A-Picture-Anywhere Challenge

A good challenge for photographers who think they still can improve (never met one serious one who didn't) is to stop anywhere and challenge yourself to take a good picture within 10 meters of your location. Even better, ask a friend to tell you when. This serves two purposes.

First, it will affect your ability to spot things that 99.99% of the people will pass without even batting an eye. Often great photographs are just that, something that everyone had overlooked. Presented as the main subject and in a coherent way, it takes on new meanings.

Second, it will force you to think a lot more about composition since often the subjects will not be the most photogenic. As a parallel, taking the picture of the most beautiful in a way is not so challenging since she is the most beautiful woman in the world (although of course conveying her Venusian beauty in a photograph  might present its own challenges).

I challenged myself before some class, and found some stacks of chairs. Somehow, the image, even if very metallic, looks organic to me. I see the lines as rock strata on mountains. To each his own, I suppose.