Junkyard photography - and screw soft light
Well perhaps this doesn't quite qualify, but you get the gist.
Beauty sought out in places that may seem unlilkely: junkyards, industrial wastelands and the like.
My unshakeable conviction is that beauty, and the opportunity for a great photo (whether or not this requires beauty in your conception), can be found just about anywhere, at anytime.
This is why I'm as thoroughly irritated by dogma around what kit you should use, as by the notion, confidently and thoughtlessly bandied about, that the best pictures are taken when the light is soft in the mornings and afternoons.
Rubbish, through and through.
Who says soft light is "better" than hard light ? that's just another meaninless dogma. What's "better" should only really depend on what you like better - and, if some objective benchmark must be found, on what you care to photograph and how.
Soft light's completely useless if it's going to disguise a bad or boring photo. Just as any form or technique in any art form is worthless per se.
A form, rule or convention in art only expresses an assumption that the resulting work shall be pleasing to the observer or listener, based upon the experience of how existing works of art were conceived/structured, that were found to be generally pleasing. Why such rules or constructs generally please the eye or the ear is anybody's guess, and really a question for neurosciences.
But this shouldn't distract from the reality that the greatest artists and most memorable works are, more often than not, those who play around with, bend or entirely flout rules and conventions. In other words, the assumptions that these express are meant to be questioned - and the laziness of not doing so is akin to the laziness or relying on (rather than creatively using) technical gear.
Be that as it may, I like to take out my camera without particular regard to the time of day or quality of the light; worst case scenario, unexpected or "bad" light will challenge you.
Writing this in front of the TV with Brazil v. Croatia, and actually missed both goals scored until now...
