“Boring Practice”

"Yes officer hi, I wanted to report a strange man walking around the area taking photos of stop signs and bushes."

That's me, I am the strange man. Driving some place for a photo walk isn't always in the cards. The weather is inconsistent, schedule is haphazard, my tummy hurts, etc. You know what I mean. In these cases I resort to plan B, which is a short walk around my neighborhood.

Walking the same streets over and over is a double edged sword. Capturing the same sights repeatedly can be a cool way to track the passage of time, or bore you to death. Mindset matters greatly in this setting. I would consider myself lucky in some ways, my wife and I live around a smattering of old houses painted in a variety of colors. Some yards are overgrown, some have elaborate gardens, and some are tarped up to get sprayed for bugs (roaches dude). If the light is right I actually enjoy walking around quite a bit.

Again though, it's the same scenes changing in the same ways throughout the year, and it's up to me to look. Slow down, take a breath, is there something here I haven't noticed? It's great practice. Remember that what you consider boring and old news, is a novel scene for most everyone else. I have to remind myself of this each time I watch YouTube videos of other photographers discussing a similar topic. Their "boring areas" look awesome to shoot at to me, but in the same way I view my surrounding streets they view theirs as mundane.

My point is this. Try walking around your neighborhood to practice. Make it a regular part of your photography and compare your photos over time. You might come away with a shot you're proud of! Also don't be weird and get the cops called on you.

*Here are some bonus photos of the mess that is my backyard currently. Found a Portra 400 recipe I wanted to try.