Location, location, location!!

(Below image is not mine, just using it as an example. Photo credit: Tim Tronckoe)

Times Square in New York City is probably the most popular, most photographed location on Earth, if not the most in America at least. But, people still take photos there. Some people take photos of the location itself, either if they are a tourist or journalist or just to take photos of the location. Some people take selfies while they are there, or take pictures of their family and friends. And, sometimes professional photographers take photos there, sometimes of specific subjects and models. And, I bet you that there are some photographers that go to Times Square multiple times to photograph different models, utilizing different angles, at different times of the day, at different times of the year. And they could probably come up with thousands upon thousands of different looks, all at the same location.

Grand Canyon. Yosemite. Golden Gate Bridge. Burj Kalifa. Stonehenge. Niagra Falls. The Roman Colosseum. Great Wall of China. All are very iconic locations with millions of people taking billions of photographs there. Why? They are icons, yes. The locations themselves are iconic. People know what they look like without you having to show them a photo that you took. They’ve seen it.

There are less iconic locations. Perhaps your small town that looks very similar no matter what street you go down has a park with a fountain that looks very pretty and most people in that town knows that it’s a beautiful location. Perhaps there is is a landmark that you found that not many people know about but still looks cool or beautiful. Perhaps there is a section of town that for many might seem unremarkable, but there is something interesting about that location that draws your eye, that has a particular look in one part of the day, but at different times of the day looks completely different. Perhaps that location has hundreds of angles of looks that can be exploited by a camera, each more different than the last. Perhaps the more time you spend there, you will discover as a photographer, more new ways to utilize the space in unique ways. Perhaps in your creative mind, you will think “Well, this and that angle has been done. What else can I do here?” and you are pushing yourself creatively to essentially photograph the same thing but in a different way. Perhaps you have a subject that you are photographing at that location, the subject is the focus, and the location itself is just texture. Its just color. It’s just mood. It’s just there to compliment the subject. And, perhaps you go there again, and photograph a different subject in different ways to extract a different texture, color, and mood. You push yourself as a photographer to exhaust your resources available to you.

You emerge as a better photographer.

Photo by Tim Tronckoe