Instead of thinking about life through a lens, start living it; Capturing amazing moments of real life with street photography and still life photography.

Think of your daily route to work or school. You do it so often it becomes boring and ordinary. I know there have been times when I’ve noticed something and I’ve contemplated whether or not it’s new or if something has changed. Most likely, it probably it hasn’t.

I was challenged to merge my ordinary real life with my creative mind in something called OS-ES. After attending a conference and workshop, photographer and visual communications professor Caryn Esplin was amazed by the work of Roberto Valenzuela – specifically how he was able to take an ordinary spot and turn it into an extraordinary shot (OS-ES).

Street Photography

Living in Idaho, urban and street photography is something that is somewhat hard to come by. As I was driving around Eastern Idaho, I came by this ordinary spot and was fascinated by how the light created abstract shadows against these concrete walls. You’re going to have to wait to see the ordinary spot, but here’s the extraordinary shot I got:

Extraordinary Shot

What I love most about this image is how thoughtful and contemplative it is. It’s conceptual in nature. I took this shot with the intent of making the viewer try to think about exactly what it is. Not only did this remind me of my Eucalyptus Euphoria project, it reminded me of what the great street photographer, Eric Kim, mentions in his guide to street photography:

Not all street photography needs to be super emotional. Some street photographs are purely visual images– that appeal to our sense of geometry, composition, and composition. These images are generally shot in good light with nice lights and shadows, have strong diagonal lines, leading lines, curves, and shapes of interest

Still Life Photography

Still life photography is a lot like street photography, except you capture the emotion and pause the life of inanimate objects. I thought a lot about how I could get an extraordinary shot out of an ordinary spot. I think because of this, I tended to overthink it. After changing out my camera battery, I was just browsing in my room and I noticed not only how the light from the window was hitting my roommate’s bed, but also how he “set” his covers up before he went boarding this morning.

Ordinary Spot

Extraordinary Shot

With photography, my favorite angle is the lowest angle possible. So, when I got lower and closer to his bed, I noticed his pair of jeans on the floor. And then the creativity happened with this shot. Who knew an ordinary pair of jeans could turn in to such a dramatic still life photograph?! (I guess he now has an excuse for not picking his clothes up off the floor.)

Oh… before I forget. Here’s the ordinary spot of the first picture. Also, check out Megan Graham’s challenge with OS-ES.

Ordinary Spot