Comfort Zone Syndrome

As with everything in life, you are susceptible to falling into a routine with your photography – a comfort zone syndrome. A comfort zone could put your photography at risk of becoming dull, monotonous and routine.

Being a full time professional and running a very active photography group on Facebook, doesn’t leave much time to take photos. So whenever I did have the time, I went for the sure and safe shot. I only bothered attempting something that I was really used to and was certain would work, but all that work eventually came down to only macros and routine captures.

When that comfort zone syndrome affects your photography, there is a pretty good chance that you won’t notice it. If you find yourself choosing the same (or similar) locations over and over again, exact same background, shooting at a particular time of the day with a preferred set of weather conditions. You may be limiting yourself to photographing only one or two genres over and over again. Check out your recent photos. If more than half are similar one to another, then you are already stuck in a bad habit which you need to quickly break.

If you find yourself stuck in this rut, you need to step out of it and start widening your horizons. It is ultimately for your own good. I’m not saying that you need to specifically drop macro and start shooting street from tomorrow. Try something new and different from what you are accustomed to.

Being a DSLR shooter was one of my comfort zones. I also wanted to tell story using my images which till now needed a long detailed explanation in words to describe about them. I always loved to create images which talk for themselves. Over the years I have lost that ability as the macros hardly tell story when you get extremely close to them.

I was lucky enough to get my hands on Mirrorless camera. So here are few captures I did using Fujifilm X-T1 using Fujinon Lens XF50-140mm F2.8 R LM OIS lens and nothing else. This was not a macro lens. I also refrained from using flash. Closest focus of this lens was 1 meter. That forced me to think out of the box and compelled me to create captures which are not my routine. Hope these captures will make you too get cured of your Comfort Zone Syndrome.

Changing up your photography routine is refreshing – refreshing for your creativity, gives you loads of motivation, and you will surprise yourself. You have nothing to lose, except maybe some time and megabytes, but those are nothing compared to how much you will gain in knowledge and motivation. You may even find fresh inspiration by dusting off some routines you haven’t used in a long time.