Though many people don't realize it, photographs are a vastly flexible art medium. There is absolutely no reason you should ever feel limited to shooting what's in front of you or documenting reality. Just as with painting or sculpting, there is plenty of room to exert your influence on the way your photographs turn out.
With that in mind, let's talk about some fun things to do with your photographs that may not be covered in the traditional "point and shoot" order of things.
1. Change Your Angle
One of the most common things done in photography is the eye or head level height in which photos are taken. While it makes sense why most photos are taken at head level, it may not be the best angle for what you're trying to shoot.
Spend an entire day shooting entirely from the ground (get down on one knee or crouch) and see how getting below your subjects changes how reality appears to your viewers. If you're feeling really lucky, try shooting entirely from your hip without double-checking the focus or the framing - you may end up with a lot of throw-away images, but you also might end up with something you could have never captured with a traditional method of shooting.
2. Push Your Film
All film has a recommended development time at any given temperature. For example, when developing 400 speed film in 70 degree chemicals, you would need to soak the film for 7 minutes before rinsing but don't take my word as you should check the recommended times off the developer manufacturers box. What many people don't realize is that the longer the film develops, the more stark the contrast becomes. The darks get darker and the lights get lighter.
If you are lucky enough to develop your own film, try "pushing your film" or increasing the the development time by 2 or 3 minutes and see how it changes your print. While it's certainly possible to push your film into an over-contrasty oblivion, a little extra push can sometimes create incredible results and help draw the important parts of your images out.
3. Use the Bulb Setting
Any camera (even most digitals) that has manual settings will have the option to set your shutter speed to "B," or bulb. This simply makes your camera shutter stay open for as long as you keep the button pressed and gives you a way to capture images that seemed impossible. Sadly the bulb setting doesn't do well in daylight since it will overexpose the frame, but in a dark environment there's a lot of fun to be had with this option.
Place your camera on a tripod facing the night sky and leave your shutter open for 5 minutes (using a cable release) so you can capture the stars moving as the earth rotates. You can also hold the shutter open while a friend dances around with a flashlight then snap a flash before closing it and you'll have a perfect shot of them surrounded by streams of light. This setting takes a lot of practice but can produce incredible results.
The next time the urge to shoot takes over, keep these fun suggestions in mind. For these experiments all you need is a cable release and a single lens reflex (SLR) camera or a digital SLR (DSLR) camera and you're all set. Just remember that you should only do experiments with photographs you're willing to lose - your daughter's wedding might not be the best time to try shooting everything from the hip. At the end of the day, all that matters is that you have fun and create images that reflect you or the message you want to send.
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