Detours in your photography - both temporary and permanent
Thursday, May 24, 2012 at 3:22PM Jason Collin 
Have you taken more temporary or permanent detours with your photography?Your photography path should take detours. Some of them will be temporary, while others will be permanent. A temporary detour can come when you get a new lens and are able to make a photograph you could not before. You may take a few month detour into only producing HDR images, which often happens when a photographer discovers this Pandora's Box of photography techniques.
Permanent detours can arise with increased photography knowledge. These can be detours in personal shooting style, subject matter and shooting techniques. The horrible vignettes you used to put on every portrait you made early in your photography career? The detour away from those cannot come soon enough! Blurry night images because you did not have a tripod? Gone once you invest in a proper one.
I have made several significant, permanent detours in my (relatively) brief professional photography career. I started out thinking I would work with others, but that really turned into more of a temporary detour. I was focused on weddings and portraits, but a free business meeting consultation lead to my biggest detour to date switching my focus to commercial, event and teaching photography.
That was last year's big detour. I expect another one will come sometime this year.
My photography tip then is to expect photography detours and recognize which ones will be temporary, and which ones will be permanent.
Reader Comments (2)
Do I need any special equipment or modifications? I have a Nikon D50, if that is any help. Thanks.
It depends on what you want to photograph and how you want to photograph it if you need special equipment. Can you be more specific?