Why do you shoot what you shoot?

I'm curious why we choose the subjects and genres that we choose. Some of us prefer macro, or birding, or sports, etc. over other genres of photography, why is that?
For whatever genre(s) or subject(s) you choose to photograph, what led you to those choices?

I'm drawn to people so I shoot portraits. Im a music geek so I shoot concerts. It's what I know and what I understand. I'm just trying to understand them photographically.

I wanted to shoot nothing but landscapes, but I totally suck at it. Had an itch one day to do sports, found that I like it so I try to shoot what I can when I can, but I still try to do landscapes amongst other items of photographic interest in a feeble attempt to improve my skills

I don't like people, so I don't shoot them. I like being out in nature, so I photograph that mostly.

I like photographing certain animals at the zoo because I almost consider them as pets.

Since I'm not being paid, it's the process that is more important than the result. I have to be doing something besides just the photography that I enjoy.

For my kid events, it's more of a way of relieving boredom than anything else, but the family who live abroad also appreciate it.

I photograph anything I find beautiful or exciting or evocative, whether it's musicians (my favourite), animals, landscapes or interesting architecture.

I have no patience. I can't wait around for the right light or for storm clouds to start forming, so landscapes are out. I like the challenge of trying to see a shot before it happens and grabbing it so I shoot sports and street.

conjunctive wrote in post #14952723
I'm curious why we choose the subjects and genres that we choose. Some of us prefer macro, or birding, or sports, etc. over other genres of photography, why is that?
For whatever genre(s) or subject(s) you choose to photograph, what led you to those choices?

I like bossing hot people around. Getting paid to do it is icing.

Because I like working with naked women.

I always was the kid that would catch spiders and play with the bee's nest as a kid. Guess I never grew out of that. Always been some one that likes nature a lot as well.

I have family. It was always main reason why we keep and use cameras at home.
This was the reason to get Canon Rebel SLR and Canon Rebel DSLR later, because school pictures day photos were awful and expensive for our three kids.
Once I started to use DSLR it was fun to learn how to take pictures of landscapes, macro, sports and candids.
I travel for business sometimes and I need to walk after work. To walk with camera it makes it much more interesting. Since 2009 I took tens of thousands pictures with 500D.
Now I'm taking a lot of family (it is large now) and few friends pictures because it is the main. And candid because I like it also.

I tell every new photog that I know to shoot what you love! You find that out by trying everything.... Rent lens, borrow them, try out flashes... Experiment and eventually you will find that there are things you like, and things you don't.

My photo club asked for flower shots to use in a display for the club at a local fair... Looking through all my photos, I could only find 1 shot that I would submit. Why? cause I don't like shooting them!

For the longest time, I was afraid to photograph people, I thought people would get angry or offended if I happened to have pointed my camera in their direction, so.... my photos reflected this, empty streets, bridges, etc. Last year I resigned myself to the fact that something was missing from my photos, and thus I forced myself to include people in most of my shots, and it's opened up a whole new area of photography for me.

plumgoo wrote in post #14955681
For the longest time, I was afraid to photograph people, I thought people would get angry or offended if I happened to have pointed my camera in their direction, so.... my photos reflected this, empty streets, bridges, etc.

I think I can associate with this really well. I still don't include many people when I'm shooting (if any). But I also don't have one type of genre, or even style. I go through phases - abstracts, landscape,macro, wildlife, whatever.

Basically, I shoot what is fun at the time. If it's not fun, it's not worth doing.

I enjoy shooting mainly macro because I find it challenging. I have a phobia about spiders & insects, so this adds to the excitement of creeping up on them & getting really close. I don't tend to like photographing people, mainly because I work with the public all day & just like to get away from them during me time. I like nature overall, but tend to find photographing landscapes boring. I know that different lighting etc can change how a landscape looks, but to me, it's a scene that will be there tomorrow & the next day & so on, so I'm in no rush to try to photograph it. I'd like to try sports & fashion sometime in the near future as they seem challenging too.

plumgoo wrote in post #14955681
For the longest time, I was afraid to photograph people, I thought people would get angry or offended if I happened to have pointed my camera in their direction, so.... my photos reflected this, empty streets, bridges, etc. Last year I resigned myself to the fact that something was missing from my photos, and thus I forced myself to include people in most of my shots, and it's opened up a whole new area of photography for me.

Very insightful. I've learned something similar. Last year I agreed to take photos for my daughter's high school cross country meets and post them on the team website, and while I eventually figured out what I was doing with action shots taken during the race I was shy about shooting anyone during the downtime between races. I too felt that my photos weren't telling the entire story, as one of the great things about going to meets is interacting with the kids and other parents. I finally got over being shy about walking up and taking someone's photo, and I feel the mix of photos I post now does a much better job of telling the story of what happens at a meet. In fact many of the kids (especially the girls) will get together with their friends and ask to have their photo taken.