I was watching a class on Kelby Training yesterday that featured Jay Maisel. Now, I’ve seen Jay before, and I’m familiar with many of his more common comments.  There are a few things he has said that has resonated deeply with me.  The one that is sticking with me today (paraphrased):

When I get ready to take a picture, and it’s something I’ve seen before, why bother? I’m interested in something new.

Mind you, he’s not dismissing photographs for observation or study purposes. Nor for practicing technical details of photography.  He’s only speaking to his own tastes.

The idea, though: as I said, it resonates with me. By adopting this attitude, I am freed from taking the picture that I’ve already seen a thousand times, but from other photographers. I no longer have to take a few hundred pictures of flowers.  It’s OK to only take three or four.

Permit me to tie this in to yesterday’s post, where I posted a selective color image. I mentioned then that it is cliche, but also that it works for that situation. This may be true, but is it that interesting?  I would argue on a personal level, that it is.  I’ve never seen that sign before in that position in that location.  I made the image that I wanted & moved on from there.  This may not hold true for the masses, however – it’s symbolic enough to be entirely repetitive.

Today I came across another selective color image that I liked (NSFW/Not Safe For Work in the U.S. or other puritan states – hinted-at nudity).

This is certainly something I’ve never seen before.