“Why you like to bring your camera everyday?”
A question that I got frequently, and one of my most favourite answer is: Because there are many interesting things out there that may happen in front of me in sudden.
Or, there are attractive things that I had not notice yet so far. Therefore, I like to do snapshot as daily basis to make me even more aware about my surrounding, to find attractive things (or spot).
These attractive or artistic elements may not in “street photography” genre, however I still think they are worth to shoot, so I will just snap it without thinking.
Doing snapshot is all about shoot literally anything in this world (building, tree, people, plain wall, flower, etc) that we find as artistic object, whether in dynamic shape, deep story, or simply evoke our memories about something.
No rule applied in snapshot. Free yourself to click camera shutter without thinking about composition, light quality, amount of “like” in social media, people’s judgement, etc.
Best thing by doing snapshot everyday is we can learn about photography itself as daily activity. Analyse each snapshot you did, why you took that photos, what attractive elements inside that made you click camera shutter? Is it unique composition? Colour match? Dynamic line? Mysterious subject? Or simply evoke your personal memories?
Even though snapshot is like an easy photography style that anyone can do, there are a huge benefit by doing it in our daily life:
Appreciate our routine
Have you ever thought to find interesting object to photograph in your way to work? A path that you went through for the last few years (or many years) might still have surprise elements to photograph if you look carefully.
Pay more attention to little details on the street. Write down as a list, which elements you like to create a strong photograph. Try to “hunt” them as your daily snapshot project. My current primary choices are about diagonal composition and colours.
Find new inspiration
Use any attractive elements you found on snapshot to create a street photograph that you like. For example in my case: After I review many of my snapshot photos, I realise that diagonal composition could become my “primary weapon” to create a great photograph. Simply because I have habit to shoot anything diagonally (even without thinking) and feel that it is such a strong composition technique.
Related article: Diagonal Composition in street photography
Master your camera
Photograph our daily surrounding with our camera. I believe this is the fastest way to learn how our camera works and how we understand which camera setting we need to use in certain conditions.
Still confuse how to use triangle exposure? how to choose which photometry setting? which colour profile (or black and white filter) that suit our taste the most?
Let ourself experiment each menu/setting by experience. Learning by doing. Use every single camera menu we want to try in real life situation as daily basis. As result, we will able to optimise all camera’s function and help us to capture creative shots in decisive moment.
Related article: My camera setting for street photography
Do not feel confuse if there is no “real subject” that we want to photograph. Start to casually shoot anything that attract our senses. Anyway, they are snapshot, kind of shots that we create casually without much consideration involved. Do not take it too seriously. Enjoy the shooting process, and keep analyse them why we capture that kind of shots.
That is all my thought about train our mind by doing snapshot as daily activity. Try it yourself, keep experiment with new things, and never forget to have fun!
Keep shooting everyday,
Nico Harold