In the vast realm of photography, the debate over whether repeatedly capturing the same theme is an artistic virtue or a creative limitation has been a perennial topic. Regardless of what genre you shoot, there may be a particular theme that calls to you. Some argue that repetition in the exploration of a singular subject matter allows for a deep dive into its nuances, while others claim that it may stifle the artist’s potential for growth and diversity.

I feel I am often capturing the same images, but with varied themes, and feel a little stunted in my creativity. While at the same time capturing similar lighting styles or staging similar scenes (or indeed no scene) can also allow me to get a little more creative with a particular theme. Alice in Wonderland as an example, I have photographed Alice in so many different costumes, and sets, with or without a backing cast. Incredibly detailed and staged sets, or simple white backdrop. I never seem to tire of Alice and they always look so different.

In this blog post, we can perhaps look at the complexities of photographing the same theme over and over, exploring both the merits and potential drawbacks of such a creative approach.

The merits of repetition

Depth of understanding

Revisiting the same theme multiple times provides the photographer with an unparalleled opportunity to understand the subject at a profound level. Through repetition, one can uncover hidden details, subtle variations, and unique perspectives that may elude a more cursory exploration. In particular, there are so many variations on Alice in Wonderland from Lewis Carroll’s original book, the ‘yellow’ dress version from 1999 by Nick Willing, through to Tim Burton’s modern take on Alice. So many interesting characters, and so many plot twists and turns. It can be quite difficult to cover it all.

Mastery of technique

Focusing on a specific theme allows a photographer to refine and master the technical aspects of their craft. Whether it’s understanding lighting conditions, experimenting with compositions, or fine-tuning post-processing techniques, repetition can lead to a level of technical expertise that might be challenging to achieve with a more diverse portfolio. That can ring true for landscapes as well as portraits. Although, I am not sure what technical expertise I am toying with the latest version of Alice, but I am indeed experimenting with different post-processing. Even if I am not gaining much mastery of my craft, I do adore capturing Alice.

Personal evolution

Photographing the same theme over an extended period can serve as a visual diary, documenting the photographer’s evolution. The images become a timeline of growth, showcasing changes in style, perspective, and emotional connection to the subject. When I look back on so many variations of Alice, I can see a definite growth in my abilities as both a photographer and a retoucher.

Potential drawbacks

Creative stagnation

One of the primary concerns with photographing the same theme repeatedly is the potential for creative stagnation. The fear is that the artist may become trapped in a visual echo chamber, limiting their ability to explore new subjects, styles, and techniques. I don’t seem to find a problem here, my brain is always on the go. Every one of my Alice shoots has come out differently. Different models, different makeup artists, different staging, different lighting, different costumes even. I always find some way to make each one slightly different.

Audience engagement

A consistently repeated theme might lead to diminished interest from an audience. While some viewers appreciate a deep dive into a particular subject, others may grow weary of seeing variations of the same concept. Balancing personal artistic fulfillment with audience engagement is a delicate act. I don’t shoot Alice every week, which I would think would become very boring. But once a year or even once every two years is not overdone. In my opinion anyway.

Missed opportunities

An exclusive focus on a single theme might cause a photographer to overlook other potentially enriching subjects. The world is filled with a myriad captivating scenes and moments, and limiting oneself to just one theme could mean missing out on diverse and rewarding photographic opportunities. I honestly think this doesn’t truly apply either. I often find I have visited places several times to truly capture the best or a variety of different angles and vistas. Different times of the day or even of the year can bring about changes in light and perspectives. Visiting a certain spot can bring new ideas. I think portraits are similar. As I have already captured it before, I might be looking for something entirely different.

No one-size-fits-all for repetition in photography

In the grand tapestry of photography, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to whether photographing the same theme over and over is inherently right or wrong. It ultimately comes down to the photographer’s goals, artistic vision, and personal satisfaction. Striking a balance between deep exploration and broad experimentation can be the key to maintaining a dynamic and fulfilling photographic practice.

