Though many people don’t realize it, photographs are a vastly flexible art medium. There is absolutely no reason you should ever feel limited to shooting what’s in front of you or documenting reality. Just as with painting or sculpting, there is plenty of room to exert your influence on the way your photographs turn out. With that in mind, let’s talk about some fun things to do with your photographs that may not be covered in the traditional "point and shoot" order of things.

1.Find a New Angle

One of the things that almost every photograph you’ve ever seen of your family or friends has in common is that it’s taken at the same height as your head. While this makes perfect sense, it may not necessarily be the best angle for what you’re shooting or the statement you want to make.

Take a day and shoot pictures entirely from the ground or knee level and see how the different height will completely change your pictures. If you're feeling lucky, try taking a group of pictures from your waist without checking the focus or the frame and see what you get.

2. Increase Your Films Development Time

All film has a recommended development time at any given temperature. For example, when developing 400 speed film in 70 degree chemicals, you would need to soak the film for 7 minutes before rinsing but don't take my word as you should check the recommended times off the developer manufacturers box. What many people may not realize is that the longer you allow the film to develop, the more stark the contrast gets. The darks get darker and the lights get lighter.

If you are lucky enough to develop your own film, try "pushing your film" or increasing the the development time by 2 or 3 minutes and see how it changes your print. While it's easy to push your film too far into an overly contrasty mess, a little extra time can sometimes create a stunning result by adding extra contrast to important areas of your photograph.

3. Set Your Camera to "B"

Any camera (even most digitals) that has manual settings will have the option to set your shutter speed to "B," or bulb. This simply makes your camera shutter stay open for as long as you keep the button pressed and gives you a way to capture images that seemed impossible. Unfortunately the bulb setting won't work in daylight since it will overexpose the image, but in a dark environment it can create lots of new photo opportunities.

Place your camera on a tripod facing the night sky and leave your shutter open for 5 minutes (using a cable release) so you can capture the stars moving as the earth rotates. You can also hold the camera shutter open and have someone spin around holding a flashlight and then snap the flash and you'll have a shot of them encircled by light. This setting requires a lot of practice and experimentation but can often have tremendous results.

The next time you're feeling adventurous, remember these three photo experiments. You don’t need any additional equipment for most of them (besides a cable release, which you can pick up for a few bucks) and you can use almost any SLR or DSLR camera. Just remember that you should only do experiments with photographs you’re willing to lose – your daughter’s wedding might not be the best time to try shooting everything from the hip. At the end of the day all that matters is that you have fun and create images that are beautiful, truthful, and important to you.