Photographing the “ordinary”

Posted: 17th April 2011 by frank in Uncategorized
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“To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place. I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them” – Elliott Erwitt

I came across this quote today and it said a lot to me about one of the reasons why I love taking pictures and also one of the main reasons why I set up the Postcode Photo Challenge…

Take this very ordinary looking seat for example… I’ve walked past it many times before (it’s near a car park I use in my local town). What’s so interesting about a seat?? Well maybe closeup, from a low angle and with a little bit of saturation it starts to look more interesting (well it did to me anyway *grin*)

If you have a look on the Postcode flickr group page http://www.flickr.com/groups/postcodephotos/ you’ll see some other examples from contributors. It’s really interesting to have a look at their comments to see what it was that caught their eye.

Why not have a try yourself… more information on both the homepage here and the flickr page.. These days, we all seem to be rushing around so much… It’s good to sometimes take a slow walk, pause, look around and see what you might not have “seen” before (and capture it for posterity with your camera)……

I’d love to hear your comments… just click in the little speech bubble at the top right hand side of this post…

Have a great week…

Best Wishes, Frank

  1. gandha says:
    April 19, 2011 at 3:25 pm

    what a nice idea. I have just completed a bookwork based on the cafes along the Holloway Road in north London and I am now doing one on bridges in Camden. I will join your project for my postcode N19 in London and make a book out of it. I will be looking for ordinary and extraordinary things…

    Reply
  2. Liz says:
    May 9, 2011 at 2:21 pm

    Hi Frank,

    FINALLY managed to upload some photos for you. Mostly NW1 although I admit I strayed into NW3 with a couple of them. Only just though so I’m sticking with NW1!

    I’m going to make this an ongoing project and try to be more creative – my pics are not particularly imaginative and not at all processed. But the whole thing fits in so well with my blog, it’s perfect.

    Thanks for setting it up!

    Liz

    Reply