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RyanS

I messed up my right shoulder pretty good when I fell down some stairs. I've not done any serious photography for about three weeks due to the injury. Besides staring at photobooks, does anyone have any suggestions for keeping the eye sharp while recovering from illness/injury? Here are some things I've tried:

* Static shooting... putting the camera on a tripod. I couldn't get anything good doing this.
* Architecture/landscape.
* One thing that was fun for me.... I went around town and took snapshots of buildings for google maps. Most of the buildings in my area didn't have proper pictures.
* Studio work (though this was physically pushing it).

When I'm covering an event I am really active. My body is all over the place. I'm on the ground, I'm climbing light poles. Injury is a real drag.

In other news, why is the Documentary forum dying? There are fewer and fewer posts, with fewer people looking.

michswiss

Really sorry to hear about your injury. I can totally empathise. Instead of using a tripod, have you tried simply picking an opportune location, sitting down with the camera on your lap and just looking to see what you can see? A wide lens, prefocussed to a good length. Just shoot! Look later!

Well, my shooting rate is down for a multitude of reasons. Some personal and health-related. The other is trying to push myself to improve both in the shots I take as well as my editing. I want to be more "intentional" in my work. I'll probably keep posting some of my back catalogue until I'm able to get more fresh stuff together.

michswiss

Oh, and despite it being a "back shot", I like the image!

michswiss

I'm going to come back into this to say, I think there's not enough experimentation happening here nor development of projects. I'm not referring to post processing tricks, although I'll try to remain open to it if it improves a narrative. But genuine efforts to express life experiences photographically. Liz (you remember her, right?) is off doing wonderful work. Her style and confidence evolved here, most of us didn't do the same. Seastack and Awais occasionally give us incisive and beautiful works. Damon brings inner city teens to life.

Working in this style requires engagement with and understanding of the community you're shooting. And by that I include Street, PJ, Documentary or Family events. It requires more than just looking for good light and the occasional odd juxtaposition. You have to work at it and for it. Believe in something worth sharing. Go to your local council, church, park, high street or main street, or even somewhere isolated and devoid of normal village life and spend a couple of hours talking and looking and then take a few shots.

Don't take shots of what you think others might see as clever. Take shots of what impacted you in the time you took to observe.

So yeah, it's actually harder to get any good at this style than working in a studio or shooting a captivating landscape because all the best planning in the world sometimes will spoil the opportunity. And yes, I meant it that way.

RyanS

Thank you for taking the time to comment. I really appreciate it.