Photography Tips - Finding Beauty in Mundane Things

When I started my photography adventures after retiring from the university, I would always go out to my garden and take pictures of almost anything that I find there. Since I have a very small garden, most of my pictures were that of flowers, insects, raindrops and anything that catches my fancy. However, during times that the rain is too heavy for raindrops photos, I would wander inside the house and look for something to focus my camera on. That’s when I learned to focus on mundane things and find beauty in them. So how do we find beauty in mundane things?

If you change the angle or perspective at which you view something, then you discover a new facet that you have never seen before and that is when the fun starts.

Just take a look at the first photo on the right. Can you guess what this is? I submitted this photo to a magazine that had a contest on “what is it?” and happily I won. Can you believe that? Anyway, what is your guess?

Take a look at the second photo on the right. Have you ever looked at this object this way? Can you guess what it is?

Just like changing angles, moving closer when you are looking at something makes you discover a new point to focus on. Then you discover a unique symmetry or pattern or texture of that thing. You do not have to guess what the first photo is . Do you see how this shoelace exhibits what a friend told me as “sliding symmetry”?

The second photo exhibits not only symmetry but patterns that normally we do not pay much attention to.

This photo below is something that you may have encountered several times at home but never looked at in this manner.

Since photography is “painting with light”, another way of bringing out the beauty in mundane things is to use the light to enhance the mundane thing. I use the way the light is reflected on the gift wrapper and seen through a transparent bowl to bring out the beauty of these soap bubbles. Don’t you agree that the bubbles make a pretty picture?  

I am sure there are a dozen other ways of bringing out the beauty in mundane things but these three are what I have discovered for now. If you have other ways, please share them here. I would greatly appreciate it.  

http://hubpages.com/hub/Reflections-in-Photography

http://hubpages.com/hub/-Patterns-in-Nature

http://hubpages.com/hub/MAKING-FLOWERS-TALK-A-PHOTOGRAPHY-ADVENTURE

http://hubpages.com/hub/Nature-Abstract-in-Photography