In order to improve your photography one tool is to pick a subject, ideally not far away from your door step and easy to reach, and try to photograph it in as many different ways as possible. You can vary the time of day, the weather, the season, the composition, the perspective, different techniques, and so forth. It dramatically improves your creativity, encourages you to try new techniques, and look at a motive differently.
In my case it is the renowned free standing tree. It literally stands 5 minutes away from my home and I frequently come by it walking our dog.
It is amazing how many ways you could find to photograph the very same subject. The picture above shows my very first picture of that tree, taking on a beautiful evening with the sun setting behind me. The tree catches the last light and the clouds are beautifully illuminated by the setting sun. The foreground is nice as it shows rape in full bloom.
The next opportunity came one month later when I grabbed my drone and captured the following picture, showing it from directly overhead.
It is a completely different composition and you would not even necessarily notice it is the same tree. Drones are powerful tools as they add an additional dimension. Plus, they are fun to fly.
Yet the next opportunity came in July 2018 when the darkened moon rose behind the tree during the total eclipse of the moon in that year (plus Mars to the right). Although it is almost exactly the same perspective as in the first picture (I think I had to move some 50m to the left), the picture looks completely different.
Obviously, it is necessary to plan for those events to know in advance where and when they happen, in which direction the moon rises, how high in the sky it will be and so forth. The are some awesome apps and software out there that make this task very easy and convenient.
The forth composition is similar to the second: shot with my drone, but this time in winter and from a different angle.
Again, the mood is completely different compared to the others. It is the first one captured in winter, it is early morning, and whereas the other drone picture has strong diagonales, in this picture the diagonals are more subtle. I love this picture as it conveys the the crisp temperatures and the wintery subdued colors.
A good example for how the subject and the mood changes when you shoot in a different season and/or different time of day is the next pictures, captured on the very same morning, using again the same perspective as in two of the upper examples.
Of course you can argue on how much different this picture is and hence how valid it is to add it to my challenge collection. Of course, the subject becomes more boring if you showcase it as repeatedly as I am doing here. However, I believe it is in itself a nice picture and therefore worth capturing. In detail it does differ from the others. This time it is backlit and the time of day is very much distinct (sunset vs. night vs. dawn). My argument is that it is worth to return to the same location again and again, because it does change over the course of a day or the year.
A completely different approach is to utilize creative tools like a lens ball. Fascinating on one hand you need to be a little careful not to overdo it on the other. Anyway, I believe the next picture deserves a place in this blog as it is a completely different approach altogether.
To one extent or the other I consider all pictures above as keepers. However, that does not mean that every time you try something new it turns out to be brilliant. Actually, far away from it. Nobody is perfect, certainly including myself. I am far away from being a professional photographer. Therefore, along the way, you go out and when you come back and look at your photos you realize there are not worth sharing, sometimes not even worth keeping them at all on your hard drive.
However, that is not the goal here. By returning to the same location over and over, challenging yourself how to capture the scene or subject differently, in a positive way forces you to be creative, plan in advance, and try out new things. This is what this is all about: a tool that will significantly improve your photography. If you accept the challenge. So, go it there and find your tree. Good luck!
kai filbrandt 