My social media is geared towards photography, and after looking at a lot of it, I’ve realised that there are some themes which are so over-done that it’s very, very unusual to see an original, interesting or different take on them. Few examples:
Sunrises / sunsets. I mean, there must be hundreds of thousands of these taken every day, and most people seem to think that “there’s no such thing as too much saturation”. Genuinely can’t remember the last time I saw one that made me stop and look at it and think “this photographer has managed to make this stand out”, other than in the wrong way.
Long exposure night shots. Stopped being interesting after about the 5th one with the whirly stars and single tree. Similarly, long exposures of cars with the trailing lines. Last time I saw that done well was by an entire team who were using the best medium format digital cameras of the era, AND a drone. They put a ton of effort into it and it was actually pretty awesome. But that’s very much the exception.
Conversely, I still see the odd portrait which manages to stand out, be it as a result of exceptional composition, clever lighting, good posing, unusual props or background, etc.
What are the themes that you think are getting harder and harder to do with any level of novelty?
So many car photographers shoot literally the exact same shots. Same exact angles of the car, same focal lengths, same editing style.
I’ve worked on car shoots. The trouble is, clients want something which shows the front grille, something which shows all the car, something which shows the car motoring along etc. Same old set. But you still try and give them something different
Same with motorbikes. We used to joke “front on, side on, going round a corner, wheelie… done!”