Many of us have a “go-to” thing to photograph. Often, this subject or style is the reason we got into photography in the first place. For me, it is portraiture. I love the dynamic feeling of capturing a moment in time of a person’s life—whether it’s at a key event like their wedding, or creating a unique moment in the studio with creative portraiture. I also love how complex people are as subjects, and how you can convey nearly any mood or emotion in a person’s face.

For as much as I love photographing people, though, it can be a lot of fun to experiment with photographing different types of subjects. I’ve also found that doing this has helped me grow as a photographer.

When trying new subjects, one thing that I’m reminded of is how various concepts (technical considerations, composition, light, mood, etc) apply to all forms of photography. Because of this, I find it both useful and fun to experiment with a variety of types of photography. And often, I will find some idea or inspiration that carries back to the portrait world.

In this article, I will talk about the photography genres that I enjoy and find make me a better photographer in general. I will also compare how they differ from portraiture and why practicing them improves my photography.

The inspiration for this article is straightforward—I just got back from California, helping to run Photography Life’s Death Valley Workshop. My wife and I also spent some time exploring California before the workshop. I decided to give myself the challenge to try and capture images on this trip in a variety of photography genres. All the images in this article (apart from the one above) are from this trip. Hopefully, you’ll find some inspiration here for your own journey in photography.

Landscape

Spencer and I were recently talking about the differences between landscape and people photography. With people, you often have more control over many variables: the light, your subject’s placement and expression, and so on. However, there is one variable where landscape photography is actually more flexible: your choice of subject.

Usually in portrait photography, your subject is chosen in advance, especially if you’ve been hired by a client. But with landscapes, if your initial subject doesn’t work right, then you can simply choose a new subject! This is a freeing feeling but also requires being on the hunt for good subjects constantly, which is good practice.

Although you can’t move the sun in landscape photography, you can control the light with the direction you face and the time you show up. For example, I took the following two images within a day of each other—first before sunrise and second after sunset. The mood of these photos is different. If I had photographed it at mid-day instead, that would be yet another type of light, and even more different from these.

Wildlife

This was not a wildlife-focused trip, so I didn’t have my longest lens with me. I did, however, find a few fun animals to photograph. Wildlife photography in some ways is fairly similar to portraiture, only with less control over your subject and more unpredictability (unless you photograph children, which can be about as unpredictable as photographing wildlife).

I find wildlife photography good practice because of the constraints—I can’t ask the animal to turn towards the light, or take a few steps to the left. This places additional emphasis on what I can control, and it also requires patience. Plus, there is the importance of learning animal behavior.

Abstract/Macro

The fun thing about abstract and macro photography is that all the emphasis is on the details. How does the light and texture align to convey a feeling? You aren’t as constrained by the literal subject in front of you.

Also, you have to be even more careful than normal with composition, as distractions around the edges can draw attention away from the purpose of the image. Abstracts rarely have an obvious start and stop point, so figuring out exactly how to frame it can be the difference between an image that is successful or not.

I also like that abstracts and macro photography train you to look for details. Even in a scene that doesn’t have any traditional subjects or grand landscapes, there can still be good photos.

Often, when I think of abstracts, I think of close-up, zoomed-in type photos. However, in the right scene, an abstract can cover a large amount of space, like the photo above, where an entire granite shelf with trees is an abstract image.

Conclusion

I hope that the ideas in this article encourage you to go out and experiment with different types of photography. I’m confident that you will see real growth by taking the constraints and flexibility of different genres and practicing with them. Let me know if there are other styles of photography that you enjoy experimenting with!