When you only take the same photos, you get a little bored.

For the first time in a while,
I took my tripod out this morning to go shooting.

Since it's the Obon holiday period, there are a lot of people out,
so I don't usually go out to shoot very actively.

However, when I checked the state of Mount Fuji this morning,
it looked pretty good.

The clouds looked nice too, so
I thought I'd try some long exposure photography for the first time in a while,
and drove a little ways with my tripod and square filters.

I haven't done this in a while, but
landscape photography is still incredibly fun.
Lately, I've been taking
a lot more snapshots.

Even though I didn't know what to shoot at first, as I kept at it, I gradually learned how to take them in my own way.

Of course, it's still difficult, but
once you get to a point where you can take them to some extent,
the excitement you felt at the beginning starts to fade.

It's not so much that I've gotten better, but rather that I've gotten used to it.
Maybe that's the feeling.

That's why recently, I've started wanting to really dive back into
the landscape photography I used to shoot a lot when I first started with cameras.

Trying it again today,
the flow of shooting is completely different from snapshots.
Setting up the tripod, deciding on the composition.

Attaching the square filters,
thinking about the shutter speed, and shooting while watching the flow of the clouds.
Honestly, it takes effort.


But that effort was really fun today.

Precisely because I've been walking around with light gear
so much lately, the time spent carefully crafting a single photo
felt very fresh.

And it made me realize once again that
I'm better suited to shooting a variety of photos
rather than just one genre.

Shooting landscapes, taking snapshots,
shooting portraits, using film.

There is fun in pursuing one genre for a long time, too.
But in my case, if I do only one thing for too long,
it inevitably becomes a bit monotonous.

When I move to a different genre,
photography becomes difficult again.

If I go back to landscapes, I think again
about long exposures and filters.

If I shoot portraits, I think about light and expressions.
If I use film, even the feeling of taking a single shot changes.
When I change genres, a little bit of that
beginner's feeling returns to me.

I think because I don't know.
I try things because I can't shoot as I imagined.
This feeling might be surprisingly important
for enjoying photography.

Looking back, I tend to cycle through genres I'm obsessed with
about every year and a half.

But when I return after being away for a while,
the way I see things has changed a little from the past.

The way of seeing light that I learned through snapshots helps with landscapes, and
the compositions I carefully thought about in landscapes help with snapshots.

In the end, even if I shoot various genres,
they are all connected somewhere.

When you continue with photography for a long time,
there are times when you inevitably feel a rut.

Like not wanting to shoot much lately, or
feeling like you're only taking the same kinds of photos.

At times like that, maybe you don't have to force yourself
to keep shooting the same things.

Try going back to a genre you used to like, or
try taking out equipment you don't usually use.

You aren't bored; you've just gotten a little too used to it.

Even after 16 years of photography,
there are days like today where I can feel fresh again.

Going back and forth between various genres.
That might be one reason why I've been able to keep enjoying photography for so long.

It was a morning where I felt that,
after shooting landscape photos for the first time in a while.