Early in his book “Photographing the World Around You“, author Freeman Patterson tells the story of Alice, a participant in one of his workshops. It’s a bit too long to re-tell here, but later on he provides this summary:

Remember Alice, whom you met earlier; she had so little confidence in her personal creativity that she automatically assumed every picture she made was, at best, competent. In her view, non-creative people canmake only non-creative photographs and, since she regarded herself as having no imagination, she felt incapable of improving her seeing and her photographs very much.

I am Alice…but not as much as I used to be.

I just came across this YouTube video – from one of my favorite photographers/content creators. His name is Craig Roberts, and his channel is called E6. The video’s premise is that if, every time you go out to take photographs, you have a goal (e.g. as in this case red cars) in mind you will see red cars where otherwise you might not. You would see things that you otherwise might miss.

I’d agree with this…up to a point. Yes, you might well see things you would otherwise miss, but you might also miss equally or even more interesting photographic opportunities because you’re focusing so much on looking for your subject.

Maybe a way around this is to spend a morning focusing on a particular subject followed by an afternoon wandering around with no focus to see what you find? Or maybe spend one day on a particular subject and the next day just wander around?

I recently discovered a couple of interesting photography-related YouTube channels

The first is by Joel Ulises. He describes his channel as: Sharing the work of photography masters. My YouTube channel was created to share the amazing work of photography masters. I hope my channel inspires and touches the hearts of everyone who checks it out. At the time I’m writing this his channel has 222 videos, each one covering a single well known (usually) photographer. Recent videos include: William A. Allard; Philippe Halsman; Raymond Depardon; and Jerry Schatzberg. If you like famous photographers, this is one for you.

The second channel is quite different. The channel is called Hunter Creates Things. The description reads: “Photographer and Filmmaker. Currently based out of Warsaw, he has lived in Auckland, Seoul, London, Jersey and briefly, in a remote village with an Alpaca and a Goat, neither of whom liked him very much. Forever torn between form and function, Hunter works as a fine artist, a street photographer, a mentor, a YouTuber, a DP, an editor, and as a (rather insufferable) writer. He also likes racing cars, scope creep, and fashion. He’d really like it if you got in touch, especially if you’re a new photographer, an academic, or just want to chat. That way, he knows for sure someone is listening, and he can stop referring to himself in the third person.” His channel contains all kinds of interesting stuff related to both still, and video photography. Recent offerings include: The Problem With TikTok Street Photographers; Going Full Time?; How To CURE Your Street Photography Anxiety; How Good Can An $80 Lens Really Be?; and Why Shoot Black & White In 2024?

Taken with a Sony DSC-H50