I am busy, I am sure you are too. Many of us lead hectic lives, struggling to balance work and leisure. Sometimes time is in far too short supply to get out and do some photography. Yet, that is in fact a very good reason why you should go out and shoot.
We often think of photography as a long form art. A planned, considered and relaxing pursuit of visual greatness. And it can and should be. However that does not preclude shooting hard and shooting fast if the conditions and moment suits.
There are some real advantages to doing a photography shoot with some form of time constraint. Like restricting yourself to one lens or shooting just 36 images, shooting in a time frame can be a real creativity boost and today, I am here to tell you why.
Readjusting Our Concept Of Time
Step one, is to get out of the mindset that we need everything to be perfect. Perfect light, perfect weather, perfect location. That never happens, although we often frame it in our minds that it will. For that reason we might spend days planning one particular shot, waiting for the perfect day to go out and then waiting for the perfect moment to press that shutter button.
We might come home from that shoot ecstatic at what we captured, in which case it was time well spent. However, more often than not we will return with a nagging sense of disappointment. A van was parked on the road you wanted to shoot, the weather turned dull and uninspiring, there is a vague feeling that you have wasted your time.
From here, your mindset can go one of two ways. Shrug it off and start planning the shot again. Or give up and move on to another idea. Both of these are symptoms of trying to get it perfect. The problem is, very few of us have the time for even attempting to get the perfect shot. We need to think a little differently.
Not How Many But How Good
The biggest issue many of us face when time is restricted is that we try to cover as much as possible in the time given. That’s actually the reverse of how we should be approaching it. What we should be looking at is how to capture the very best images in the time we have.
Once we have framed that in our minds, we start to see things a little differently. Instead of speeding up and running and gunning everything in sight, we start slowing down, lowering the camera and really looking.
Instead of rushing from one location to another, we find one that really works for us and stick with it until we have the shots we want. Only once we have got some great shots do we look at another location.
Once we lose the anxiety that time burdens us with, we become much more creative. That in turn leads to less images but much more powerful shots from a creative perspective. It also means you return home much more satisfied with the work you have created in the time given.
Restricting Time Spurs Creativity
As I mentioned earlier, very often we spend so much time waiting for the perfect moment that we are inevitably disappointed when it doesn’t happen. However, if you are limiting your time shooting, you are much less likely to suffer from that disappointment. Let’s look at why.
The main reason is that you are no longer in control. The weather, the light and the location are already predefined. All you have to do is work with them. That means you have to start to look harder for shots, and in particular shots that might be outside your comfort zone. Handing back control of everything apart from the camera gives you a much better chance of seeing things more creatively.
You have to start thinking perhaps about close shots, details. Maybe it’s black and white sort of lighting. Perhaps the location you wanted to shoot is not looking great, you have to move on to another one. That teaches you decisiveness. If something is not working, try something else. The time constraint that you have set yourself, or that has been set for you, is working in your favour.
Restricting Time Spurs Efficiency.
In the same vein of becoming more creative when you have little time, you become more efficient with the camera. This is not going to happen overnight, however going out to shoot enough in limited time you will find yourself becoming a much more instinctive photographer.
Simple things like naturally dialing in an exposure compensation will become second nature. As will seeing and understanding the light and, most importantly, seeing new and better compositions. It’s a classic case of the more you practice the better you get.
Standing on a misty hillside waiting for the perfect light for your landscape, you might take two or three shots. Walking around a river side or city centre with limited time, you will see more, shoot more and become so much more efficient at camera craft.
Set Yourself A Time Limited Project
Recently I created a YouTube video along similar lines to this article. In it I explored the concept of one city, one camera, one hour. The concept was that those restrictions would help improve creativity whilst shooting, in much the same way as shooting with a single prime lens does.
I set a date to do the shoot and left home despite the overcast weather. Using a timer on my iPhone I set myself that one hour to shoot and no more. And it worked. Despite the fact that I was simultaneously filming a YouTube video, I saw new shots even in a location I knew well and despite the low overcast weather.
The point is, that by our very nature we don’t want to limit our time. However by setting ourselves a project we can get into the mindset of shooting within a specific timeframe. It doesn't have to be an hour in a pretty city, with a mirrorless camera, it can be the local park on your lunch break with an iPhone.
The key is to set time to the back of your mind and just shoot. If you need to be back at work or somewhere else once your time is up, simply set an alarm to remind you.
As I mentioned at the top, restricting time might seem counterintuitive to many of us. However, if you train your mind to understand that time is not important, the final image is, you will soon find yourself becoming both more creative and more efficient with your camera.
Further Reading
- Prime Time, Using One Lens To Boost Your Creativity
- This Will Improve Your Photographic Creativity In One Hour
- You’re Never Too Old To Learn In Photography
- How Your First Camera Will Shape Your Photography
- Why You Should Embrace Your Photography Fails
- Photographic Composition: The Devil Is In The Details
