While photographers often venture out in search of new places to take photos, sometimes inspiration awaits you at home. Here are some photos I’ve taken at home (and I use the term “at home” a little bit loosely – it could be my home, my dorm room when I was in college, or a friend or family member’s home).
Food photos have become somewhat ubiquitous these days, so it’s hard to get a unique shot of a meal. I was inspired to stand on a chair to get this shot of Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt’s.
At home is a great place to practice portrait photography. I took this photo of my grandmother and her identical twin sister back in 2009.
Out the window can be a source of inspiration. I took the photo above out my dorm room window in college after a rainstorm. I took the photo below out my bedroom window in spring. I used a fast lens at a wide aperture to blur the outside.
Sometimes I find photographic inspiration in my own yard. On a foggy day, I thought the trees across the street in the above photo looked interesting. I took the photo of the tree below in my front yard, as well as the top photo in this post.
On a different occasion, I took a photo of a praying mantis in that same tree at night. Yes, I did illuminate him with a flash.
To get the above shot of a hummingbird, I just fired off a bunch of shots, adjusting the focus slightly in between each one. I found when I used AF, the bird is so small that it’s nearly impossible to get a focus on it before it flies off.
This bunny munching on some grass in my backyard was awful cute!
Have you ever shot the Milky Way? A dark environment free of light pollution is really ideal, but it’s not impossible to do outside your own home! I followed the Lonely Speck YouTube Tutorial on how to photograph and post-process the milky way in harsh light pollution by exposing to the right. With a lot of playing around with colors and contrast, I was able to bring the milky way out in this photo.
Taking things indoors, photography can be a great way to implement digital scrapbooking. A couple of years ago I completed a project called Trinkets & Treasures, where I photographed memories from various “eras” of my life.
One of my favorite flash gel photos is the cameo selfie I took above. By the way, if you’re short on subjects to photograph, don’t forget to flip the camera around on yourself. I had a lot of fun making the yoga selfie below. For more of my zany selfies, check out this post I recently wrote.
I couldn’t write a post about taking photos around the house without including a couple of cat photos! Sometimes the best pet photos are the unexpected moments. Casey went right to sleep in the drawer in the above photo. In the below photo, I chose an overhead composition so you could see the awesome welcome mat which says “I watch over the house” in French.
Christmas time is always a season where I find myself taking more photos, such as the Christmas tree above and the cookies below.
Tychs are a fun way to tell a story with your photos. A few years ago I made a post on tychs and photo collages.
