What we don’t need are new cameras. What we need are NEW eyes— to see reality with a new perspective.
New perspectives
Quite literally, to have a new perspective for photography is to literally shoot from different perspectives (super low angle, super high angles):
Experiment with new ways of shooting your photos, by allowing yourself to shoot more strange angles, unorthodox compositions, with more negative space, more assymetry.
Don’t strive to make boring symmetrical photos.
New aesthetics
Before you go out and buy a new camera, I suggest experimenting more with your post-processing. You can squeeze a lot of potential out of your sensor, by experimenting between RAW and JPEG, with different filters, and ways of processing (painting) your photos.
Process your old photos (even more!)
Even one thing you can do is this:
Add even more contrast and processing to your old photos!
I’ve been looking at some older photos, and adding MORE CONTRAST to them! It is almost like “double dipping”— getting double pleasure from my older photos.
Your eyes are never the same
“No man steps into the same river twice” – Heraclitus
You might walk by the same thing and photograph it every day, but it will always be different.
For example when I visit the same coffee shop over and over again, I see the same advertisements, but the situation is always different. For example above are two different photos of the same advertisement (one shot in color, other in black and white).
Shoot it again and again and again…
What I mean to say is this:
You can photograph the same thing everyday, but it will also look different!
It is impossible to photograph the same thing the same — there will always be variations (either in your artistic vision, or the photons of the thing you’re photographing). The light will never be the same, the humidity of the air will always be different, and your processing style will always be a bit different.
For example, I will never tire of photographing Cindy. No two photos will ever be the same. She is constantly changing, and so am I.
The streets are never the same
I’ve been shooting downtown LA the last 8 years, and I’m amazed — how much it has changed, and how I never tire of shooting down there:
You can technically even shoot street photography everyday in the same street — but you will always witness something new. This is why you shouldn’t worry too much about always traveling to new or exotic places. You can still visit the same downtown area, and there will always be variations.
In praise of re-listening to the same musical album, and re-reading the same books you’ve already read before
While I like to listen to new music and read new books I haven’t read before, I also like repeating older things I’ve listened to and read.
Because you’re always changing and evolving, listening to the same musical album from your childhood and today will be different.
Same with books — a book you read two years ago (if you re-read it today) will have a different effect— because you were someone diffferent two years ago and today.
Conclusion
Your eyes are always new. You don’t need new equipment — just keep on living, adding more randomness and chaos to your everyday life, and never stop shooting.
As long as you keep shooting and keeping your eyes fit, you will naturally evolve and advance your visual acuity and artistic strength.
JUST KEEP SHOOTING IT!
ERIC
