Find beauty in ugliness

As a photographer, most of the times we want our work to attract viewers to stay. Sometimes it can be a great portrait, canvas prints and sometimes it can be an epic portrait. However, most of us don't actually have a lot of exposure or exposure to the elements that help us create great photographs, and we rarely have the opportunity to have a professional photography studio of our own. Facing this situation, we need to learn to find inspiration from the ordinary and ordinary things around us, and to know that beauty is often hidden in life.

Albrecht Durer, a famous German painter, once said, "For artists who can find beauty, nature is a cornucopia of beauty. Beauty is in the ordinary, cheap canvas print even in the ugly things. The obvious perfect things, in the end, may not be the real beauty. His famous painting "The Great Piece of Turf" is the best evidence for this. As a result, even for modern urbanites living in concrete jungles, there are elements of natural beauty in our lives, and these elements often contain endless creativity. The elements here may be plants like trees and flowers, but they can also be ugly things like weeds or the side of the road that are often overlooked.

Another reason to seek the truth of beauty in ugliness is that we are attracted to imperfection, which is human nature. Imagine if the last photograph that caught your attention was a photo shopped image of a magazine Model with flawless skin, or the face of a wrinkled old woman? The more interesting things in life are often imperfect. We like to be closer to reality than to create the ideal of perfection. Therefore, this spirit of inquiry for interesting things prompts us to seek beauty out of ugliness and bring back things that are often ignored.

In seeking beauty from the mundane or the ugly, we need to try to change our minds and learn to abandon the obvious. We can start from our daily living environment, including our living and working environment. All the photos in this project are taken from my neighborhood and the campus where I work. The goal is to see the world in a different way and take different pictures. Remember, it's the way we look at things that matters, not the quality of the equipment in our hands, so we can use the convenience of a Smartphone as a camera to try and discover the beauty of the unknown. Here are some shooting tips to help us get off to a better start.

Low Angle, close to the beat

Lives neglected imperfections, such as leaves and weeds, rusty hinges, and peeling walls, are all good subject matter. If properly filmed, it is as beautiful as a blooming rose. However, when shooting these subjects, we need to put down our bodies and try to shoot at a low Angle.

Enlarge main details

If you happen to have a macro lens in your hand, you're lucky enough to use it to get the effect we want. Otherwise, we need to make good use of the available lens resources and know the nearest focusing distance of the lens. If there is no macro lens and no close-up lens, we can also crop the photos properly in the later stage to highlight the details of the subject, but this requires us to ensure the quality of the photos in the early stage. Remember that our smart phones are actually a great tool for macro photography, and they often have close focus.

Looking for comparison

The "contrast" we emphasize here is not just a contrast in tone, but any element in the photo that gives a visual sense of contrast, such as the contrast of the material of the object or the contrast of the state of motion.

The main emphasis in the figure above is on the contrast of the material, the contrast between the rusty metal and the cracked surface. I have to say that texture is really our best friend to create interesting images, even if they don't look very beautiful, through contrast can create fun.

Trigger deep thinking

Never underestimate the power of symbolism. When we see a photograph that is not beautiful but full of a sense of desolation, we instinctively understand that the photograph is intended to convey a feeling of loneliness, loneliness or oblivion. In recent years, it seems that photographing some "relics" far from the hustle and bustle has become a new trend. Many photographers like to go deep into the abandoned or forgotten locations to find the material and hope to add the feeling of mystery, loneliness or terror to their photos. On the contrary, when we see a picture of a flower blooming in the rubble, we feel hope again. Therefore, we should learn to use the tool of "symbol" to enhance the power of photos.

Don't forget the ultimate artifact of photography: light

Light is enough to make ordinary things new, and learning to use light is always a must for anyone who wants to be a photographer. When we find and plan to photograph an object, walk around it a few times before composing, observe the changes in the light at different locations, see if there is a beam of light pouring down on the subject, or see if there is an opportunity to photograph the light of god using the dental effect. But even at noon, we can still use the shadow created by sunlight to make interesting pictures.

In the end, you may find that by focusing on finding interesting subjects between the weeds and the gutters, this approach will also benefit us in our photography of other subjects. If we usually just focus on the beautiful and perfect moments or things, we will miss many wonderful moments. Next time you're filming a wedding or a child's birthday party. Even if we encounter unplanned situations or imperfect moments, we can take it in stride and shoot better works. Instead, these works will become the focus of discussion among friends and relatives in the future, Floating Frame Canvas Prints and will be remembered for years.