“If you want to take beautiful photographs, point your camera at a beautiful subject”. I don’t know who first said that but I certainly agree that it is easier to take a beautiful photograph of a beautiful subject. Point your camera at a lovely flower or a handsome face, a top of the range super-car or visually stunning landscape and you will have the perfect raw material for a beautiful photograph.
Personally I prefer to stay away from beautiful subjects. I prefer to focus on, what are often thought of as, the ordinary, normal, even boring, places or objects; in an attempt to find the abnormal beauty we often overlook. I prefer the challenge of finding an interesting image that may not be obvious when you first look at the ordinary. One favourite techniques for accomplishing this/exercising those creative muscles, is to look at the same subject in as many different ways as possible, both physically, creatively and over time. “Fluid Dynamics” is project that started as just such an exercise.
Projects like this, I think, are best done over an extended period of time. Returning to the same subject and trying to see it in a fresh way each time really exercises the creativity. Unfortunately this particular project will be rather difficult to continue for more than a few months as the subject is just outside my home and we are planning to move thousands of miles away. I guess I will have to find a new subject once our relocation is complete.
Check out the current state of the project here.
