Ninja Photography

Limitations

In order to become even more excellent at what you do, one thing to try is to limit yourself while doing it, as an exercise. It might have to do with your equipment, or the way that you act as a photographer.The most important thing is that you see to it that you never experience yourself as being a victim of circumstances, i.e. having to execute some shots within limitations due to the fact that your equipment really does not allow you to make the images you aspire to make. The limitations do, in general, come in the form of two aspects; the hardware limitations and the limitations in your mind about what is possible to do. We will explore this in the following pages.

Hardware limitations

It is important to clearly decide whether it is your gear that is the culprit for what you experience as your limitations, or if it is you that limit yourself. You might do exercises like for example, involving only using a wide angle lens, like the equivalent of a 35 mm standard lens (in most half frame cameras it will be somewhere between 18 and 22 mm). Spend a week shooting with that lens only (or the corresponding settings your lens may have) and really test its limitations and advantages. Try to outsmart the lens. Since you have no zoom you have to "zoom with your feet", i.e., take a step closer to your object. This kind of lens might have a slight distortive effect on horizontal and peripheral lines in the picture, especially off center (not really a fish-eye effect, but slightly in that direction). Check if you can use that effect in your pictures and try it out to do images where the "bending" tendency doesn't show until you use a ruler to check the picture. A very subtle effect, that is.

Try to shoot landscapes, portraits, sports pictures and the likes. You'll notice that there are benefits of making pictures in an environment that doesn't "suit" the lens.The result might be radically different compared to the result coming from you using a 18-55 mm lens (27-82 with the 1.6 coefficient). Maybe you'll have found something out that could be of use for you in your upcoming work as a photographer. Maybe you find that this is not your cup of tea. Don't despair, you will find out a lot by working with limitations in this manner. You will learn a lot about your equipment and a bit about your own style of photography. Understanding the limitations of your equipment will simultaneously teach you a lot about yourself.

Bring a flash if you own a separate one, otherwise use the built-in flash in your camera. Try to understand what the flash does for your pictures. If you have a separate flash with an extension-cord try to use it to angle the flash differently and notice what affects you obtain. Experiment thoroughly, it is through using the equipment when it doesn't matter that you'll learn what you might use it for in a "sharp" real-life situation.

When using the term "experiment" I really mean playing around with the flash, especially if you have a hand-held one. Move it around, having the camera set to sequence-mode and learn what happens when you make ten subsequent exposures, some with flash, and others without. You ought to try moving the camera and the flash separately, practice not moving your arms in a curved pattern. Study your results. Do you notice anything there, that you want to use? If you decide that it is not, please remember the results for future use, when you've changed your mind. If you are leaning towards "artsy" pictures, this is perhaps some of the technical stuff you should remember.

On moving the camera

I've already mentioned the moving of the camera, with a separate flash. It's easier to move only the camera,when you're exposing your pictures.You may like to do this when you're trying to "freeze" a moving vehicle speeding sideways in front of you.You might even use the zoom function while exposing the picture. Try that while using a tripod, then you just have to concentrate on the zooming in or out on your object. This is to ensure that you hold the camera still and just use the zoom function.When you manage this you will discover "zoom lines" in your pictures. Try it out.

When you're playing around with these functions, remember to make wide turns, don't limit yourself while practicing, let things happen, let chance have its way during your photographic sessions,let things happen as they will happen. Keep track and be observant of what you are doing. You want to be able to repeat some of the stuff you create during these playful sessions at some later date.

Now, this is only one way to start.There are several others. Be creative when you practice. Play around with your equipment and your ideas. Try to decide what the pros and cons are, what are the limitations, does the method require a lot of light and thus will not work that well at dark nights? If you have problems handling a technique you like, maybe it's time to google that technique and get some help that way. Just being stubborn helps you a lot too!

Try to learn more

If you're searching for a special effect one way, described above, is basically trial-and-error.You might also consider taking classes in photography, but first visit your local library, check out what books they have on creating images in general, i.e., books on art in a wide sense, both traditional and more experimental.There you will have all the books you need to technically produce photographs,you'll find monographs on individual photographers, books on photography from a certain era, from different countries, etc. Don't overlook the opportunity to use the information in books. You will gather a lot of examples from the photographic industry, but there are a lot of older books that points to the basics concerning creation of pictures. That includes on painting and drawing.You might find them as PDFs on the Internet, but some you won't find there, but in the library.

Look at images, not only photographs. Look at people, horses, shadows, animals in general, cityscapes and of course, nature in general. You might think that you have it all covered. I beg to differ. I guarantee that you haven't watched all the images in the world that could have bearing on your work in photography. I even bet that you are aware of that. So, why don't you look at some more pictures? You won't ever never regret the time you spend doing it.

I would argue that even pictures that aren't to your taste might teach you something. Don't be afraid that you'll rumble into new field of photography. If that happens, so be it! I reckon that it happens for a reason and that reason is that you like the new field of photography too. Maybe even better than the field of photography you used to have as your favorite and inspiration.You just didn't know it yet.

I also reckon that when you add another field of interest, you will be getting better at creating pictures in your original field. Photography is always photography, i.e., following the laws of physics it always has to follow. No surprises there, even if some people argue that the differences between analog and digital photography make them two separate fields of art. Some people even argue that you can't be good using both techniques. But we don't believe that, do we?

We will shoot with our camera and trying to do the best pictures we can at any given moment.There is no rocket science about it. Just o whole bunch of imagination at play.

There are possibilities to make some kind of rocket science of this, but that is not the main objective. The objective is to make good, interesting pictures.

But really, who wants to be pretentious? Doing pictures that tell a story and being content with that achievement?You don't have to really reach the stars, the journey you are partaking in is the thing to remember. If you advance your knowledge about your equipment and learn how to use it making the photographs you want to shoot, that is an achievement! If others like what you are doing, great, but the acceptance from others will not really advance your photographic skills.What you learn and train for will absolutely do that in the long run.

As a rule the great giants historically within the photographic industry made do with far worse equipment than you have access to today without ruining yourself. So,there is nothing to whine about, just do your photography, hunting down those pictures that will change your world in the sense that after you've made those images you will never be the same individual again. That image created by you has the power to change your existence in its foundation, rearranging your mind and what you aspire to do. Not bad for a random picture in the flow of images in a photographer's life.

The thing that drives the content of the pictures are the same that drive the creator (photographer) of these pictures.We don't know why it is like that, but there seems to be a slight chance that the evolving ideas when you make a breakthrough in your creating brings on a flood of creativity. Maybe it is about that you become sure of what you are doing and thus are able to create yet additional "good" images. To that end it is not about the quantity, but about your own, inner voyage. Once you have started to fathom that there is a limit to the numbers of images you may create in your lifetime, you will probably want to push yourself a bit. At least aiming at making some of them manifest themselves in...