but I am not one of them. I still can give simple advice, which is to just start taking photos of anything, in different light. Portraits don't have to be intimidating if it is of people you know. The really great thing about a digital camera is that you don't have to worry about wasting film, and you can see the results sooner....and delete anything that sucks. You can experiment as much as you want without worrying about wasting anything but time. And that time isn't really wasted, since you will learn what works and what doesn't work for you.

Just have fun.

I shoot for art too, not for the technical side. Go someplace that has a lot of beauty and get going!

Whatever captures your eye will work.

After a while you'll see what intrigues you and what doesn't.

Have fun! Digital pictures are easy and they can inspire you.

You don't even have to enter if you don't want to. Just take the theme and see what road it leads you down.

Start taking pictures of shadows in black and white.

You do have a dining room, right?

Food photography?

Sounds like you have family so you can sometimes have captives victims subjects for portraits.

I do have a dining room table for still life. Family is large, but scattered all over the world (east coast, west cost, Europe...). I'm a widower living alone (and loving my independence, by the way).

@other replies, thanks for the ideas. Using the contest themes is a good one. I also like the idea of shooting B&W. Also, wandering the streets looking for shadows (or, more generally, shapes) is also good. I might visit some local wildlife refuges and see what I do with birds and wildflowers, etc.

There's definitely a lot of different ways to go, so for me to decide before exploring and experimenting would be foolish.

Thanks!

do you have a zoo near you?
or pets?

merely pick a subject and go... bugs, beads, macro, rocks, hair, boxes, signs, doors, cars, trees, water, fruit, eyes, feet, etc, etc... and make sure to share what you get...


I have been practicing taking photos of snow and trying to learn more about light and shadows... no matter what you choose, have fun!

this is my snowshoeing near sunset...
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I love the look of complex machinery, but I also love stark minimalism. I could lean in either direction. I could see myself doing a close up of the mechanism of a clock, or doing a white egg on a white background. (Hmmm. I have a dozen eggs in the fridge... )

get out the eggs... 1st a photo of one lone egg on a platter, then a bowl full of eggs, a cracked egg, an egg laying in a pan ready to be cooked and then a photo of scrambled eggs with salsa on them

now, start shooting!! you will definitely find that thing you enjoy photographing most if you just start and let your intuition/soul/artist/etc. take over

one of the pictures that popped up on my YouPic site this morning was a cracked egg. You can take photos of anything.

The 5n has some interesting picture effects built in, you can do B/W, posterization for an abstract effect, partial color where only one color shows and everything else is B/W and so on. You might want to try some of those sorts of things if you are interested in art type shots.

http://nex5nuser.blogspot.com/2013/11/picture-effects-and-creative-styles-on.html

I hadn't considered in-camera effects. I have used Paintshop Pro for a dozen years or more (the poor man's Photoshop) but I haven't really used it much on photos.

Mostly I'm into veggie gardening in the summer and reading and computer games in the winter. Not much photo opportunities there, (unless your talking about in-game screenshots from Minecraft or Everquest. )

And my latest camera is a Sony NEX very similar to what you have.

Vegetables growing could make some cool shots I think, the colors, textures, the earth, the bugs, the birds and so on.

Or after they are grown as you mentioned still life shots, your own personal produce should inspire you, perhaps you could move toward different varieties with unusual appearances.

It does everything I need it to do.