Bring the Camera Anyways

While in Nashville for my sisters wedding, some of the family spent a day at the local zoo. The Jeremiah from a year ago would have left his camera at home. Why? Well, because I don’t typically take photos of animals or wildlife or anything of the sort. I don’t own any crazy zoom lenses or really know the first thing about “wildlife” photography. That hasn’t ever been my niche, so I wouldn’t expect myself to produce any work that I’d be proud of.

My go-to focal length is usually 35mm, but all the images from this day were shot at 85mm.

I am very hard on myself when it comes to my passions, so I often fall into the trap of doing what I know I’m good at. However, something that I have done a much better job of over the past year is bringing the camera into situations that I normally wouldn’t, ignoring any of my preconceived ideas around what kind of images I’d create. Forcing myself into uncomfortable photography settings has opened up my lens to a whole new variety of scenes and subjects that it previously would have never come across.

Plus, who said I only had to take photos of animals while at the zoo? I also took several images that were more akin to what I’d normally shoot, just in a different setting; an opportunity I would have otherwise missed had I left the camera at the Airbnb.

My hot date let me take a couple photos of her while we walked the zoo.

I have created more images, images that I am proud of, this year than any other year that I’ve owned a camera. I attribute a big part of that to bringing the camera where and when I otherwise wouldn’t.

As creatives (and humans) it’s easy to fall back on what we’re good at, and that’s okay! You’re probably good at those things because you do them so often. So don’t be afraid to put those hard-earned skills to use in other areas; you might be surprised with the results!