A Personal Creativity Challenge

I tend to get in a photographic rut.  I take my camera out to some really cool places and come back with photos that are similar to what I have taken many times before at other places.   I shoot from a comfortable place where I compose similar shots using the same lens.  Not good and definitely not very creative.  Every once in a while I need something to bump me out of that rut.

Today I took my camera and one lens on a little hike at Bays Mountain Park in Kingsport.  The lens is a Rokinon 12mm f/2.0 manual lens on a Fuji X-T2 mirrorless camera.  This lens is completely manual.  No automatic aperture and no automatic focusing.  It is also a wide angle prime lens (18mm full frame equivalent), meaning the only way I can zoom is with my feet.  My creativity challenge to myself was to see what photos I could come up with using only that lens.

I found this lens is very sharp when focused properly.  At 12mm I can get a nice deep depth of field, making everything from the sign post to the far trees in sharp focus.

I was lucky enough to have some cool clouds building up while I was there.  These looked good reflected on the surface of the lake.

Spring has not really gotten started yet at Bays Mountain. When there is not a lot of colors, I like to remove all color and convert to black and white.

Despite the clouds, there was enough light to make it difficult to get an exposure long enough to blur the water.  One-half second was the slowest exposure I could get.

1/2 second exposure, f/22

Ruts are not fun.  Challenges like this are what I need to make myself tackle from time to time to get bumped out of the rut.  I am also participating in the Petapixed 52-week photography challenge where I have a new challenge each week for an entire year. I find I have to stretch my creativity muscles to come up with new photos to meet the weekly challenge.