Think what and why, not where

The weather these few days are extreme. One moment it's sunny with puffy white clouds and the next moment it's grey and ominous. Haha but it's mostly rainy... not good for shooting. Whatever, the point is I've not been shooting. So the only thing I can do is to think about photography, instead of doing. This includes looking at more wonderful images (which makes me so depressed), hanging around Clubsnap (which isn't very healthy) and reading photography websites as I contemplate my next lens purchase and drool over pro bodies (lol jk).

In the process of wasting my time, I decided to look through my Flickr stream and all the photos I've taken. And that was when I realised my landscape photography revolved primarily around locations, i.e. I would first start by deciding on where I want to shoot, instead of what to shoot. Reflecting on this now, I think it isn't a good way to approach photography. I think the better way is to think of what to shoot first, rather than 'oh the weather is good today, maybe I should go to ______ to shoot'. By thinking of the what first, it forces us to be more focused in our images, instead of going to a place and then randomly capturing anything that interests us. For example, if your theme is 'morning mist', then go to the place which has the most mist, and not say the best sunrise.

And I would take it a step further: besides thinking of what, also consider the why, because the why will give purpose and meaning to what you do.

I believe if we can think more about the what and why aspects of photography, instead of the where, we can become more focused and purposeful photographers. I'm hoping to do just that :)