Stay home and shoot your local heroes

Unpopular opinion (especially amongst beginners): you don’t need to travel the world to take great, breathtaking, touching, remarkable pictures. In fact, sometimes you don’t even need to leave your house.

Let me explain. 

This year has been the quite intense in terms of travel. I’ve visited Norway, Portugal, Scotland, Sweden, and made two trips to both Germany and Poland.
Photography-wise, these are all incredible destinations. I took hundreds, if not thousands, of photos during my trips. Some made it into my portfolio, while others found a place in my favorites folder. Every trip was fun, much needed, and I deeply appreciate each one of them.

But did they have a significant impact on my photography skills? I am not sure to be honest. Partially - yes, since I think every click of the shutter does.

What improved my photography the most, was staying home.

In my guide to local photography, I explore how photographing close to home can shape your visual language and help you create more meaningful work from ordinary places and everyday life.

Around one and a half years ago, once I already could hold a camera in a proper way and had already a slight idea what all the buttons are standing for, picking my favourite subject came quite naturally.

The beach has always been my thing. I was born and spent my childhood 600 km from the coast. The sea was always kind of a Holy Grail to me.
Now, living in The Netherlands, 15 minutes drive to the nearest beach, it was only natural that I’ve wanted to photograph the sea whenever I could.

This is how project The North Sea was born.

Let’s be honest, the first dozens of gigabytes of beach pictures I took were totally crappy. I’ve kept them only because they’re an evidence of progress I made over last 1,5 year.

Most of all, because I practiced consistently, countless times.
During sunrises, sunsets, all seasons, in different light and weather conditions, capturing the environment changing throughout the seasons, different subjects related to the sea and the coast. With no rush, in a familiar area, learning the subject in all possible circumstances.

In the meantime I’ve experimented with techniques, tools and approaches. I had a period of intentional camera movements, I tried a classic landscape, water sports photography, drone photography. Eventually, I found myself in the water with a water housing for my camera, taking pictures of empty waves.

I also decided to explore locations other than Westland. I learned a lot, including even different types of sand in various places along the coast. And all the faces of The North Sea.

I also learned a lot about myself, met great people and made meaningful connections along the way.

Would I be able to experience it all during intense, but relatively short photo trips to foreign countries? I don’t think so. Travelling is extremely valuable, but in my opinion, in terms of photography you will learn the most in your own backyard.
Running such a long-term project is a great way to grow as a photographer. By taking your time to explore, which you often don’t have when travelling, paradoxically. By trial and error, and CORRECTING errors, the real progress happens.

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