How Far For a Photo?

Whenever possible, I am always out with my camera taking pictures of what I think is interesting.  I am often gone for hours and most of the time in the freezing cold or late at night. Typically I just hang my camera around my neck along with my camera bag, which has my extra lens, and start walking from my apartment.  The problem with this is I end up seeing the same things along the same paths and it seems that I run out of subject matter to shoot. So my goal when I go out for a shoot is to create the most artistic image I can with something that may not be that aesthetic.  

I believe that photography is an art form that should be used to tell stories and show things from interesting perspectives.  As  I walk down a street that I have walked dozens of times, I try to see things differently than the times I saw it before.  This is also something I have come to realize that can be used in life.  When things become monotonous or boring, a change in focus or angle can be refreshing.  

I recently started measuring how far  I actually walk when looking for new material to shoot.  Some of the distances are nothing to brag about but when I consider how long I am out, the distance feels longer.  For instance, today I went out for a stroll walking down a road I have never walked before.  That road led to another and so on until I found myself a mile from my home.  Now a mile doesn't seem that far; but that was a straight line from apartment to furthest location.  I then measured each step I took down each road on runningmap.com and the total distance came to 2.8 miles.

  After being out for more than two hours and the weather starting to get colder, I wondered why I was doing this to myself.  The question is still not entirely answered, but I can only speculate that I will be walking even farther to get more images that both tell a story and show others how  I see things. It is a passion that pushes me farther and farther to express creativity.  Passion can often override comfort, and the results more than often, are worth it.