Photography Without Labels

When Trevor asked me to contribute Cityscape and Landscape articles to the site last year I was honored. 2010 was a great learning year for me and in 2011, I’ve been able to reflect on all of my hard work for the past 365 days.  Honoring the gems and realizing my mistakes, It’s allowed me to focus on this new year with a new mind frame.  One thing I decided to remove is the word “scape” from my categories of work. I prefer to use the terms “City” & “Land”.  For me this broadens the subject matter for which I can write about, because recently I’ve been shooting a lot of different subject matter when it comes to city and land photography.  When I think of the word “scape”, I think of skyline shots, and sunsets over the ocean, but in fact city and land photography is so much more than that. In my recent adventures I’ve found ways to produce city and land images together, like the examples below.

A lot of you that follow my PhotoBlog, might know that I’ve been on an Urban Exploration (UrbEx) obsession in recent months.  This too could fall into the city and or land category.  Whether I was shooting in an abandoned building in the city, or maybe a run down farm in the country. Photography needs categories, but the labels for me are quickly beginning to diminish. Sure I’ll add #hash tags and keywords to my work for search reasons, which is a good way to attract a diverse audience and is something you should all be practicing.

Good photog pals of mine Mike Olbinski and Brian Matiash, just had a conversation about this subject over the holidays. They don’t want to be labeled as solely HDR photographers.  HDR is a technique used in photography, but shouldn’t be used to label a tog as one type of shooter. I believe the Mike and Brian produce amazing work no matter what kind of labels are associated with it. At the end of the day we are all doing what we love and that is photography.

I leave you with this thought.  Pick up your camera and shoot.  Process images that best suits your vision. When your done experimenting will all facets of photography, don’t live by any one label.  Make yourself known and all the photogs in the world as simply photographers, with a passion to create compelling imagery no matter what the post process may be.

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Scott Frederick

Scott Frederick is known for his photography of land, city and urban exploration. His styles vary from HDR to fine art black and white including minimalism. When not using his DSLR, he likes to use the iPhone Hipstamatic app for fun. He is an avid blogger and social networker, who strives to inspire everyone to see the world through photography. He’s been awarded Editor’s Pick at HDRSpotting.com and continues to educate himself and others on new tools and techniques. Feel free to ask him any questions you may have about photography.

www.scottfrederickphotography.com