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Home is photographic hell?

Seabee

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Oct 27, 2008
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Location
Germany
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Does it have to be?

I have been living in Germany for about 10 years now.

I find wherever I go... there are great things to photograph. Almost every inch of France is wonderful. Cambodia, laos, Turkey, Morocco, Egypt, Columbia, Peru... etc. etc.... all are GREAT to take photos....

But Germany is soooooooooo boring. I am always frustrated that I cannot find anything to float my boat.

is it because there is nothing "Exotic"?

Folks I know here on vacation find many, many things indeed.

How many others have troubles finding things to photograph when close to home?

Best
Chris
 
I think it's a matter of seeing the same things day in and day out.

I live in New Mexico and have grown tired of the same old Santa Fe, White Sands, Taos pictures.
 
Old Europe for New Mexico?

Hmmmmmm............
 
10 miles from my house in Germany:

 
Hi Ralph,

Nice, looks like 10 miles from my house.... but maybe its because I see Fachwerk houses every day.....

I think I need a dusty tent and a camel with body odour .....
 
Dont get me wrong.... I love Germany.... but I see so much of it, you can give me an empty desert and it would excite me more than any building here :-(

I know, it is not the classic photo to be found here on the forum, but it WAS Analog
 

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Boring is worth photographing

Boring is a real feeling, it is worth trying to photograph. What makes you bored, can your photographs express your boredom. I am serious, some of the best photographs are expressing what is closest to home.
 
david b said:
I think it's a matter of seeing the same things day in and day out.

I live in New Mexico and have grown tired of the same old Santa Fe, White Sands, Taos pictures.
Click to expand...

Could be worse, think Central Illinois....
 
I have the same problem. When complaining about it once, someone told me, "you live in Arizona for gods sake". Greener pasture thing I guess.
 
cysewski said:
Boring is a real feeling, it is worth trying to photograph. What makes you bored, can your photographs express your boredom. I am serious, some of the best photographs are expressing what is closest to home.
Click to expand...

I like that oblique thinking. Once I get bored with my environs, I'll try that. But I don't. I'm located in Germany, too, and can't complain about a lack of subject matter. When I'm abroad, I find the exotic a hindrance to really seeing the essence of what's before me. So many of my photos from vacation become a cliché, literally a printing of an already made printing plate. Abroad, I find it takes an extra effort to see and create subjectively and to continue personal projects.
Who was it that said that a good photographer should be able to turn around 180 degreees anywhere and take an interesting photograph in that direction? John Blakemore, perhaps.

Best regards, Christoph
 
most of what i have photographed the last 20 + years has been
down the road from where i live 5, 10, 20mins away.
sometimes its just seeing what might be right in front
of you and realizing it is there ...
 
I hear what you're saying. I live right outside NYC, arguably a place where one can not run out of things to photograph. But because I'm so familiar with the city (having spent a good number of my younger years driving a taxi in the city), there is less and less of it that sparks any sort of inspiration in me. It's all so mind-numbingly familiar that you can take me anywhere in town blindfolded and I'll know exactly where to find the next bus stop or subway station. Now, take someone who has never or rarely been here and it's a whole different situation. Still, I wouldn't trade living here for anywhere else in the world.
 
i live in the middle of iowa in a small town surrounded by fields and spoted with a few wooded areas and spent last weekend tossing out probly 50 neg strips of freakin trees from a couple of years ago and now i'm cleaning house on my "abandoned house" project that at the time i thought was so inspirational untill i went through them all again to realize the same thing how many of the "same" photo do i need. thats about all there is as far as landscape/outdoor photos to take around here not much for interesting architecher or even any street shots to speak of just boring. so i feel your pain. i'm in the process of setting up a project with my tatoo artist to do some "portrates of heavily tattoo'd people it will kinda be a combo of my 2 passions (i do some amature tats from time to time) but i'm still brainstorming for some ways to do it so they dont come out too static i'm gona use my isolette and seagull i would love to do some 6x9 from my vigilant but dont have any way to trigger the strobes with it (any ideas for this are welcome it has not pc or hot shoe so pm me with any ideas)
 