Whether you find inspiration in the consistency of a single theme or thrive on the diversity of ever-changing subjects, the art of photography remains a subjective and deeply personal journey. Embracing both repetition and variety, photographers can unlock the full spectrum of their creative potential and contribute to the rich and diverse landscape of visual storytelling.

“Besides, we’re all mad here. I’m mad, you’re mad.” “How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice. “You must be,” said the Cat, or you wouldn’t have come here.”

The Chesire Cat & Alice

The photography industry can be a funny, polarized place. On one hand, you’ve got brands continuing to launch new contenders for the title of best mirrorless camera, with increasingly dizzying specs, ever-higher megapixel counts, and more rapid burst speeds. But retro film cameras and film stocks are also enjoying something of a renaissance. 

Analog photography has certainly been getting more attention in recent years, whether that’s a ripple effect from the best instant cameras, new cheap 35mm film cameras, or the ease with which you can find secondhand options on eBay. And although apps like VSCO recreate the look of popular films brilliantly, there’s nothing quite as exciting as exposing your own rolls (or slides) on a dedicated analog camera.

Film is fun. Film is physical. And plenty of new photographers are discovering it for the first time, alongside experienced (I don’t want to say older) shooters who are rediscovering its joys. I fall into the latter camp, as a millennial who grew up with film, tried it at university, then got swept along in the digital era. My first jobs were at Digital Photographer and Digital Camera magazine, after all. 

Having recently returned to film, I’ve come up against the same hurdle as everyone else – that it’s becoming prohibitively expensive. Because film is no longer the default way to take photos, manufacturers are now few and far between. And as the supply and volume of production has reduced, the cost to the consumer has increased. 

There are three main costs to consider: the camera gear, the film, and its development; four costs, if you include making physical prints. In this generalist guide, I’ll share some advice for getting started with film photography on a budget. To simplify things I’ve focused on 35mm cameras, but many of the tips – buying popular film stocks in bulk, for example – apply to all formats.

Film is a hobby and a passion, beloved by photographers who enjoy the experimentation, unique results, and slow process that it encourages. By making the right choices for you, avoiding wastage, and shopping around, you can shoot film for less, and continue to enjoy the craft that you love. I know I will.

1. Start with a disposable camera

I can hear cries from highly-accomplished film photographers as I include this, but hear me out. If you’re new to film photography and want to try it on for size, spending under $20 / £20 on a disposable camera makes sense. Harman, for example, offers different options loaded up with its most popular film stocks – I like the classic Ilford HP5 Plus black-and-white camera – so you can start taking photos as soon as the camera is in your hands.

Disposable cameras are ideal for beginners. I’ve seen several people who love a ‘vintage’ look investing heavily in film gear, only to discover that they prefer using their digital camera and adding some presets to emulate that look. For them, the pull of film isn’t about the shooting process, but the aesthetic. If you’re not sure whether film is for you, why not go halfway in, and buy a few single-use cameras first? It’s probably worse for the environment, but it could be better for your wallet.

2. Get a cheap compact film camera

If you’re passionate about shooting film long-term, then a reusable camera will be the best route for you. As film has seen a resurgence, new analog cameras have popped up to meet demand, and they’re surprisingly affordable. One of my favorite options is the Reto Ultra Wide and Slim 35mm film camera. With an ultra-wide 22mm lens and ultra-pocketable size, it’s compatible with all 35mm films, and comes in three colors. 

The Kodak Ektar H35 is similarly sized and similarly priced, at around $65 / £50. But as it’s a half-frame camera you can shoot 72 photographs on a 36-exposure 35mm film, doubling the number of photos from one roll. Contemporary, all-in-one cameras have fixed, built-in lenses, so they offer less in the way of creative choice. But they’re a cheap startup cost, and will allow you to master the basics of composition and exposure before you get a film camera with manual controls. 

3. Look for affordable secondhand cameras

The secondhand film camera market is booming on sites like eBay. Rare gems and medium-format cameras may reach thousands, but if you look for well-maintained consumer models from the 1970s to the 1990s, they’ll offer you exposure controls and interchangeable lenses at a more reasonable price. 

