This is a sound advice, because choosing the subject based on your current activity makes use of your pre-existing interest and expertise in this area. In my case, this natural selection of the topic happened several times. First, I became interested in travel photography, because my job took me to conferences all over the world. Second, working at the University, I started shooting sporting events involving our student-athletes. Now, I am doing dance and performance photography for a local school, where my daughter takes ballet classes.
Dance photography is a fascinating area. I find that because dance itself is an inherently beautiful form of art, it removes a lot of pressure to create a beautiful image from the photographer – the subject is already beautiful! Perhaps, people like photographing flowers for the same reason.
On the other hand, I was never seriously interested in dancing myself, but through my daughter’s fascination with dance and through learning how to photograph it, I find that my interest in and knowledge of various aspects of it (training methods, performance production, dedication required form the students and the instructors, etc.) also increases. In fact, the idea of enrolling my daughter in a dance class at an early age first came to me when I was assisting another photographer with covering a large year-end performance for the same school. Of course, there were other clues, like her spontaneously starting to dance while watching a DVD of “Tales of Beatrix Potter
