My wife hates when I do this one thing.
My wife hates when I do this one thing. And, bear with me, this will Loop back into to creative ways to photograph in Melbourne.
Yeah, just one thing. Ha. See, I refuse to say words the way they’re meant to be said. Kia Cerato? Nah, that’s Kia Sarah’s Toe. Tasmania? Tah-smah-nye-yah. It drives her nuts, but to me, it’s more than silliness, it’s a reminder that the ordinary is only ordinary if you let it be.
And what if we make photographs this way? Looking at the same world as everyone else and deciding to see it differently.
Here’s a thing you already know: sometimes, your photos feel flat, uninspired, or like someone else already made them better. Sometimes you scroll through your feed and wonder why your images don’t have that thing. And sometimes you think: maybe I’ve already photographed everything worth photographing.
But you haven’t, have you?
Creative ways to photograph in Melbourne
The real trick is in the small, daily rewiring of how you see. Melbourne’s laneways, tramlines, and chaotic skyline are shot a million times over but what happens if you change your perspective?
What if, next time you’re at a famous Melbourne lookout, you don’t line up for the shot everyone else is taking? What if you turned around and photographed the exact opposite direction?
What if you gave yourself thirty minutes to find the simplest composition possible; a tiled corner of the new underpass, or the street lamp reflection in a puddle?
And then, on another day, when the city feels slow and quiet, what if you tried to make something that felt chaotic, wild, like Melbourne herself was pulsing through your frame?
These little games are some of the best creative ways to photograph in Melbourne. You don’t need a grand project, or a new camera*, or even an overseas trip. You need curiosity, and a willingness to break the habit of always photographing the “right” way.
The photographer in you – the one who knows they could see more, make more, be more – thrives when you let yourself play. And it starts with tiny, daily experiments.
So go ahead. Rename your suburbs, your streets, your landmarks, and then ask: what does this new version look like?
Seek different perspectives. Make something so undeniably different that you just have to share it with us. Because the world doesn’t need more of the same photo, it needs more of your versions.
*a new camera always feels good though. I apologise for my negativity
A 3-Step Daily Challenge to See Differently
Rename your world. Call the bus stop “Beverly” and then try to photograph it in a way that matches its new personality.
Turn Around. Go to your favourite lookout, turn 180 degrees and commit to making that scene interesting.
Simplify or explode. Spend 10 minutes chasing the simplest frame you can find (a lone coffee cup on a laneway step), then 10 minutes making the most chaotic mess of a scene you can
Do it daily. Tiny tweaks, tiny games that make big creative shifts.
