Photographing What I’m Doing

Swimming in Watts Bar Lake, Kingston, TN

“Go big or go home,” is a saying that I heard a lot as a youth and young adult and quite frankly, it’s a bunch of bullshit. It promotes this idea that if you’re not able to do something world-altering, you just shouldn’t bother.

It’s an idea I fell prey to as a young photographer. I felt that I needed to create photography and stories that packed a punch (i.e. conflict, poverty, homelessness, substance abuse), or my work just didn’t matter.

Watts Bar Lake, Kingston, TN. Water, wake, black and white

Luckily over time (and largely forced upon me by the quarantine in 2020), I found drive and purpose in photographing what I’m doing. I became more aware of photographers like William Eggleston, Stephen Shore, Helen Levitt and Vivian Maier, who lived lives finding the extraordinary in the ordinary.

I realized THIS is my true calling: to find beauty in the day-to-day. Because that’s where we live the bulk of our lives, that’s what I want to photograph.

To illustrate this point, I’m only choosing photos from last weekend. I feel like this point can be better made with a series of photos made in a short window of time, rather than pulling from an archive of years of photos. Why? Because I want people to see how many great opportunities for photos there are all the time. They are NOT few and far between.

Watts Bar Lake, Kingston, TN. Wakeboarding.
Watts Bar Lake, Kingston, TN
Puppy on a boat. Watts Bar Lake, Kingston, TN

Related Posts

Author: Zach Dobson

Zach Dobson is a documentary and commercial photographer based in Indianapolis. He holds a degree in journalism from Indiana University with a concentration in photography. Since starting his business in 2006, Zach has focused on documenting people’s lives and businesses in action. Zach’s client list includes the Indiana Pacers, Coca-Cola, the AARP, ZipCar, Indiana University, Visit Bloomington, Hamilton County Tourism, Land O’Lakes, RIOT LA Comedy Festival, Indianapolis Public Schools, Indiana High School Athletic Association. Zach is a Professional Member of the American Society of Media Photographers [ASMP]. He resides in Carmel, Ind. with his wife and business partner, Courtney, and their five children.

2 thoughts on “Photographing What I’m Doing

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *