Lee Frost - 50 Photo Projects - Ideas to Kickstart Your Photography

How often do you break out of your creative comfort zone and try something new? When was the last time you threw caution to the wind and took a photographic risk?

The reality is that few of us do. Its easier to stick to the same old routine and play it safe, especially in this digital age when modern cameras produce perfect pictures with minimal input from the user.

Unfortunately, predictability doesnt necessarily encourage creativity and originality. Quite the opposite in fact usually it breeds boredom and complacency. If you take the same journey to work each morning, eventually it becomes so familiar that you no longer see anything along the way. If you eat the same meals day-in, day-out, eventually you stop tasting the food.

Its the same in photography. Shoot the same subjects using the same techniques and equipment for too long and if youre not careful you will find yourself in a creative rut, devoid of ideas and inspiration. Photographers who specialize in one subject area are especially at risk and must evaluate what theyre doing every now and then in order to avoid going stale.

I found myself in this position a few years ago. Having started out in photography as an all-rounder keen to try anything, my range gradually began to narrow as I channelled my energy towards one main area landscape photography.

The benefit of specializing was that my photography improved. I was more focused, and though I produced fewer images they were of a higher quality. However, eventually I began to feel that I was missing out. I would see the diverse work of other photographers in books and magazines and envy them. I wanted to break out and experiment with new ideas, techniques and subjects. I yearned to push the boundaries of my creativity and see just how far I could go. My photographs were good, but they were becoming predictable, and I knew that unless I took radical action my long-term success as a photographer would be in jeopardy.

Digital technology acted as a catalyst in this process. I could see my contemporaries making the switch to digital capture, but I wasnt ready; partly because there was still a lot I wished to achieve with film and partly because I feared that if I did take the digital route it would add to my problems rather than solve them. Consequently, I made the decision to give new technology a wide berth and concentrate instead on alternative approaches to image-making.

In the spring of 2006 I discovered toy cameras, which made me realize that you really dont need expensive, high-end equipment to create wonderful images and that technology can often stifle creativity. I then started to experiment with vintage Polaroid cameras, producing images that are almost as instant as those from a digital camera but worlds apart in terms of expression and individuality. Pinhole cameras were my next port of call and I revelled in the art of making photographs with a camera that not only lacks a lens but a viewfinder as well, giving a whole new meaning to the phrase point and shoot.

Ive never been much of an equipment fan and for many years I produced the bulk of my work with just a couple of cameras and a limited range of lenses. But suddenly I had a bizarre collection of cameras in various sizes, shapes and forms, from ancient Kodak Box Brownies and crude Russian rangefinders to modified Polaroid models and vintage bellows cameras all purchased with the purpose of putting them to good use and making unique images.

I also began to take tentative steps towards digital capture. I started carrying a digital compact with me and using it like a visual sketchbook to grab pictures as and when they caught my eye. My flatbed scanner was pressed into service as a large-format digital camera with surprising results. I even purchased a second-hand digital SLR and had it modified to record infrared light an area of photography I used to explore with infrared film.

These creative meanderings were just what my photography needed. They introduced unpredictability, because I was continually trying things for the first time and never quite knowing what the outcome would be, and they allowed me to create images that were totally different to anything Id achieved before.

I found myself once more excited about picking up a camera and making images and the more I experimented, the more motivated I became. Creatively I felt totally revitalized and reborn. My passion for photography had been reignited and I can honestly say that I am more inspired now than at any other point in my life as a photographer.

This book has been written to help you avoid that creative black hole by providing a range of inspirational ideas that will keep your own passion for photography alive. As well as equipment-based assignments that involve working with alternative and unusual cameras like those mentioned above, there are subject-based techniques that will encourage you to broaden your creative horizons and visual exercises designed to help you develop a keener eye for a picture.

I have tried them all many times over and have the pictures to prove it, so I feel confident in saying that this book will seriously improve your photography! It will also open your mind to the amazing potential that photography offers for artistic and self-expression and set you on a path of discovery that will continue for a lifetime.