The secret of everyday photography:

Treat the ordinary as extraordinary.

Finding beauty in the mundane

Red tomato soup against green background. Prague, 2017
Red tomato soup against green background. Prague, 2017

I have been doing this:

Finding ordinary scenes or objects, and shooting extraordinary compositions of it.

Extraordinary compositions:

Urban landscape with diagonal composition. Prague, 2017
Urban landscape with diagonal composition. Prague, 2017
  • Dutch angle (tilting your horizon in your camera, making dramatic diagonal angles)
  • Using a flash (flash transform the ordinary into looking different — and surreal)
  • Simplify whatever you are photographing — make the edges of your frame clean and simple.

Find beauty in the ordinary, everyday

Foggy lamp through window. Prague, 2017
Foggy lamp through window. Prague, 2017

Everyday photography is the best form of photography — I think this is why I like street photography. You just photograph ordinary everyday life — you photograph ordinary strangers, but you try to turn the ordinary into the beautiful.

Railroads at night. Prague, 2017
Railroads at night. Prague, 2017

Realize, whatever you photograph — you are saying:

This is beautiful.

Therefore, your camera is a tool of acknowledging beauty in people, objects, or scenes.

As a photographer, you are a highlighter of beauty in everyday life.

JUST SHOOT IT.
ERIC


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Prague, 1968. Josef Koudelka / Magnum Photos

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