Often it is easy to make excuses for not experimenting more with your work, but this proves you’re just lazy
As a stereotypical starving artist, it can be easy to look at the excellent work done by bigger name photographers and find yourself making excuses as to why you can’t do what they are doing. Excuses run the gambit from not having as nice of a camera, not the possessing the right lens, maybe your lighting gear isn’t as fancy, or your budget is just non-existent. But let’s just remind ourselves that these excuses, while easy to fall into the trap of thinking, are (mostly) bogus.
Today’s video is another excellent example of using a limited budget to be creative and produce good work that you can share and be proud of! The team over at Mango Street produced this excellent Dollar Store Challenge video featuring Jessica Kobeissi, and basically utilizing a budget of just $5. The goal was to use those limited means to create some amazing imagery. This is how they did…
We think it is always important to remember these sorts of examples: the voices in your head saying you can’t do fun and creative photography because you don’t have XYZ item or budget is all too easy to listen to. But ask yourself, have you been in a creative slump? Have you been running out of ideas for shoots? Maybe you need to think less grand and less complicated, and instead go the other way, by challenging yourself to see what you can do with little to nothing.
To be honest, this will likely be much more beneficial to you than seeing what you can do with everything you could want for a shoot as it forces you to think more about each piece of an image. The more you think about your work and letting your mind fill with ideas to solve a problem or produce an effect, the easier ideas will come to you in general, and by extension, the easier you will find it to be creative on the fly.
Check out Mango Street’s Youtube Channel for more killer photography focused content.
