orange

Shot these over a couple of hours walking around the 2nd and 6th street areas in Austin. Jeff was interested in going out shooting with our cameras, so we met up at Austin Java in the city hall. We agreed to go and shoot to a colour theme and set off looking. I was shooting orange, Jeff was looking for yellow. At first it can be hard to find anything. We both breezed along the whole of the second street district and only took a couple of shots. Couldn't find orange anywhere. Then suddenly it gets hard to stop seeing 'your colour' everywhere. Markings on the road. Splashes on some plastic bollards. The beer we stopped to enjoy along the way. I find this a really effective way to key in to a particular theme and then go shoot it. Otherwise I worry that there won't be anything to shoot in a given place or that I have to go somewhere special to find the right pictures. Truth is, they are everywhere, just waiting on you to notice them.

I also used to worry that if I was shooting on one theme, I'd be missing other shots, but I always find I'm much more productive and focused when shooting to a concept. I settle in, I explore subjects, I'm not wasting as much time searching for something to jump out at me, ready to shoot. Anyway, you don't have to be a slave to whatever concept you pick, it can just be a useful way in. Colours are a great concept, colour pairs, line, shapes, circles, squares, triangles, S-curves, textures, anything that gets you shooting and paying attention to the surroundings really helps. It can be a fun way to explore but also I find it teaches me a lot each time I do this, about what works, what I like, how I want to use things in my photography and that comes back when you aren't 'just' shooting a colour, later. Click the collage to jump to the whole set.