jgordon Loc: Boulder CO

I was looking through pictures I have taken recently and I noticed some very clear patterns. It occurred to me that on some level, I tend to take the same pictures – in various versions – over and over.

Attached are three recent images that caught my attention. The images, at least to my eye, look like the same idea manifested in slightly ways. For some reason I was clearly thinking in terms of swirling shapes and patterns when I grabbed these shots.

Then I thought about the following:

A couple of weeks ago I was at a jazz festival and some players were playing outdoors. At some point, the horn players left the stage and started marching – while still playing – through the crowd in a New Orleans kind of style. I was there with a small camera and a far more proficient photographer (I have seen his work) was present with his two industrial strength full frame Cannon bodies and a bevy of heavy lenses.

As the musicians started marching in one direction, the other photographer and I independently decided to move in the opposite direction. Each of us saw the same image in our minds – the musicians marching back toward the stage -- and each of use positioned ourselves to get essentially the same shot of them marching back toward the camera. That was a shot that both of us probably had taken in the past and it is certainly the kind of image that each of has seen on multiple occasions.

That experience – along with my examination of some of my recent images – caused me to contemplate the number shots I take that are really just different versions of images I have seen or made in the past.

Do other photographers find that they are often making new versions of similar images over and over again? I don’t know the answer to that question. In fact, I don’t even know if anyone other than me finds it worthy of considertion. However, I thought it might stimulate some interesting feedback – so I am presenting the question here.

Singing Swan

Apophenia is when the mind wants to make order out of chaos. I think you see the order and symmetry in these places you occupy and that you have caught some pleasing examples.

I especially like the umbrellas. The odd one out gives a twist to an angle that could have been boring.

I like the great outdoors and I see a lot of sunsets and landscapes in my files, plants and oddities I find outside. They have a file of their own. And food. I keep trying to make food look as good as it does in magazines and on television. Like food, I still have some subjects I just can't do well and they become my practice of the month, so I find I have a lot of food one month or two, and then I go back to another subject and try to improve on what I might have learned.

And the thought does cross my mind....at least you aren't just doin' selfies :) :) :) :)

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

Well, I think most of us have a tendency to repeat similar shots to some degree. It's about developing and defining one's personal style, which may manifest itself as a fondness for specific patterns or visual ideas.

In fact, when looking at a photographer's collection of images, I like to be able to recognize a common thread throughout, whatever that may be.

By the way, nice examples!

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Great idea for a topic!

I love the composition of #2 and am also drawn to #1.

There is so much about nature, wildlife and birds that I love and find beautiful, I can't say I photograph any particular subject more than another - just what's available in that season or location.

However, when I have the opportunity, I am most inspired by the light or the weather: backlighting, low angle of sun, shadows, silhouettes, clearing fog, hoar frost, a bit of sticky snow :)

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

Interesting post and YES I totally relate to this. (BTW that second shot is a masterpiece)

Some of my repetitiveness is caused by reading about/looking at too much standard landscape composition photography (you know, find a grand landscape, find a clump of flowers, cactus or pile of rocks for foreground, look for a leading line, transform water to milk, etc etc).

I am forced to adapt where there are no grand landscapes. The repetitive pattern I identify most in my non standard photos is what I've named "Come On In" where I'm shooting through an opening - a door, gate, boat dock, bridge, opening in some bushes, path through the forest or field - when I look through my photos, this theme keeps turning up from Arches to Amsterdam, apparently it is embedded in me somewhere.

jenny Loc: in hiding:)

You are clearly doing what attracts you and why not!! I have doodled circles on paper with variations, but drawn to globular things, particularly segmented ones such as pumpkins and the melons we used to get that were the same shape. Gooseberries...haven't seen a live one in many years!...have little stripes. And there is a plant that looks like s string of beads, even popularly called that . Bought a pumpkin/melon segmented globe on a chain in a hardware store once with no lamp at home that needed a pull chain. It still serves no purpose but to please me. I think your second pic. is really terrific!