Just Try It (or how I learned to let go of expectations and just try new ideas.)

Photographing the same postcard shot everyone else takes is a creative rut. Personal projects break it without new gear. A day in Marfa, Texas, and a two-step edit in ON1 Photo RAW turned ordinary travel shots into a pop-art series I hadn’t shot before.

You feel it most when you travel somewhere new and your eye automatically reaches for the same photo everyone else has already taken. If you’ve ever been to Yosemite or New York City, you know exactly what I mean. I’ve caught myself doing it plenty of times. It’s hard to see something with your own eyes when a hundred other photographers have already told you how to see it.

Breaking the Pattern: Why Personal Photography Projects Matter

Personal projects are one of the best ways I’ve found to break that pattern. I have a long-running series of photographs of urinals. Don’t worry, I’m not sharing those today. They can be interesting, disgusting, and every once in a while, accidentally artistic. I don’t plan to ever do anything with the series, but it keeps my eye loose and reminds me that not every photo needs a plan or a purpose beyond curiosity.

Sometimes all it takes is a new place. A few months ago, on a trip through west Texas, I had the chance to spend a day in Marfa. Marfa is a small, bohemian art oasis in the middle of an otherwise desolate stretch of desert. It’s home to the Judd Foundation, with galleries and large-scale installations by minimalist/brutalist artist Donald Judd scattered throughout town. The whole place has this bohemian-meets-frontier-town energy you can feel just walking down the main street.

Being there pushed me to try something different. Instead of the polished, commercial-looking work I usually create, I wanted color and grit. I wanted something that leaned into pop art and let the town’s mix of architecture carry the composition. I didn’t shy away from the boarded-up storefronts and closed-down buildings. I shot them head-on and let them be exactly what they were.

The Recipe: A Pop-Art Edit in ON1 Photo RAW

Once I had the shots, I styled them in ON1 Photo RAW using a simple two-step recipe. First, I used Super Select AI to isolate one key element in the frame and pushed dynamic contrast on it. Then I inverted that mask and applied a Channel Mixer filter to the rest of the image – that’s what gives these shots their pop-art, false-color look: blown-out pinks, teal skies, that saturated western light gone slightly wrong in the best way.

They don’t look like anything I’ve shot before. That was the whole point.

If you want to try this same recipe on your own photos, ON1 Photo RAW is free to try for 30 days.

Just Try It

I’m not saying you need to go find your own version of urinal photography – though if you do, I want to see it. I’m saying the next time you catch your eye reaching for the photo you already know how to take, try the other one instead. The one that doesn’t fit your style, your brand, or the expectations you’ve built for yourself over years of doing this. Worst case, you learn something about how you see. Best case, you come home with a series like this one.

What’s the project you’ve been putting off because it doesn’t “fit” what you shoot? I’d genuinely like to know – drop it in the comments.