What Hobbies Do I Need to Start Photography?
One of the more curious questions we’ve seen come up from people considering picking up photography as a hobby is…”what hobbies do I need to start photography?
It’s a strange question because it implies that you have to use skills from another hobby to become good at photography. That’s not really true!
While it’s hard to wrap our heads around what people are meaning when they ask this, we see it in two ways:
- What hobbies will make it easier for me to learn the ropes of photography?AND…
- What hobbies will be cool to photograph?
With these questions in mind, we’ll get into the heart of our post today 🙂
What hobbies make it easier to learn photography?
1). Drawing/Painting
A lot of artistic hobbies have some serious overlap with the skills you’d want to apply to photography. Drawing and painting are very methodological, and in a lot of ways more challenging than photography because your subject is more in the mind than right in front of your eyes.
Anyone who is able to visualize a scene well enough to draw and paint it will likely have an easy time applying their mental acuity to visualizing photography compositions.
2). Fishkeeping
Back in his more formative years, Chris (one half of this website’s author duo) worked at a pet store – specifically in the aquarium section. It’s a job that was surprisingly involved and complex at times – as he had to learn, mostly on his own, all of the nuances of maintaining proper ecosystems and offering stability to a wide variety of fish. If unsuccessful, fish would get sick and even die. When successful, the fish would absolutely flourish.
Here is a small little tidbit on how fishkeeping offers some skills to someone wanting to learn photography:
[blockquote align=”left” author=”Chris (Formed From Light)”]Fishkeeping requires a lot of technical skill and knowledge. When I started learning about white balance in photography, I (strangely enough) actually referred to all my experience with the Kelvin scale for aquarium lighting. While many of the skills won’t directly translate to photography, the learning curve is very similar. Basically – if you can keep fish successfully in a tank, you’ll have no problem picking up a camera and learning the ropes. [/blockquote]
And who knows…maybe one day you’ll set up a fish tank and take pictures of those fish, too!
3). Travel/Hiking
We have found that our combined love for the outdoors in the form of hiking (both local and around the world) and travel (also local, but especially around the country and world) has translated well to helping us learn photography easier.
Sure, you will not learn how to “take a picture” by taking a hike in the woods – but we have found that inspiration is a huge thing.
For example, we had a very limited interest in landscape photography until we traveled to Iceland with our cameras. The landscape was so unique and beautiful that taking landscape pictures came so naturally there. Since that trip in 2017, we’ve gone on a few others around the United States, photographing natural landscapes.
At it’s core, this inspiration has turned into fuel for us to want to continue honing and refining our skills. At times, like when we visited Death Valley in California, we have also experimented with new techniques like long exposure astrophotography – something we really can’t do in our part of the world because there is so much pollution.
4). Graphic Design
For the past 6 years, Jes (the 2nd half of our website author duo!) has been a professional graphic designer. She graduated with a BA in graphic arts, and has applied it steadily to a range of clients at her day job. Her graphic design work has also been incorporated into all of our photography business branding – logos and so on.
In some ways, graphic design at times can be very similar to drawing and painting. Some things just require being able to visualize something in your head and create it out of thin air. In other ways, it significantly overlaps with photography because photos are used in many designs.
We utilize graphic design abilities to help us edit photos for the many weddings and sessions we shoot. Jes’ skill with Lightroom and Photoshop helps us to get consistent, color balanced, and artistic photo edits that our clients love.
[blockquote align=”left” author=”Jes (Formed From Light)”]Graphic design and arts in general have always been a passion of mine since a young age. These skills have really benefited our photography business because we haven’t had to outsource any of our design work and can keep it more personal. The biggest way it’s benefited our photography in general, though, has been in how I can edit images – from making adjustments to color to swapping heads and removing unwanted things from the background. It’s a great skill to have![/blockquote]
5). Bird Watching
We see so many people mixing photography with bird watching that it would be a crime not to mention this.
For younger photographers, bird watching might seem like an “old person’s game”, but it really isn’t. Okay, so we’ve pulled up to locations and definitely took note of the 60+ year old crowd gathered around with binoculars and cameras with long telephoto lenses, but our feelings have always been more those of jealousy.
The great thing about bird watching as a hobby is that is requires people to slow down. Set aside a chunk of time, go to a prime spot to see the type of bird(s) you want to see, and wait. While we love the rapid and quick style of photography that we often employ, some of the greatest photographs taken have been the result of waiting around for the perfect timing.
If you have the patience to be a bird watcher, you have a great subject for photographs (the birds!) and a critical skill to make your photography better: patience and an ability to pay attention.
What hobbies are cool to photograph?
There are pretty much an infinite number of hobbies – and they are all pretty much something that can be photographed. Of course, some might be more on the boring side – like taking pictures of someone playing World of Warcraft on the computer (if you feel differently, let us know). We’ve gone ahead and put together a list of some hobbies that could actually be really cool to photograph. By no means is this an exhaustive list, but you might find it useful if you are wanting to find some new photography subject too!
1). Dancing
From ballet to interpretive dance, this is a hobby that is so widely diverse and just begging to be photographed.
In more formal venues, photographing ballet dancers as a part of a larger theatrical production would give a really compelling and Shakespearean vibe.
On the other end, you could find a single dancer and go to some remote and epic location to photograph dance moves in a really powerful landscape.
The possibilities here are really endless!
2). Cooking
Cooking is a hobby most people can get behind. Whether you’re just experimenting with some Pinterest recipes at home, experimenting with others at a cooking class, or observation professional chefs create masterworks of food…the sky is the limit here.
