Getting up close

The year ahead

In January the New Year seems to stretch a long way into the future. Motivation can sometimes be down at this time of year. Here is an idea for you to try. Getting up close… It’s fun , so have a go!

Household items

One way to make your photographs have more impact is to take something quite ordinary and take a new perspective. Household items are ideal for this. We see them every day. In effect we treat them with a sort of contempt. So if we capture them in new way it provides a perspective that captures the imagination of the viewer.

The photograph above is a case in point. If you take fresh juice with your breakfast how long is it since you really looked at your juicer? Actually they can be quite interesting items. Lots of points of reflection and a great shape to create contrasts and variations in colour tone.

Getting up close… Kitchen implements

I find that up close, objects gain a sort of new life. Kitchen implements are particularly fun because they have lot of different surfaces and shapes. I love photographing shiny things. Be careful to minimise the highlights though. Too much bright light simply distracts the viewer. You really want to work up sparkles rather than blotches of light.

Your creativity is the only limit to enjoying your camera. Doing something new with ordinary objects is one way to stimulate your photography. Get up close if you can. Try a new angle. Whatever you do, try to make sure you have never tried it before. You will learn something and increase the impact of your image-making.

Why not pull out a kitchen implement now, get up close and have a go… just do it!

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Damon is a writer-photographer and editor of this site. He has run some major websites, a computing department and a digital image library. He started out as a trained teacher and now runs training for digital photogs.
See also: Editors ‘Bio’.
By Damon Guy see his profile on Google+.