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It is very boring where I live as well, or is it, as I keep telling myself. I'm generally not a landscape "guy" as there are no great vistas to capture---perhaps in certain times of the year when the weather that is in the landscape may become the actual subject. Of late, I've been trying to look or "see", at a much closer and intimate level with what is around me on any given trip to the woods or the latest abandoned home that I may come across. I keep telling myself that the compositions are there and I just have to slow down and "see" better-----it's very challenging.
 
I love traveling and making photographs elsewhere, but my best photographs are made close to home or in places I've visited frequently.
 
Oh, the things I have seen and wish to see in Europe and Asia! North America can be quite boring, unless one lives close to a beautiful national park/forest/monument...et cetera. If I lived in Germany, I would utilize one of many autobahnen in order to visit Praha on the weekend. I met a pair of Bavarians who were driving from Munchen to Oslo via land-route only. It seems as though there is much to do in Europe...and Germany is not too shabby either. Though, disappointment can be found everywhere...oh, how I wish to visit and photograph Konigsberg Castle...though the Russians sought to destroy my wish when they blew it up. Perhaps, when I visit the Baltic, I shall collect bits of amber instead of visiting a void in the ground that once held great history. There are always adventures in life...only what one has to do is to take the leap into the unknown.
 
My "backyard" is pretty amazing...redwoods, rocky coastline (and sand dunes if I get bored with rocks), wild rivers, and coastal mountain ranges. And old barns, old bridges (including some covered ones I haven't bothered to photograph), Victorian-style buildings that I also haven't photographed, and a bunch of other stuff (fishing fleet, et al). So I can't say that I am at bored.

Then I have three 11 year old boys who will pose for me...that tosses in a twist to the landscapes!

Vaughn
 
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we are all surrounded by beautiful things constantly. As tourists or foreigners photographing in foreign places its easy, everything is new and nothing is routine.We have our cameras at the ready. It has nothing to do with India or Idaho. Break out of your routine, walk a new route to work. Take the bus instead of driving. Go to a bar you've never been to. Wake up earlier and take a walk with your camera.look up, look down, put your cell phone away. there are things to photograph everywhere.
 
I've lived on Vancouver Island for 30+ years. Not bored yet!
 
I'm in the same boat. I live in Reading, UK and I haven't even seen anyone that *doesn't* live here make it look interesting! Add to that the fact that I haven't run a car for the last two years, so I have to try to find interest within public transport + walking range means most of the stuff I've taken has been whilst on holiday.
 
It's my opinion that it's all about training your eye and using your imagination. I'm just as happy making photographs in my neighborhood as I am traveling somewhere. It's HOW you look that matters.
Challenge yourself to make beautiful or interesting photographs of mundane things, like a fence post, a road sign, a terrible looking building, a car, anything. That's a good exercise, because it helps you see the potential in things around you again.
- Thomas
 
Generally it's the people, and my connection to them that makes the place for me. Naturally, my best photographs are made at home. If I travel to a familiar place, I can make good photographs there, too. Totally strange places with unfamiliar people... that's hard. And unless I plan to stay for an extended period of time, I don't make many pictures.

Then again, I might be quite moved by experiencing a new or unusual landscape, but I'm not a landscape photographer. (Got to put some people in there, somewhere!! ) I just don't make the same emotional connection to the land as I do to the people there with me... so, as much as I am able.. I like to incorporate different landscapes in my people pix.

Good luck finding that spark...
 

I think its only natural to think your own area or country is boring as you have been there for so many years. Going abroad to very different places will obviously excite most people. I'm sure if I went to your home town in Germany I'd find plenty to interest me.
 
It took me a real effort to realise that the area around my home town is "exotic" to 99.995% of the world's population.
 
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