The most obvious subject for cooking photography is the food itself. This is a HUGE photography niche on it’s own. Some photographers specialize in making food look great on camera.
Of course, cooking isn’t exclusively about the food itself. Taking candid photos of people prepping and working together can be just as (if not more) interesting.
3). Skateboarding
We mention skateboarding with a little bias – Chris has been skateboarding for the last 15 years now. It’s been the one sport that has consistently turned out impressive photographs over the years in his book.
What makes skateboarding so compelling to photograph is because there are very few limits. Skateboarders can do their thing really anywhere – a skate park, downtown in the street, and anywhere in the world. This diversity paired with the skill required from the skateboarders themselves can make for some really cool shots.
Not to mention, if you happen to follow any professional skateboarder photographers like Atiba Jefferson, they also showcase some impressive photography skills through the use of off camera flash to nail shots regardless of the lighting.
Like skateboarding, pretty much any extreme sports will photograph great!
4). Team Sports
Going in another direction in the world of sports, team sports like basketball, soccer, and baseball are all great hobbies for photography. There is a reason why photos of these sports have graced the covers of magazines like Sports Illustrated for decades.
5). Gardening
We never really saw the photographic potential of a garden before we walked through our friend Farmer Fred’s backyard garden. He is the personality behind Plant Smart Living – a gardening lifestyle website and YouTube channel with over 10,000 subscribers. You can see one of his videos showing a virtual tour of his space:
[penci_video url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sc2GOCLYSd8″ align=”center” width=”” /]
What we have come to learn is how much goes into tending a garden. Like photography, it really is a little bit art, and a little bit science that come together to produce an array of natural life.
It turns out, the garden is just perfect for taking photos.
Who doesn’t like pictures of flowers? That is just one subject among many that you may find.
Personally, we find the details of the garden to be most interesting, so it’s something that caters really well to exploring macrophotography.
6). Home Renovations
We recently bought a home (yay us!). While it was in pretty decent shape, some of the indoor styles were leftover from the 70’s and 80’s without much updating going on since. Given we’re coming up on 2020 here, the house is pretty dated by 40 or 50 years.
Fortunately, our home renovation projects have been planned out well so we could rejuvenate the house pretty easily. It’s amazing what changing out the flooring and putting down a new coat of paint can do to a house.
Photographing your own home renovations can be a fun way to document these changes.
One of the most recent things we changed out was an old and gross light fixture. We went out to Target and found this really cool light – the Project 62 + Leanne Ford Hanging Natural Woven pendant Lamp – and since installing it’s been such a cool fixture to photograph. On one hand, it’s cool because it’s our handywork – we changed out the lamp all by ourselves and updated our home. But, more than this, this lamp is legit a piece of art in itself. It really shines (no pun intended) at night when we turn on the light and it casts some really cool shadows on the walls in our home.
7). Larping
Live action role playing (LARP) is like the Renaissance Faire brought to any time period and capable of being held at virtually any location that will allow it. If that sounds remotely fun to you, then just know…it is!
What is so cool about larping when it’s done well is the people are dressing up and interacting in a fashion vastly different than how we interact normally in the modern world. Most larping events take us back to medieval time periods reminiscent of Game of Thrones and other period pieces.
8). Origami
We will be the first to admit – we don’t have the patience, time, or finger dexterity to make origami. Still, it’s a hobby that we find fascinating.
Over the years, we’ve been exposed to great origami works that a friend of ours gives us as gifts on occasion. Most recently, we photographed some engagement photos where the girl incorporated a number of origami swans tied together. From talking with her, they had a personal connection for her because of her family heritage, along with it being a fun hobby she enjoyed.
It turns out…origami is also a cool photography subject. Smaller pieces are great for macrophotography, too.
9). Weight Lifting
Whether you like lifting weights yourself, or would rather just be an observer lifting a camera…it’s actually a pretty cool sport for photography.
The reason why weight lifting is so interesting for photography is because there are many opportunities to play with light to create really dramatic and intense photos. And by INTENSE – that’s one of the key elements here, too. Whether at a local gym, home gym, or on a pro powerlifter circuit – the people participating in lifting heavy weights are pushing the limits of what human beings can do. This intensity translates into photography so well, and makes it an interesting hobby to photograph for that reason!
10). Cosplay
Cosplay is the end result of nerd culture wanting to bring characters from books, TV, and movies to real life. Cosplayers have created an artform all their own as they assemble materials and props to build out their character.
What gets us most interested in cosplay is how people make it possible for photographers to capture images of beloved characters that we otherwise have only ever pictured in our heads, or at best, seen in film.
Being able to photograph a cosplayer really nailing their costume for Spiderman, Luke Skywalker, Jon Snow, Iron Man, Harry Potter…and you can see why this can be a really cool, if not surreal, hobby to photograph.
11). Woodworking
It’s pretty silly, but we were turned on to woodworking through Park and Recreation’s Ron Swanson. Played by the comedic actor Nick Offerman – he is actually a woodworker “in real life.” Through exploring some of his creations, and pairing this with our home renovations we mentioned earlier, it’s turned out to be something we find really fascinating.
Often, our exposure to woodworking is very much at the consumer level. We buy things that were created in factories. The things created by hand, though, are a really special thing.
12). Travel
Earlier in this post we talked about how travel has been influential in shaping how we learned photography. It goes without saying, documenting your travels is also one of the “must do” photography styles out there.
While it is very possible that photography in the same locations again-and-again can get pretty bland, there is always something new to be discovered when traveling around. So whether you just want to take a 1 hour road trip somewhere relatively close by, or get on a plane and fly across the planet – travel photography is really an amazing thing!
