I have recently been shooting on a phone, and last night, I was so damn excited… shooting night photography with the Google Nexus 6P and HDR+. I felt like a kid again…exploring and experiencing photography for the first time.

When we’re kids, we have open possibilities. Everything amazes us.

At what point do we become jaded, bored, and disinterested?

What fucked up my joy of photography

I know for me in photography, this is what has HURT my curiosity and joy of photography:

1. Obsession with what others think of my pictures. Therefore, caring more about how many likes and followers I get on social media, rather than making photos which excited me.
2. Worrying whether I’m making “artistic” or “serious” photographs, instead of making photos that are fun and silly.
3. Over obsession with equipment and gear. Solution: just shooting with a phone.

The joy of shooting and experimenting with night-time photography

Shooting at night with the Google 6P and HDR+ blew my fucking mind.

Why?

Google has pretty much mastered image post processing in low light situations, with superior noise reduction algorithms, and the colors look true to life.

Essentially, with HDR+, I make photos of what is inside my mind’s eye.

In simple words:

My pictures look the way I want them to look like.

Shoot like a child.

Therefore to be excited about photography again, I actually really do recommend you to try shooting like a child.

Use a phone in automatic mode and just take pictures of WHATEVER. I had fun just shooting pictures inside the grocery market here in Kyoto.

Also, I had fun experimenting with composition, by tilting the phone camera. By trying to simplify the scenes. To make pictures that were weird, and not serious.

Make your own photography blog and treat it like your own visual playground

Also, the pressure of NOT having to care about how many likes you are going to get on a picture is liberating. It means, you can really make photos for yourself.

The best advice I can give is to delete your Instagram, make your own photography blog (1qnd1.com and WordPress.org or just use WordPress.com).

Less extreme: restart your social media accounts. Set all your Flickr pictures to” Private” and start to re-upload all your favorite pictures.

In Instagram, delete or archive all the pictures in your stream, and start from scratch.

Therefore, you are opening the roads to POSSIBILITY, FUN, and ADVENTURE, rather than being tied down or enslaved to your past self.

All art is just playing.

No boundaries.

Shoot people, food, plants, trees, birds, yourself, your loved ones, selfies, things on the ground, things in the sky.

Shoot videos, make paintings, dance, and sing.

Life is fucking awesome, and it is so great to be alive :)

BE CREATIVE EVERY DAY!

So friend, smile, and have fun. Don’t take photography or art too seriously.

Be like a kid, and be CREATIVE EVERYDAY!
ERIC