 If you have ever complained that you have nothing to photograph, then the wake system is what you need. The first question you want to ask yourself is, what is worthy of shooting? Now this can be a tricky thing because we get told from very early on, there are things that are worth shooting, there are things that are not worth shooting and it's time to challenge those assumptions, to break down those mental fences that are holding us back. And the easiest way to do this is using the alphabet exercise. This is where you take your camera and you go and you photograph letters that are found in nature, not actual letters, but shapes and form. Those are some of the more simple ones, but I'm sure with a little bit of practice you'd better find some cues maybe. That would be amazing. This exercise is so vital into challenging the way that you see the world, to making you see the world as a photographer that it was the very first exercise that we were signed at photo school. See how it opens up possibility that makes you see ordinary objects in a completely different way. As a photographer you have no doubt seen other photographers spend the entire time taking pictures standing upright, taking their photographs at the same eye level time after time after time, only considering the world from one viewpoint. Now that gets boring and it gets stale very quickly because we see that way the whole time. But look at a photographer like Elliot Irwitt, when he takes the time to see the world from a dog's eye view. How different does this scene look now, how open to more possibilities, to more adventurous photography, is it because he's changed his perspective? And you can do the same thing too, you can squat down low, get a worm's eye view, you can go up high. You can get right up close to something and photograph it as if your nose was touching and you were looking at the top of the thing. And of course we shouldn't forget shape, form, texture, these can also be subjects in and of themselves. The alphabet exercise was teaching you to see these things rather than to see the subject as purely what it is in a literal sense. This is a skill that people are using to find interesting photographs, to get over this hump of saying oh I am just surrounded by boring things, there is nothing to photograph. The second element that you want to focus on is awareness. How many of us have sat in an aeroplane flying on one of those very long distance flights where there is nothing to do apart from watch old films on a tiny screen and while away the hours until we get to where we are going. We don't think of that as a place that there could be a photograph so we switch off. But William Eggleston, the very divisive William Eggleston, he didn't. He took the time to notice, to be aware of what was going around him and he took this very lovely, I think this is a wonderful photograph of something that most of us probably would have just dismissed. So you can start increasing your awareness by actually paying attention to the familiar. We are surrounded by things daily that are bombarding us. So we filter out a lot of it, we just dismiss it. We do notice unusual things because they are unusual but most of the things they just pass us by without any comment. Think about how many times you may have driven home and not really paid attention to anything because you see it all the time. But what happens when you start actually paying attention to the familiar, to looking at its opportunities like you did with the alphabet exercise. Then all of a sudden it becomes a source of things that you can photograph. I love taking photographs of shapes and textures and form in random, everyday places. The opportunities for photographs are bound. How dull can a car park be? But to me it's like, wow, it's a source of excitement. I don't know what that says about me and my photography. But how many people would stand at the car park saying there's nothing to shoot here? So be aware of what is around you. Light, that is at the heart of photography, isn't it? Light is so important to photographers but we tend to think of it simply as a way of illuminating the subject. That it's there to allow us to see what is we're photographing and to make it look pretty. All hands when you think about light itself as a subject and of course with light comes shadow. So many amazing photographs have been comprised simply from light and shadow. That that is the beauty of the image. Observation goes hand in hand with awareness. Street photographers especially are very good at observation. Looking about what's going on around them. About how things change. Now you can employ this not necessarily as a street photographer, but as a photographer who is interested in photographing anything. Think about things that you are familiar with and how they change with the seasons. How they change with the time of day, the light. It is often a case that you may see something and you go well it's not quite what I want to photograph right now. But it has potential if the light was different, if the weather was different, if the season were different, the time of day were different. So as you learn to observe the things that are around you, the things within your own house, how the light plays across a room at different times of day, then you are tapping in once again to this idea of finding photographs where other people might say, hey there is nothing to photograph here because it's boring and I need to go somewhere exciting. I need to go somewhere Instagram worthy. So the next time that you are out having a coffee, just doing something, whiling away the time, take a moment to observe what's going on, to be aware of what is around you. If you have a camera with you, take some pictures just randomly. Don't worry about it too much and we'll talk about why that's important in a second. Just be in the moment. Start tuning in to the idea of what is around you, what's happening, what could happen. And then you are starting to see the world again as a photographer rather than just a passive observer. So when you're doing all of this, it is crucial that you don't overthink it. Don't worry about what the photograph is going to look like. If something interests you, just take a picture. Be reactive, just be instinctual. Get over this thing that tells you that this is not a proper thing to photograph. Just photograph it and see what happens. Come back to the images later on. Go through them and see, okay, well, that didn't work, that didn't work, that didn't work. Ah, but this, there's something in there. That might work. That might be worth considering later on. And the more that you do this, the more that you photograph instinctually, the more that you look beyond things as subjects, as themselves, in a literal sense, that you look for shape and form and texture, that you expand and dig into the essence of the image, the essence of the thing that is in front of you. Then you are going to find that there are things to photograph no matter where you are, no matter how boring your environment you think that you're in. I guarantee you that there are things worth photographing. Ansel Adams said, and if you've got him on your bingo card, you can cross him off right now, said that if something excites him, it would make a good photograph. Now, you might say, oh, well, that kind of makes sense. Of course, he says it's excited. But when you are excited about something, when something intrigues you, you are going to devote more time to it. You are going to, you know, really explore it because you are having fun. And that's, of course, the point of photography. Tapping into this excitement, tapping into this connection with things on an emotional sort of visceral level, then you are going to start creating interesting photographs because it's something that excites you. There may be a hobby that you have beyond photography that you are interested in. You may like gardening. You may love the shape of tomatoes. You may go in the color. You may love peppers. Look at all the older photographers who were exploring with things like shape and form and texture. We're also interested in the objects themselves. Edward Weston, you know, him photographing the peppers. And if you look closely at the peppers, there's more than just the shape and the form. There's also suggestions in there of other things. I'd like to see if you can sort of jump into and think about things that maybe have excited him in there. Now the astute amongst you may have noticed that he is missing. And he is for experimenting. He is for just exploring your photography to seeing what comes up. I was talking recently with a person who I mentor and they were showing me abstract photographs that they were trying out and exploring the world in a different way. And they were so exciting to see. I loved the way that he was going in a direction that was uncomfortable for him, but he was trying things out and beautiful photographs were the result. So take that, explore different processes, explore different approaches, explore lying on the floor. Ask yourself what? What happens if I try this? You may surprise yourself. And if you'd like to improve your visual language skills, I have a course that I've linked to in the description box below which will help you do just that. So click on the link below and start improving your photography.