Stuck in a Rut

As much as I love photography, there are times when I just get stuck in a rut.  I always seem to walk the same routes and it does get a bit tedious after a while.  Sometimes it just feels like you've photographed every thing there is to photograph.  There are a few different ways that I like to handle this problem.  One way is to just snap pictures of anything.  Lots of times, you'll think that you've gotten absolutely nothing of interest, and then when you get home and put the pictures on your computer, you'll see that you've come home with a few keepers. Some of my favorite shots were snapped when I either wasn't going for them, or when I was going for something completely different.  Take for instance, this shot:

The light was changing, so I had just changed my camera settings and was about to take a test shot when this father and daughter happened to walk in front of me.  As I was waiting for them to pass, I noticed that they were dressed alike, and I thought that they looked so cute walking down the street that I took a picture of them.

Another way that I combat the blues is to go out with a specific idea in mind.  At first, I thought this seemed to be kind of limiting.  I mean, how could you possibly get good shots if you were only shooting a specific subject, right?  Well, my very first time using this method helped me get some pretty good shots.  Walking around NYC, you see graffiti all over the place, but it is such a part of the landscape that you don't really notice it.  Every once in a while, you'll see something funny, but for the most part, you see it without really seeing it, if you know what I mean.  I decided to work on a graffiti project.  Here are some of the shots that I've gotten in the past few weeks.

If anyone knows exactly where this is, I'd love to know.  I was walking around Soho and then I wound up here.  I'm not the greatest at directions, and when I'm out walking and "zoning out" as I like to refer to it, I never notice street signs.  I had another picture without the woman walking in front of it, but I liked this one better.

This was taken in Soho near Mercer St.  I wanted a picture of the wall, but a group of tourists was there for almost five minutes, taking multiple shots (with only one person, a few people, different poses, etc.).  Then, the man with the jacket comes along and takes their picture, so I take a picture of all of them.

Taken while walking along the Lower East Side.

Another shot taken while walking along the Lower East Side