Photographing What’s Real: Finding Beauty in the Ordinary
Let’s face it, most of us can’t just pick up and travel on a whim, chasing cinematic, Instagram-worthy shots. Maybe you work full time, and photography is a quiet luxury you get to indulge in the pockets of free time amid a hectic life and work schedule. Often, we’re caught in routines that keep us tethered, and the days blend into each other, filled with to-do lists, dishes in the sink, errands to run. Life can feel messy and uncurated. At least mine is!
But still, I believe there’s something beautiful to be found in the ordinary, in the messy middle, in our daily lives that are raw and authentic.
This journal entry is about honoring the beauty of the everyday: the quiet, familiar moments that we often overlook. The ones we pass by without a second glance. The ones that make up most of our lives. The scenes or subjects we may even take for granted every day, either in our home, on our commute, or in our neighborhood.
How do we photograph what’s right in front of us with wonder and a sense of curiosity? How do we find beauty in the ordinary and everyday?
Here are some thoughts:
1. Focus on light, not the subject.
Notice where the light falls in your home throughout the day. (Also outside, too, but I find indoors is a bit more controlled to start.) Maybe there’s a certain time each day when the sun spills onto the floor or brushes your bedsheets with gold. That light becomes your canvas. You can place a chair there and photograph your child, or your pet curled up, or a quiet object you treasure. A recipe you made or maybe something you found in nature. When the light is on point, you’re more than halfway there to something meaningful.
2. Use repetition to build a story.
Choose something simple, your morning coffee, a corner of your home, a wildflower you picked on your walk, or a carton of strawberries you just picked up at the market, and photograph it again and again in different places. The light will change how it looks and feels, and you may notice you have a little story there. Repetition has a way of building a rhythm. Maybe you add something in each shot or have a theme, but the core subject, say the coffee cup, is the same thing. Try it in a sequence of 5-7 frames and take it from there.
3. Incorporate movement.
Let life be part of the frame. For example, laundry hung out to dry in the summer sun and breeze. A hand reaching for something off the table. A twirl of your lovely summer dress. Someone walking into your kitchen in a blur with a slower shutter speed. Maybe it’s a shot of someone turning out a colander of fresh berries onto a towel to dry, but shot at 1/50 of a second to get just a bit of blur. Movement doesn’t have to be frozen; sometimes, when something blurs, it feels more alive and vibrant. You can feel the energy and emotion. There’s softness and surrender in letting life move through your frame, instead of trying to freeze it entirely.
4. Embrace the imperfect.
The ordinary isn’t always pretty, but it’s always honest. Laundry drying on a line outside, crumbs from a pastry just devoured. The stained paper with tea rings and stacks of books on a desk. These things are full of texture and visual interest. You don’t need to clean up your life or curate it to document it. Sometimes the beauty is found in the messy middle, the in-between places, in the well-worn, well-loved places. A story often lives in the authenticity of a scene or subject, rather than in anything overly styled or contrived. Even the simplest moment can hold a rich narrative, shaped entirely by the way it’s captured, maybe a gesture, the emotion, or the atmosphere it evokes.
5. On the flip side, focus on the subject.
Pick anything: your child’s toy, a spoon, a leaf, and get curious. Try different angles and use your environment to support your composition. Try shooting the details or an angle that you wouldn’t normally gravitate towards. Even a tube of paint on a messy desk can become compelling when you look at it with intention. Maybe it’s the shocking pop of color that captures your attention. Focus on creating a story around the ordinary object and let that story guide you on how to compose your shot and maybe bring in other elements to support it.
6. Think of yourself as a documentary photographer.
Shoot as if you are telling a story to someone who is blind; bear with me here! Shoot the details and the scene as if you were telling them the story of what they would be seeing. Capture the essence of what you are witnessing, whether that’s a basket on a blanket or a stack of old books on a chair. Pay attention to transitional moments: a half-made bed, a door left open, footprints across the floor, an empty plate with a bit of food left. Document the moment or the subject as if you were trying to try and translate these images to someone who couldn’t see…these are what you would show them. Look for any bit of visual interest, texture, signs of presence (whether a human or animal), raw moments that feel unedited and unscripted. Key words: unedited and unscripted.
When we photograph the ordinary, we practice presence and observation. We remind ourselves that there is beauty here, now, not just out there somewhere, exotic or on our bucket list of destinations, waiting for us to find it.
You don’t need more time, or more gear, or a more interesting or beautiful life. Have an open heart and open eyes to what already is around you that you may take for granted or overlook in the rush and busyness of daily life. Above all, this practice sharpens our eye and deepens our ability to observe, helping us recognize beauty or meaning in places where others might not think to look or appreciate.