I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the locations I go to to do photography. I have been feeling the desire to explore North Wales and new locations because I feel a bit bored of my more immediate surroundings. I have admitted before that I’m not too keen on photographing Aberystwyth seafront because I don’t find it particularly aesthetically pleasing. I enjoy photographing Borth but have recently felt that some compositions can be lacking something.

There was one evening recently where I was with friends and we were talking about something, I can’t quite remember what, but one friend commented on how we live in such a beautiful place. This made me harrumph inside as earlier that evening my desire to photograph new and more interesting places was strong. I felt challenged to try and see my usual locations in a different way.

Fast forward to this morning, I received a newsletter from a photographer I like, James Popsys. In the newsletter he was talking about travel photography and how he doesn’t feel connected to his photos taken in far flung places because he doesn’t have a connection with that place. In contrast, he finds there’s a strong correlation between how close to home the location is and how connected to the photo he feels; i.e. the closer to home he is, the stronger the connection with the photo. He also writes, ‘Reframe your perspective. You are interested in far flung places in a way that people in those places would likely feel about where you are. It’s perhaps boring to you because it isn’t new to you. Often when I talk to people about this stuff I head to Google street view to look at the places they’re calling boring, and if it’s new to me I’ll often think it looks fascinating.’
While I would still love to explore new places and travel to places further than the 30 minute radius I usually do, this has challenged me further to reframe my perspective and attempt to see them in a different way.

Anyway, here are my photos from this month.

James Popsys is a photographer based in North Wales who enjoys photographing the relationship between humans and the landscape.
James Popsys website: https://www.jamespopsys.com/
James Popsys YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JamesPopsysPhoto/videos