I love to travel. It is one of the joys my family really likes to allow itself. And my camera likes the travel too. All of a sudden there are so many interesting and exotic scenes to point the lens toward. I almost feel I need a second camera to help capture all the wonderful colors, textures, people, buildings, and landscapes I come across.
But this year has been different. Due to varying circumstance I have had less opportunity to travel and this has pushed my photography. I’ve had to force myself to make images of things much more common to me. It feels less exciting- less exotic! I’ve known there is plenty of interesting subject matter within a short distance of my home, and even inside my home. But compared to the new and exciting images to be made afar, staying near takes more effort, more work.
Thankfully, Stuart Sipahigil of “The Light Without” blogging fame, comes to some rescue in the latest ebook release from the good folks over at Craft and Vision. Stuart makes a case for photographing close to home and challenges the idea of “ordinariness” by making a case for the extraordinariness in ordinary things. He encourages the reader to slow down, be disciplined, to “lift up the ordinary”, and become a stranger in your own town. Filled with beautifully stunning images all taken within close proximity of his home, Close to Home is a book to read and re-read to break out of your ordinary viewpoint into a more liberated viewpoint so that better images can be created.
I very much enjoyed reading Close to Home and gleaned lots of possibilities as well. It is a timely book.
Special Offer on PDFs
For the first five days only, if you use the promotional code HOME4 when you checkout, you can have the PDF version of Close to Home for only $4 OR use the code HOME20 to get 20% off when you buy 5 or more PDF ebooks from the Craft & Vision collection. These codes start at 1:00am PST, October 28, 2010 and expire at 11:59pm PST November 1, 2010.