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Thread: What are you photographing close to home?

  1. #11

    Join Date
    Dec 1999
    Location
    Knoxville, TN
    Posts
    8

    What are you photographing close to home?

    I have never gone more than a 100 miles from my house to shoot. I have a three kids, ages 4, 3, and 1 so everything is half day trips or less. I am just learning LF but with my 35mm and MF gear I found myself practicing a lot on plants around the house, mail boxes in the neighborhood, my dog, anything that would pose for me. I very rarely get to go out for the day much less the weekend just to photograph. When I do, I love it but I have learned to make the most of the time I have. Dan

  2. #12

    What are you photographing close to home?

    You could always try photographing your child. I don't do much of this type of work myself but I understand pictures of people and children are quite popular. :-)

    I did a series of still lifes a year or two back with my kid's shoes. My wife had been saving their baby shoes and I did a series of stills with the shoes and some artifact from that point in their life. The baby bottle with the first little booties, a teddy bear, a teething ring, a toy or something that we recognize from that stage of their childhood.

    I framed and matted these prints and arranged them on a wall of the house. My wife loved them. So much so in fact that she understood why I needed the new mat cutter and a better set of studio strobes. (I am such a sinister person).

  3. #13

    Join Date
    Feb 1999
    Posts
    1,094

    What are you photographing close to home?

    As an addition to my comments above, my son (who turned 7 today) refuses to sit still for a large format portrait. Once, when he was about 4, I got out my heavy Calumet 8x10 and had a beautiful backyard shot of him composed on the ground glass. Alas, his patience wore thin as I fumbled under the dark cloth, sweating to get this "once in a lifetime" shot. He walked off the set, so to speak, and no amount of begging would bring him back in front of the camera. All I can get these days are quick grab shots of him with a digital point and shoot. My cat, on the other hand, is a willing model. I set up the Linhof 5x7 the other day and got a shot of him napping on sun splashed sheets. The pyro-developed neg, though, looks like hell.

  4. #14

    Join Date
    Mar 2002
    Location
    now in Tucson, AZ
    Posts
    3,617

    What are you photographing close to home?

    Try looking around your home town for the things that are about to change. The old commercial buildings downtown, soon to be urban-renewaled, or the farms on the outskirts about to be plowed under into generic suburbs and stripmalls. The new stadium going up, and the sandlot it will replace.Things change all the time, and what was is forgotten; photographs help you remember and add perspective to what is now.

  5. #15
    Whatever David A. Goldfarb's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2000
    Location
    Honolulu, Hawai'i
    Posts
    4,658

    What are you photographing close to home?

    What did Weston photograph? Peppers, an egg slicer, Tina, Neil, his friends--mostly things close at hand.

    I photograph things around the house, musical instruments, my wife, "the view from the artist's window," buildings and structures in the neighborhood, places that are accessible by subway. I travel with camera as well, but the things close to home I can photograph and rephotograph, builiding on previous images, trying or waiting for new light. For me that's an important process.

  6. #16

    What are you photographing close to home?

    I live close to the beach in SoCal, so some of my favorite local spots to shoot (B&W, 4X5) are the tide pools. Palos Verdes, Corona del Mar, Malibu, all have great rock-in-water formations that can be looked at in many ways. The shapes -- especially when wet -- can just leap out at you and the shifting water running between them, IMHO, can be just as fun to try and capture as a running river in the mountains. With the tides and cloud formations always shifting, its always a new experience to try and nail the shot you want.

    Aside from that, old local bridges are neat too, especially if they have any art-deco styling cues or light fixtures. Shoot them from super close up and usually no one will ever realize that it was taken "right in their own backyard."

    Bobby

  7. #17

    Join Date
    Sep 2003
    Location
    san jose, ca
    Posts
    149

    What are you photographing close to home?

    When I studied for a year with a well known Boston photographer, he suggested that that is all you photograph for quite awhile. Seems when you get to know a place, your photograph get much better overall. You start seeing things that escaped your notice before. His work reflects this and he is well known for his Boston urban cityscapes.

    That said, my shoots for the last year have been mostly North Central California beach and beachtown scenes, and some neighborhood architect stuff. I do live in a beautiful Craftman neighborhood in San Jose.

    Projects for this year are going to be a continuation of what I have been doing, more emphisis on the local architecture, and perhaps start a study of the ruins that still exist at Alum Rock Park, on the east side of San Jose.

    None are more than an hour from the house. On the few trips I'll make, I'll probably drag the 4x5 Speed out and just shoot what looks interesting.

    tim in san jose

  8. #18

    What are you photographing close to home?

    Funny you should ask. I was out on the beach again this morning (before sunrise). If I have a ritual shooting location, this is it. I’ve seen it change considerably (erode, mostly) over the years that I’ve been shooting out there. It occurred to me this morning that I probably know it better than many of the people who live there.

    There's that and "my" cemetary, of course. Its less than a mile from my house.

  9. #19

    Join Date
    Sep 2003
    Posts
    28

    What are you photographing close to home?

    Are you familiar with Emmitt Gowen's work? He was photographing in the mid to late sixties, 8 x 10 I believe, B&W. He photographed his beautiful wife Edith (I think her name was/is) and their young children in and around their house. His work was outstanding, in my opinion, technically and esthetically. I always wondered what happened to him. Anyway, your question brought his work to mind. Thanks for the fond memories.

  10. #20
    tim atherton's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 1998
    Posts
    3,697

    What are you photographing close to home?

    http://www.photoeye.com/templates/mShowDetailsbycat.cfm?Catalog=YU043

    http://www.pewarts.org/94/Gowin/

    http://www.johnpaulcaponigro.com/dialogs/dialogs_a-m/emmet_gowin.html

    http://www.blindspot.com/cgi-local/SoftCart.100.exe/issue21/issue21.html?E+scstore
    You'd be amazed how small the demand is for pictures of trees... - Fred Astaire to Audrey Hepburn

    www.photo-muse.blogspot.com blog

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