Can familiarity help or hinder your photography?

As I browse social media posts, there is no doubt that I am drawn to the amazing images captured in exotic and exciting far away destinations. It would be very easy to believe that this is in fact, the only way to make images that are attention grabbing and compelling. However, if my photographic journey in the last 10 years has taught me one very important thing, that is; that it is absolutely NOT necessary to travel the globe to make beautiful images.

I moved to the Netherlands from the UK eleven years ago, expecting a brown, flat and uninspiring landscape. In fact, the complete opposite has happened, and I am in constant awe that I can make new and exciting images literally on my doorstep year on year. I often ask myself why this is.

Without question, I now know my immediate location like the back of my hand. I know exactly where the sun rises and sets at any given point in the year. I know the month the cow parsley flowers in the verges. I know the trees turn a beautiful golden colour at the end of October, and know that if it rains in the evening and is warm the next morning, we are almost guaranteed low-lying mist. So, the question I pose here, is whether this familiarity with my surroundings helps or hinders my photography. An interesting question to ponder.

Without question, being familiar with something can bring massive benefits. If you are familiar with something, you will find the experience that it offers is comfortable, easy, secure and supportive. All these feelings can help immensely with the ability to make beautiful images.

With these feelings, confidence can develop, and you can blossom and develop as a photographer. For me, being familiar with my surroundings has allowed me to concentrate on expressing my creativity, exploring new techniques and being open to experimentation. I’m never worried that I will ‘miss a shot’ because I’m only in that location for a few days. I know for a fact that the desire not to miss out can have a massive negative impact on my willingness to be explorative with my photography. This desire to push the boundaries and play and see what happens without expectation, is what keeps this doorstep location exciting for me.

I feel the need to return to the word ‘confidence’ at this point and to reiterate just how important that having confidence in your own ability can be to develop your journey as a photographer. Self-doubt can be a massive inhibitor to the journey forward, and being familiar with where you photograph can really help negate selfdoubts. I refer to landscape and creative photography in my article, but just think how much more confident you can be photographing families or pets in a location you know, or new-borns or still life using a lighting set up and backdrops you know.

The images I share with this writing, have all been made within 50 metres of my front door, and hopefully you will recognise the diversity, and explorative nature of them. As a set they are not so cohesive, but my aim was to show how familiarity can encourage you to push boundaries. You will see simple traditional photography, mingled with Intentional Camera Movement (ICM), multiple exposures and experimentation in focus point selection.

Making the choice of just these images was insanely difficult, because along with the wider landscape style images you see here, I also love to isolate details and individual elements that capture my eye within the location.

I love the outdoors, living immersed in it, allows me to react immediately if something catches my eye. With absolutely no planning I’ve been known to turn dinner off and grab my camera to photograph the sunset I’ve just noticed through the kitchen window. Or to pull on my wellies and open the door, picking up my camera as I leave, because I have heard the honking of the passing migration of geese flying over the house.

Of course, familiarity, can without also have negative effects. You may find you lose the feeling of a challenge, you may become bored or over confident. But even these negatives can have a positive effect if you recognise them. After all, if you recognise that feeling of needing to move on and challenge yourself, that has to be positive –it means that your photographic journey is forward moving and not stagnating.

As time has passed over eleven years, it would have been very easy for me to become bored or over confident with my location, and almost not see it as an opportunity for a photographic foray. But by recognising the variation in opportunities it offers, I have remained intrigued, stimulated and excited by it. I almost treat it as a playground for experimentation.

Without question, for me, familiarity is a positive thing. It allows me to make reactive and spontaneous images. It allows me to concentrate on creativity, and not dwell on the technical aspects of photography. It encourages me to experiment and play. It has built my confidence and allowed me to develop skills which I utilise wherever I photograph. So next time you feel that travel to a new location is necessary to invigorate your photography, ask if there are opportunities on your doorstep, in your front garden or in your neighborhood that you have been missing.