Specializing on a particular subject in photography has tremendous benefits in terms development of skills and personal branding. However, it is also important to regularly shoot new subjects. The insight from trying new things can enhance the main area of activity.
For me personally, shooting sports, which I started doing a few years ago, was a drastic departure from landscape and stock travel photography that I was doing up to that point. Skills that I acquired by shooting action enabled me to change my approach to travel photography – instead of focussing exclusively on locations, I began actively including people in the photos. In fact, this changed my view of travel itself. After all, human interactions, including visual communication through photographs, are the fundamental basis of our daily activity. Changing the environment in which these interactions occur, which is the essence of travel, add different flavour to human relationships. I believe that capturing this local flavour of the human element is key for adding emotion content to the photos.
From a purely technical standpoint, learning to compose the image quickly and to be decisive in taking the shot, which are important skills for a sports photographer, is very useful for taking portraits of children.
In my personal projects, I aim to add variety to the shots through consciously pushing my comfort limits by using new techniques (both during the shoot and in post-processing) and exploring new subjects.
