comfort zone .. what's yours ?

removed account4 · Mar 6, 2012

its not a trick question ..

whats your comfort zone?

i have a background in architecture and city planning, so i guess that's mine ..

i don't mind photographing people and talking to strangers, although it is hard for me ..

Bill Burk · Mar 7, 2012

My comfort zone is landscapes.

Shooting people pushes my comfort zone though it may not be obvious...

cjbecker · Mar 7, 2012

My comfort zone is portraits, what pushes me is people.

Jeff Kubach · Mar 7, 2012

My comfort zone is landscape also.

Jeff

John_Nikon_F · Mar 7, 2012

Landscape, macro, etc... People shooting ok, if I've known them for a while. Otherwise, meh...

-J

steven_e007 · Mar 7, 2012

My 'lack of comfort zone' is people. I'm not very gregarious. My idea of hell is pulling my head from under the dark-cloth and finding I've got an audience. Especially if they are tittering. It happens...

Consequently with big cameras I tend to photograph very, very remote landscapes. Not easy to find in the middle of the UK.
I don't particularly like landscapes that much - I just don't like being the centre of attention.
Or tittering.

(But, I've got a really inconspicuous Minox 35 )

hoffy · Mar 7, 2012

My comfort zone? Motorsport. You put me in front of a car race with a long lens and auto focus and shutters will be going ratta tat tat in no time

darkosaric · Mar 7, 2012

My comfort zone: shooting with 200mm and 105mm.

dehk · Mar 7, 2012

My comfort zone? How about anything BUT wedding or something similar, where clueless people trys to boss me around or when you meet some really unorganized people. But I still do it occasionally.

thegman · Mar 7, 2012

Comfort zone is in the middle of nowhere shooting a landscape. I'd be really uncomfortable doing street work, taking pictures of strangers going about their business is not for me.

removed account4 · Mar 7, 2012

i should also add, i can't design, draw or make anything "look good" unless
it is found that way ... "styling" / "stylist work" is WAY out of my comfort zone ...

stavrosk · Mar 7, 2012

Photographing people I don't know in the street is really outside my comfort zone.
Very fast paced subjects are also outside my comofrot zone.

benjiboy · Mar 7, 2012

My comfort zone is people photography mainly studio and outdoor and a little street, although like most people I've tried to be in the past to be a jack of all trades, when I first started shooting as a teenager, It didn't take me long to decide for example that I'm the World's worst landscape photographer and that lugging my gear up and down the countryside in all weathers didn't appeal to me, and even less after I served in the military and it's all been done before better than I could do it, I try to play to my strengths

himself · Mar 7, 2012

things that have no desire or idea of their own - objects. put anything that moves or may have it's own opinion in front of me and I go to pieces...

anonymity helps too

DWThomas · Mar 7, 2012

Heh, I'm congenitally uncomfortable. But I would say "things" versus "people," I like stuff that holds still for me while I fumble with my gear! While landscapes have always been a part of my activity, lately I seem to be gravitating toward what I might call "industrial archaeology" and abstracts zeroing in on details and textures. The abstract stuff is new so it's actually stretching my fading brain cells a little bit.

coigach · Mar 7, 2012

Photographing wild landscapes - not so much a 'comfort zone' but where I feel most creative.

On the other hand, I'm currently learning the process of printing polymer photogravures (mostly analogue, but uses digitally enlarged transparencies to create printing plate so, as a hybrid process, outwith APUG's scope). This is really interesting but WAY out of my comfort zone...!

LJSLATER · Mar 7, 2012

Urban landscape, somewhat by necessity.

I have social anxiety disorder, so I can't even go to the grocery store without panicking. Even posting on the forum is stressful. However, a couple of times I month I can drag myself outside. Places I enjoy photographing include underground garages, dark alleys, abandoned buildings and construction sites. I like shooting at night, early morning, and when the weather is bad. Also, living in Utah, most businesses are closed on Sundays and everyone is in church so that can be a good time to go outside too. Basically, I'm more comfortable when there are zero people within a mile radius.

Whiteymorange · Mar 7, 2012

i should also add, i can't design, draw or make anything "look good" unless
it is found that way ... "styling" / "stylist work" is WAY out of my comfort zone

I don't know how you can say this, John, since much of the very good work you have done in the time I've known you has been anything but things "looking good" when you found them. You are the consummate stylist, working with selective focus, selective color, motion, blur, tonality; indeterminate form and substance. What you do not seem to work with, in my limited experience, is any selective manipulation of objects before the photograph is taken. You seem more to want us to make what we will of what you've seen. Still, it is styled by the choices you made in presenting us a sliver of all that you have seen, and by the lens of your perception also by your texts, I might add.

removed account4 · Mar 7, 2012

hi whitey

maybe it is the "manipulation before it is photographed" that i was trying to articulate ..
sometimes my trying to say things is nearly impossible, thanks for picking up on what i meant .

i remember i was given a stack of magazines and the photo editor said "photograph them so they look good".
i couldn't for the life of me get one good photograph out of the pile, after 2 or 3 rolls of film and 3 or 4 hours.
what i would do now, 15 years later is just drop them on the floor/table, let FATE / CHANCE arrange them for me, and i would photograph that

i'm much better at random

john

greybeard · Mar 7, 2012

Definitely still life.

I really like landscape, but the minimum investment of time is so large that it is anxiety-inducing to think that I might not come back with something I like. For the same reason, being able to try over and over again to make the image that I want is usually out of the question.

As for people, I'm so protective of my free time that it seems unfair to ask anyone else to give up any of theirs just so I can photograph them!

RalphLambrecht · Mar 8, 2012

Charliezeta · Apr 4, 2012

I'm very uncomfortable photographing people.... so no " street " for me. I'm ok with landscape, macro, architecture, dogs, anything but humans !

Charliezeta · Apr 4, 2012

LJSLATER said:
Urban landscape, somewhat by necessity.

I have social anxiety disorder, so I can't even go to the grocery store without panicking. Even posting on the forum is stressful. However, a couple of times I month I can drag myself outside. Places I enjoy photographing include underground garages, dark alleys, abandoned buildings and construction sites. I like shooting at night, early morning, and when the weather is bad. Also, living in Utah, most businesses are closed on Sundays and everyone is in church so that can be a good time to go outside too. Basically, I'm more comfortable when there are zero people within a mile radius.

I can relate to this. I love early mornings when no-one is around.

John Austin · Apr 4, 2012

Things I have done before, almost all of them, except weddings

I am trying to explore my discomfort zones - In the current instance 10x8" naked portraits - I am happy enough working in the company of naked women with Rollei/Hasselblad, but managing the session and a 10x8" camera stretches me

This stretching is crucial to continued growth and keeps old-timers-disease at bay

John

benjiboy · Apr 4, 2012

If I was "comfortable working with naked women", I would be older than I think I am.

comfort zone .. what's yours ?

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