Looking for the best film camera for beginners? The Canon AE-1, Pentax K1000, and Nikon FE are iconic 35mm film cameras that have remained popular right into the 21st century – so much so that the Nikon Z Fc takes some design inspiration from the FE. While these options are over $100 / £100 (I got my Nikon FE for about $140 / £115), there are plenty of decent models to be had for under $50 / £50, such as the Fujica ST605.

There’s no need to limit yourself to online shopping. Camera shops, charity shops, and vintage fairs are all places to look out for secondhand cameras. Just be sure to check the working order of them first, and look to save even more by getting a camera body and lens bundle together.

Find a used Canon AE-1 on ebay.com
Find a used Canon AE-1 on ebay.co.uk

4. Stick with popular films (for now)

Trying out different film stocks is what film photography is all about (I haven’t even gotten to the part where we talk about film beyond 35mm, like 120, 110, and slide format). But generally speaking, the most affordable films are the most common ones still in wide production.

Ilford and Kodak both make plenty of cheap generalist options, which are designed to shoot a range of scenarios in abundant light. Ilford HP5 Plus Black and White film is one of the most ubiquitous films for monochrome work, while Kodak Gold 200 is a popular and affordable color option, both being under $10 / £10. Once you’ve found a film you like, buying multipacks and bulk buys can give you a sweet discount – just be sure you’ll use it all before you invest.

If and when you start shooting in low light and need more sensitive films, you’ll need more niche and expensive films. Kodak Portra 800 was one of my favorite films when I started to try astrophotography with my film camera, but it’s around three times the price of the previous options, and not ideal for the budget-conscious. Keep specialist options for when you’ve mastered exposure, and can getting guarantee value for money in every frame. Talking of which…

5. Nail your exposure

If you’re new to film photography, you’ll be very much taking the trial-and-error route as you hone your skills. It’s good to learn by failing; but if a lot of your shots are overexposed, underexposed, or not sharp in the right places, you’ll end up wasting a lot of money on a lot of wasted film.

Most advanced SLR film cameras – like my Nikon FE – have an in-built light meter that lets you know whether your frame is exposed correctly, in the same way as a modern DSLR or mirrorless camera does; many also have automatic exposure modes. However, if you can learn to shoot in manual mode using the exposure triangle, you’ll have better control over your settings, and can maximize the potential of your film. For extra help, buy yourself a (cheap) light meter for more accurate exposure readings.

When I was getting back into film photography – and especially when I started taking shots at night – I used my digital camera to check the exposure, before applying similar settings to my film camera. You’d set the ISO to the same speed as your chosen film stock, then dial in the aperture and shutter to get the right balance. This method isn’t an exact science, and it can feel like cheating at first; but soon enough, you get to know your own film camera in a variety of lighting conditions, and can set exposure without relying on a digital camera for help.

Building a budget-friendly film photography kit may take you some time. But with so many affordable and easy-to-master new cameras available today, including the best beginner mirrorless cameras, analog photography will never be the easiest, quickest, or cheapest way to take photos. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try it anyway, or that you can’t find easy ways to reduce your spending while shooting more film – there are always ways to do what you love, on a budget.

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Keith Ross is a photographer, author, woodworker and teacher in Sequim, Washington.

Seattle Refined: How long have you been creating? What mediums do you work with?

Ross: My wife Kryztyna and I started getting serious about photography right before we moved to Sequim in 2015. I had just bought my first telephoto lens, and with the first press of the shutter, I took a picture of a bullfrog in a pond, and it remains one of my best photos ever. I was hooked right then and there! As soon as we arrived in Sequim, I took up bird photography, so many birds here, and taught myself how to shoot in full manual mode. I took thousands of pictures in my first year, posted on Facebook, and gained a large following. One year into my self-taught photography journey, I was asked by the Olympic Peaks Camera Club to teach a workshop on Wildlife Photography. I wrote a class and presented it to them, and now continue to teach one-on-one classes in our studio. I was later asked to teach photo editing and wrote a class on that, as well. I continue to teach editing, in person or remotely, often as a follow-up to my photography class. Teaching is a real passion for me, and without fail, I take every student, even those who have never picked up a camera, from knowing very little or nothing to shooting full manual in just one day. I get just as excited as my students by the time we get to the end of the day when they realize they can do what I ask of them.

