Stepping out of your comfort zone to discover something new
Stepping out of… damn that’s a long heading. Well it’s actually two headings, since you can do each thing individually. But I really think it’s good to practise stepping out of your comfort zone in every aspect of your life because it pushes you and your boundaries forward. The same goes for trying different things of course, and the first one, if done hole-heartedly, very ofter leads to the second.
In this story Joakim Jormelin talks about how stepping out of your comfort zone as a photographer can lead to unexpected and rewarding results. How a family vacation far away from the harsh Scandinavian coastline gets replaced with crowded streets and skyscrapers in Soul, South Korea.
Sometimes we are forced to step out on a limb because the current circumstances demands it. We often categorise this as improvising but I would like to think it all pretty much leads to the same thing. Something we as photographers are very used to:
adapting to whatever conditions we are served with and trying our best to make the best of it..
Normally for me, this includes coping with fast changing light, heavy rain, dull skies or hurricane winds or whatever else mother nature likes to serve up on a photo trip.
Sometimes you’ll have to change location and re-plan your trip or avoid the crowds. For me all of this is a part of landscape photography and honestly it’s one of the “adventurous” aspects that I’ve grown to like over the years, not really knowing how everything is going to play out.
But there is still one thing that really scares me in photography and that’s trying different disciplines. The thought of portraiture, street or city photography just scares the s**t out of me. The thought of walking in crowds of people pointing your camera everywhere just gives me the shivers 🙂
Well it turns out that this summer, for various reasons, time, travel, dull weather (heat wave), etc. I’ve just haven’t been out at the coastline or in the forrest as much as I used to. So when me and the family visited South Korea I was really eager to finally getting out with the camera.
Well it turns out being on the streets or parks of Seoul, South Korea couldn’t be further away from my comfort zone of sea cliffs and splashing waves. For two weeks the sky was clear blue and with temperatures above +30C even the thought of bringing the gear and going outside made me sweat.
It was great holiday weather but for photography, nah, not my cup of coffee. But as the days went by I started to accept the fact that I was going to be sweating before even leaving the hotel. Slowly I started to see little things I hadn’t noticed before. A colourful air duct, how funny the blue and green busses look and mostly what a contrast the green little parks provide agains the giant and shiny skyscrapers.
Gradually I started to, well adapt to the situation, pushing myself out of my comfort zone or call It whatever you like. I like to think of it as if:
my love for photography overcomes whatever is standing in the way of me snapping away 🙂
That sound overly pretentious, I know. But it can still be true. If you like doing things very very much your going to end up doing it eventually, right?
So there you have it! A two week vacation to a major city (one of the finest I’ve ever visited) forced me to adapt to tropical greenery among skyscrapers and countless peoples and cars.
How did it turn out photography wise? Well I have lot’s of memories for my family that I won’t share on the internet, but I also came home with a couple of shots that I’m really proud of, and I really hope they help in telling this story. But I’ll let you all be the judge of that.
The only thing that still bugs me was that nobody is allowed to take photos against the North in the DMZ-zone and that no photography was allowed in the interception tunnel. But to be honest I don’t think any photo could do the feeling of standing 170m from the North Korean border 300m below ground level.
Happy photography and keep pushing your boundaries! //J
If you liked this little story, please let me know and give me a follow on instagram @joakimjormelin
