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?
I think you find novelty in the mundane typical events of the day, and you’ve got to be there when it happens.
You’re right, so many overly planned posed and processed images are just so done. We’re so inundated with images capturing literally everything in the human experience, so much so that being original is hard. Like comedians…they’ve got to come up with original jokes to keep their career going. If they don’t, they’re done.
You just have to be out there shooting. I shoot a lot of events, and something amazing happens at each event, and I try like hell to be there when it happens. Add unusual angles and perspectives to your technique and you get close to an original style…I’m getting close to that every event.
My advice is stop worrying about being boring and get out there and shoot…anything! And maybe you’ll find it.