In October of 2017, we bought a church that was converted into a home, and we knew exactly what we were going to do with all this huge space. We converted the bottom-level main room into a huge gallery, 60 feet long and 20 feet wide, to be filled with images and art. We created an editing studio, a paper cutting room and a printer room.

The church has two kitchens, and the upstairs kitchen had no eating bar, so we bought a raw slab of live edge maple, and decided to make a dining bar out of it. I had never worked with wood before, but grabbed a palm sander and went to work on it, finished with wipe-on polyurethane, and liked the way it looked. That was the beginning of my live edge wood furniture obsession. It was so beautiful, and I continued buying slabs, stacking, and drying them, and creating all kinds of tables, bars, countertops, nightstands, headboards, and charcuterie serving boards of all kinds.

After filling our home and galleries, evolving, learning and refining my processes, I built a shop and started doing custom furniture projects for clients. I have a huge selection of wood slabs, including walnuts, redwoods, maple and my clients can pick out the wood and tell me what they want. “Pick your wood, pick your dream!” is what we put on our brochures to best describe what we do here.

My photography obsession spawned my printing and framing business, more out of necessity than anything. I am a perfectionist. I wanted the most accurate colors, exposures, and presentation and to have complete control from taking the image to printing and hanging it. So, I bought a commercial large-format Canon Pro 4000 printer, learned the science behind accurate printing, and learned how to create my own ICC color profiles. Then, I bought all the equipment from a picture framing business. I had never seen any of the equipment or even knew what it looked like. It was just delivered in pieces to my shop. But I managed to figure out what went where and then taught myself how to use it all. I mastered all the processes and I now have a printing, framing and art reproduction business as a result.

Along the way, as my photography skills evolved, I was asked to take over the volunteer role as the photographer for the Sequim Irrigation Festival, Washington’s longest-running festival in its 129th year. I had never done any portrait or event photography work prior to taking on this role in 2018, so I had to quickly learn how to adapt and perform. Since then, I have built a very professional studio in our home, with extensive lighting and a massive backdrop collection for family portraits, seniors, headshots and more. It is the best studio on the Olympic Peninsula. I recently had my most thrilling senior portrait sessions photographing Pearle Peterson in our studio. She sang the national anthem at the World Series this year and has the most incredible voice. I took this picture below while she was singing in our studio, filling the space with her amazing voice while I photographed her. It gave me shivers down my spine!

Kryztyna assists me with the photo shoots and also does all the final retouching edits on our portrait works. She has become very proficient in editing software, photo restorations, and graphic design as well. We offer full artist support services, including reproductions of originals into shrink-wrapped matted prints, framed art and even greeting cards for resale. We make a great team working together.

Tell us about where your inspiration for your art comes from.

Living on the beautiful Olympic Peninsula has inspired me to leave my lifetime career in the petroleum industry in pursuit of sharing the awesome sights I get to witness through my lens and creating beautiful art and heirloom furniture pieces for clients. Nothing beats the satisfaction of presenting custom creations to my customers, and it makes me look forward to every day.

Do you have a specific “beat” you like best – nature, food, profiles, etc.?

Some ask what I like doing the most or ask, “why not pick what you like best and just do that instead of so many things?” The easy answer is, “If I had to do the same thing every day, it would become work.” I can get up in the morning and touch various art forms throughout the day, and I get to enjoy a wide variety of accomplishments every day. How do you beat that?

We often have people ask to come visit our gallery and studios here for a tour, and we take a lot of pride in what we have created here. After they see everything we have done in 6 years, almost every time, I am asked, “When do you sleep?” I work about 14 hours a day, every day of the week, but doing what we love here every day makes it less like work and more like fun.

Do you have one piece of art that means more to you or is extremely special to you?

