3 Photography Exercises Worth Trying in Your Neighborhood

No grand mountain vistas or stunning Renaissance architecture near you? No problem. It doesn’t mean you can’t go out with your camera and capture some great images. There are three exercises—or projects—I like to do in my local towns or when I travel. They're a lot of fun. And a huge bonus is they do help make you a better photographer too, because they help you to see. Really see.

Seeing Color

There’s color everywhere, if we look hard enough. An everyday scene that we take for granted can be a fantastic subject. We just need to see beyond the obvious. We need to appreciate the objects in the scene, however mundane. Once we can see and appreciate color in everyday scenes, a whole new world of photographic possibilities opens up.

I enjoy looking for color in small details—a pipe on a wall, or an object sitting in a window. But there can also be some impactful compositions to be found with vast areas of color, like a painted wall.

My favorite compositions I seek out feature multiple objects that are complementary colors—a red crate against a green wall, for example. Sometimes two or three objects of equal size can work well to create an abstract photo, but often I find one color dominating a scene, with a small splash of complementary color, works best.

Abstract minimalist photos featuring color make the best art to print large and put on a wall, in my opinion.

Tip: Polarizing filters eliminate glare and can help saturate colors.

Capture Culture

We move on from abstract art to a more storytelling-based exercise. Although, it can be done in a very artistic and abstract way.

I always enjoy trying to capture a “sense of place” wherever I go, even if it’s to a nearby town. I aim to create a series of images that communicate to the viewer what that place is like, who lives there, and share some clues about their culture. Food and drink establishments, in particular, are a great way to do this—what they enjoy eating and drinking, and how. In some cultures, for example, standing at a bar for a minute to drink an espresso is part of daily life. In other cultures, sitting in a coffee shop with a laptop is part of daily life for many.

One way I enjoy approaching this is by shooting through store windows and using reflections to build up a layered story. You can give clues to what goes on inside, while at the same time giving clues to what the street life looks like. Think someone in a fish and chip shop in London, with reflections of red double-decker buses or a London landmark in the glass.

A slight variation of this exercise idea is to just focus on abstract layers and not worry too much about the storytelling aspect. Capturing culture is more of a documentary photography approach, but focusing on the abstractions in layers is purely art photography. Maybe do both!

Tip: Take that polarizing filter off now—embrace glare and reflections.

Embracing Chaos

Having spoken to many photographers who share my enjoyment of travel and street photography, one of the things that has come up multiple times is the frustration of having too many people on the streets. It can get too chaotic, particularly when there’s an event or festival going on. Sometimes it’s hard to move, let alone take photos.

Well, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. I’ve been wanting to use that phrase for a long time, and it certainly applies here! Embrace all of that chaos and work with it.

This is possibly one of the best exercises you can do to improve your composition skills. You have to work hard and really look and anticipate—and be quick to shoot. It can be quite the challenge, but very rewarding when you capture the perfect fleeting moment, when all the people in your photo are perfectly positioned to create a well-balanced composition.

This means no one is overlapping, no one is partially covered so you don’t know what’s going on. Everything—or everyone—in the frame tells a little story, and everything works together aesthetically.

I was in London recently at the British Museum and, at first, was frustrated because it was so crowded. I wanted to shoot wide and capture the stunning interior and show the magnificent architecture. But all the people there ruined that idea. Bloody tourists! So instead, I stood on a staircase and looked down at everyone milling about, and realized this was an opportunity to capture chaos in a pleasing, well-balanced way. There was a food stand people were walking past. Some stopped to look. So I decided that was the anchor. I gave myself the task of patiently waiting for everyone to be in the perfect position within my frame. And eventually they were, and I’m very happy with the result.

I did this again a couple of weeks ago in Toronto, which you can watch in the video. I found a spot to sit, which makes things much easier. I find I hang around longer when sitting. I used a really wide lens that day, to increase the drama in the layers.

Try doing this at your local market, it’s a lot of fun.

Tip: This exercise works best with a wide lens. 20mm to 28mm is my preferred focal distance, but 35mm can work well also.

Do you have a go-to project or exercise you do locally or when you’re somewhere when the conditions aren’t so favorable? Let me know in the comments.