When it comes to lifestyle photography there’s one theme I keep on hearing form professional photographers: keep on shooting more!
While the idea of shooting more may seem intuitive it’s a tough one to practice. It means bringing your camera with you virtually everywhere you go. Make it a practice to keep that camera slung over your shoulder. Make it an appendage!
Lifestyle Photography Opportunities Are Serendipitous, Just Like Life
It was a really windy day. I had been cooped up inside all day, working. So when late afternoon rolled around I needed to get out and take a walk. But the wind was so fierce it almost made it uncomfortable. But if you live near the water, wind can also be a welcome event for people who thrive off of it: windsurfers and sailors.
At the time I was living down in San Diego County and a great walk on the beach was less than 10 minutes away. Knowing there may be some windsurfers down at Cardiff-by-the Sea I headed down there. I brought my camera with me, as I normally do. I’m glad I did because I saw some awesome wind surfers, like Sean Potter (in photograph).
- If you’ve got a versatile walk-around lens you can be ready for many different situations – zooming in on the action, going wide for panorama shots. For me, I like to use my Nikon NIKKOR 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6 DX VR II. It’s got the zoom at 200mm, but it’s also got the ability to fairly wide at 18mm. It’s what I used to get this shot.
- Keep your camera with you! You never know when you’ll see something worthy of a photo.
- Look for the story in an image. Take a few shots and try writing something about what you see.
