Look with new eyes, take your photography to the next level

I am a city dweller, I live in downtown Vancouver. Sometimes that can be a hindrance to taking the kind of stark and surreal landscape images that I would like to be taking in the Canadian Rockies, but sometimes it challenges me to think a little more. I was watching the latest Batman movie a few weeks ago and realised that cities can prove to be amazing places to photograph. There is a life and a soul in a city. The grunge and graffiti can add to this and make for some very dramatic images.  My advice is to look at your city, whichever city you live in, through new eyes. Start looking for the unusual, interesting and beauty within your city.

The first thing you notice when you walk around Vancouver is that is has a lot of interesting architecture. There is also plenty juxtaposition (opposing themes) there are some amazing colours and some very badly run down parts. But Vancouver is more than that, there is a part of the city that is timeless in some way and whenever I go into certain parts of Vancouver I try and capture at least one image that will cause people to wonder where it was taken.

So, I challenge myself whenever I go out and capture images in Vancouver and ask myself the following questions about each image

1. Uniqueness: Have I seen this image before. In other words am I trying to copy a photo I have seen on a post card somewhere or on a poster or is this a unique image?
2. Colour: Have I made the image colourful? Is there a theme of a single colour or is there a riot of different colours?
3. Life: Have I captured something that reflects the heart of the city or the people there or is it another bland “post card” shot
4. Juxtaposition: have I captured something that might be a contradiction for example a BMW driving past a homeless person. There are plenty of these opportunities in every city.
5. Reference: Is the image identifiable? In other words if someone was to look at the image is it a uniquely Vancouver image or could it be any city in the world. Either way it doesn’t matter, but don’t be ambiguous, choose what you want the viewer to see
6. Urban Decay: This is really what urban landscapes are about for me. Its about capturing a once thriving city that is now degenerating and seeing how people and life abounds amidst this change
7. Fun: Is this fun? Am I enjoying taking the images, sometimes its not fun and then its time to go home.

So, if you are keen to capture your city, whichever city you live in, these are just some ideas that I use to get the creative juices flowing….who knows, maybe you will look at your home city through different eyes tomorrow.