Having fun with personal photography, to learn and grow

Having fun photographing people and their crazy hats during the Easter Parade and Bonnet Festival on 5th Ave, Manhattan.

This year I challenged myself in photographing portraits at f/2 only, using the Sony 28-70mm f/2 lens (B&H / Amazon) … and I purposely looking for compositions that worked with the bright overhead sun … still taking care to not lose important elements in the blown highlights. Those constraints did limit who and what I photographed, but I do like the results. I feel that doing this – setting some artificial limitation on the gear I use (or techniques I use), stretches me a bit, and I have to think more about how I approach the topic, and how I photograph any subject. Doing this regularly, helps the entire creative process as a photographer.

I often do this when I have the luxury of not shooting for a professional reason – where I don’t have to deliver to a client’s spec or brief. Where I don’t have to photograph “everything”. For example, two years ago I photographed this same event – the Easter Bonnet Parade, but with only a fish-eye lens. It makes me look for photo opportunities in a different way.