In today's world, many of us feel the pressure to constantly create and put out content, and that can be quite frustrating and detrimental to our process and enjoyment. There is something to be said for letting photos come to you, in a manner of speaking. This great video follows a landscape photographer as he does just that.
Coming to you from Steve O'Nions, this excellent video follows him as he heads out on a landscape shoot and discusses the idea of being receptive to images. This sort of approach is not limited to landscape photography. For example, a lot of street photographers work by finding a spot with interesting light and a compelling composition, then waiting for action to enter the frame, which is partially why rangefinders are so popular for the genre, as they allow you to see what is going on outside the frame. The next time you head out, try letting photos come to you a bit more; you'll likely find you enjoy the process far more. Check out the video above for the full rundown from O'Nions.
And if you really want to dive into landscape photography, check out "Photographing The World 1: Landscape Photography and Post-Processing with Elia Locardi."
I have had to learn to be receptive with my wildlife photography. In fact, one must be receptive to the opportunities that present themselves to shoot efficiently. One can waste countless hours and days if one is dead set on getting a particular image of a particular animal in a particular location. Yet when one is fluid and adapts to opportunities that present themselves, one can come away with many more portfolio-worthy images per each day spent afield.
For example, last summer when I went to the mountains near me to photograph Pika, the Pika just weren't being very cooperative. They were spending more time in their lairs under the rocks and less time out in the open foraging and sunning. Hence opportunities to photograph them were sub-par, and whatever images I could get were not very good.
BUT ..... the Hoary Marmots that use the same habitat were out and about and foraging and sunning themselves and interacting with one another. So I changed my target and started to focus on shooting the Marmots instead of the Pika. I came away with about a half dozen quality images of Hoary Marmots, which I had not planned for, and zero quality images of Pika, which had been my specific target for that outing.
Years ago I would not have been as adaptive, and would have kept insisting on shooting the target species, regardless of how crappy the opportunities were. But I have learned over the years that having a "just go with it" approach yields a greater number of quality wildlife images.
Do any of you who shoot different genres have similar examples you can share as to how being receptive and adaptive has led to greater success with what you shoot?