Matt Bango Photography

I had posted a quote to my iPhone As Art site recently that I’ve been making an effort to follow. The quote is by landscape photographer Morley Baer, and says:

“Quit trying to find beautiful objects to photograph. Find the ordinary objects so you can transform it by photographing it.”

I believe this quote is a fantastic piece of advice that more photographers need to think about and understand. Now that photographers can shoot digitally, there is no reason not to experiment and test ideas, rather than waiting or searching for the perfect photo opportunity. My typical workflow is to find a bird (or scene) that I want to photograph, set up my gear, then wait for the shot I’m trying to get. However, after paying more attention to this quote and ideology, I have taken several photographs that I normally wouldn’t have.

The following image of a Louisiana Waterthrush perching on a fence in Central Park is a perfect example of using this advice. Bird photographers, myself included, tend to not press the shutter when a bird is on a man made object. I’m glad I did because I believe it is a powerful image that illustrates man’s impact on birds and wildlife.

The next two images are images that I took even though I wasn’t happy with the lighting and environments. I typically wouldn’t have even set up to shoot either of these shots, however I think they turned out well.

Look around you, there are great photo opportunities anywhere you live. You don’t need to live near Yosemite National Park to make beautiful images like Ansel Adams.

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