My statement piece has to be my 16-foot-long, single-slab Redwood Cedar dining table that sits in the middle of our gallery. My friend Ray Gibbs built the legs for it using a torch, hammer and metal rods to create plant sculptures with textured leaves and even roots on the bases. 15 sculptures make up the table and bench set! It took three of us to carry the table frame into the gallery when he delivered it. Stunning!

What experiences in your life have affected your art the most?

Thanks to my sponsoring the Irrigation Festival as their photographer, I was presented with an opportunity of a lifetime that changed my world. I photographed Jaye Moore, a retired Wildlife Rehabilitator when she was the Grand Marshal for the festival. She asked me to cover the rescue of a pair of bald Eaglets found on the ground as they prepared to put them back in their nest (aerie). I photographed the whole process, and then I wrote and self-published a story called “The Rescue of Eddie & Elliott – A Bald Eaglet Adventure.” With some assistance in layout and printing from Book House Publishing in Bellingham, I published the book in 2023 and created plush toys to go with it. I am now selling the set as a very educational, feel-good story for people of all ages.

Seattle Refined covered the release of this set in December, and it was the second most popular article of 2023, just behind Taylor Swift! The pictures and an interview with me were first published in 2019 by Scholastic Magazine, and 4 million copies were sent to every school in the country. The story then went global, and I was getting inquiries and interviews from all over the world.

READ MORE: Fuzzy eaglets that survived fall from Sequim nest star in their own book

If we want to see more of your work, where should we go to find it?

I have a very extensive website where you can find my book, videos of the Eaglet rescue, many galleries of wildlife and landscapes, examples of my customer live edge creations and my many business lines. I have something for everyone!

What is next for you? Anything you’re working on right now that you’re really excited about?

I have a busy year on tap! I am preparing for a gallery exhibit at the brand-new Field Arts & Events Hall in Port Angeles that opens Thursday, Feb 15, and runs through May. My theme will be “Life in Motion,” a collection of framed prints of Wildlife & Landscape in motion.

I am also looking forward to promoting my book across the country and doing speaking engagements at some grade schools that have requested I visit them.

As time permits, I will be doing photography tours on the Olympic Peninsula in a transit bus we just converted to a photography tour business. I can take small groups of people to the beautiful places I frequent and teach photography to anyone asking for help while out there. Equipped with an Espresso maker, propane stove, heat and 110V power, we can make it a wonderful full day in nature, pampered and fed in style! Really excited to start doing this, as I love to teach and share!

Lastly, how do you take your coffee? (We ask everyone!)

I take my coffee black and constantly, unlike you have never witnessed. People who see my works here quickly understand that statement. Caffeine powered! Just got a new Breville Impress espresso machine to keep the running strong!

About ‘Artist of the Week’: This city is packed with artists we love to feature weekly on Seattle Refined! If you have a local artist in mind that you would like to see featured, let us know at hello@seattlerefined.com. And if you’re wondering just what constitutes art, that’s the beauty of it; it’s up to you! See all of our past Artists of the Week in our dedicated section.

An IT professional, a student, a government employee, a dentist, a retired Railways official — persons from diverse walks of life, from ages spanning from the teens to the late 60s, gathered together on Saturday, January 27, for something that interested them all — smartphone photography.

Over 20 persons participated in The Hindu Lit Fest 2024’s workshop, ‘How To Be A Pro Smartphone Photographer’, facilitated by Gayatri Nair, an arts manager and educator, and one of the co-founders of the Chennai Photo Biennale Foundation.

As Ms. Nair explained the smartphone’s camera features — she delved into zoom modes, the flash feature, the colour filters, the aspect ratio, the exposure, the timer and a host of other features that many smartphones now have on offer, and taught the participants how each one worked. She also took queries on how best to use a smartphone camera for various sorts of photo requirements, and then had the participants do a photography exercise.

For some, it was about figuring out how to use their smartphones for various kinds of photography — wildlife, food, professional promotions or other kinds; for others, it was wanting to create better, more defined memories through photographs, while for a few others, it was a fun new skill to pick up — and for all of them, there was something to learn.

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