Ideas can be a pane

One of the problems that I have with photography is focusing on a specific subject.  Unless I volunteer or am hired to photograph a concert or a specific group, I just carry my camera with me and take pictures of whatever catches my eye.  When I travel or am out for a hike I never have trouble finding things to photograph, it’s just that I don’t go out with a predetermined subject.

I went to an exhibit once where all of the photographs were of ice shanties.  The photographer decided that he wanted to capture that world in a series of images so he spent a winter (maybe more than one winter) photographing these mini winter homes of ice fishermen and women.  I saw a book of photographs of fire hydrants.  The photographer included a fire hydrant from each of the 50 states.  I read an article about someone who is taking pictures of deer hunters.  One local photographer gained attention by taking a picture of the same tree every day for a year.

I have a difficult time coming up with an idea for a project that documents something.  Once I thought it could be interesting to travel around the state and photograph small-town and roadside taverns.  Then I read about a book that had just been published about Wisconsin taverns.  But, here’s the thing, there are subjects for which I have many photos, like shadows, trees, flowers, windows, musicians, National Parks, stairways and doorways.  But none of these were projects.  Does that matter?  Is a collection of photographs of windows from around the world less interesting than photographs of fire hydrants just because I compiled them after the fact rather than as part of a specific project?  Of course, the problem could be that I just don’t take very interesting pictures.  Regardless of how you look at it, here are a couple of panes to ease my pain.

XTi-7720

7D-7134

The gallery below contains many more paneful photos from Europe and the United States. I hope you have time to look through all of them.

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