What breaking my wrist taught me about my photograph

In June I broke my wrist while playing soccer. I think I took it pretty well, initially thinking it was just a sprain, until I got to the hospital and was told that I was fractured in 3 places and that I had crushed several bones as well. This news was closely followed by an operation to place a metal plate and pins that left me completely without the use of my right arm for 2 months.

I have never broken any major bones in the body and therefore did not appreciate the impact it would have on my life in general, but also on my passion for photography.

When they tell you that you can’t use your arm for a while, your initial thoughts turn to tasks like driving or, in my case, taking photos. This disability was, for the most part, a huge handicap, however the time period that I had to adjust to also taught me a lot about how I take photos, the bad habits I had acquired, my general approach on how to share my passion. for others and how I am inspired by various sources.

Not being able to drive meant that, in the first instance, I was severely limited to the distance that I could drive to a place to take photos. Even if I could travel (getting my wife or a friend to take me), I still had the problem of carrying my gear and then unpacking and setting it up. I know, a big problem, well yes and no. Unable to travel and have a lot of free time due to sick leave, I began to focus more on what I could accomplish at home. This meant that I began to consider a mini home studio (or temporary setup), and also what photos could be achieved in my garden.

You may have noticed in previous articles that over the last few months I have posted quite a bit on water photography, macro, and even a gallery on squirrels. All these posts were ‘born’ from my new thought process, which even though my wrist is almost 100%, is still part of my current thinking … a positive truth ?!

I am not saying that preparing the water intakes, which involved a lot of travel between the kitchen (to get the water) and the room that contained the tank, was easy (especially with an arm to use), but it did make me take special care to take the correct shots due to the time required to prepare the shot.

Macro shots allowed me to take a few shots that I was happy with, right outside my back door. The beauty of macro is that you don’t need a dazzling background or complicated setup, you just need a macro lens and maybe a flash.

Another major problem was the actual camera settings. Previously, setting up my camera, tripod, various filters, off-camera flash, etc., was an easy and fairly quick task, however with one arm this turns into a monumental feat of endurance, and one that taught me a lot about bad habits. I had picked it up before my ‘incident’.

I almost always used a filter of some kind, be it an ND, ND Grad, or polarized filter. Although these filters obviously serve their purpose, and in most situations will enhance the final image, I used them in EVERY shot, almost unconsciously, and as a matter of habit rather than necessity.

Due to the time required to attach the lens ring, add the accessory, clean the filter, and then attach it as well, I began to simply wonder ‘why’ it required it in certain photographs.

As a result, I stopped using it unnecessarily and concentrated on using natural light, camera settings, and in some cases post-processing. This produced very different and enjoyable results, another positive from my new build!

Not being able to carry anything substantial (insert a sarcastic comment!), I also started wearing only the gear I needed, and not wearing all the gear I had to each session. I ended up (within my limited world at the time) using only a couple of items from my gear bag;

• Tripod (couldn’t do without this because it couldn’t hold a camera)
• Camera (you can’t escape the heavy camera body you need!)
• Lens (I only used one lens for a particular session as putting it on became tricky)
• Remote (why are all the shutter buttons to the right of a camera?)

Inducing these restrictions on me only improved the way I used each item in my setup, and as a result taught me a lot about what could be achieved with each (and not just by switching to an alternative), its limitations, and its advantages. I’ve always considered my 17-70mm lens as my favorite and most adaptable lens, and my 60mm lens as the most restrictive (which I didn’t consider to be a bad thing).

However, after finding myself in a situation where normally I would have switched from 60mm to 17-70mm, but in this case I couldn’t and as a result had to persevere, I found myself trying new techniques, researching the lens further. and adjusting my photography style to suit it.

Since I couldn’t spend as much time on photography in the physical sense as I used to, I started spending more time studying the work of others. This meant that I had more time to interact with other photographers (writing with one hand is not easy!) And take advantage of my contacts on many sites.

So as you can see from the above, this very negative event actually did me good and I learned a lot about my photography as a result. I can’t say I’m happy that it happened, however I’m glad I had a chance to really see the way I was doing things and improve them.

It’s worth taking a step back, really looking at all aspects of your photography, and seeing if there is anything you could be doing differently that could achieve a new look.

Let me know if you’ve had a similar experience and if it taught you anything about your photography.