I just got back from the most incredible vacation. My husband and I spent a week at an amazing all inclusive resort in Turks & Caicos. What I love about my vacation time is the time I get to spend reflecting on my life, my family, and my business. One thing that really spoke to me that I wanted to write about was finding my voice as a photographer.
Over the past year I have been in a whirlwind of knowledge and learning and growing.Drawing inspiration from so many sources, being gifted with amazing friendships with my photographer friends, being mentored and taught by some of my photography heroes. Along the way I feel I have developed my own style. I have tried so many things and succeeded in many things and failed in many many more, and from every failure i learned something about my self and my art.
So I thought I would write a little blog post about discovering who I am as an artist and some things that might help others where-ever you are in your journey as a photographer.
Don’t buy Everything!
my name is Lisa and Im a prop-aholic. Don’t get me wrong I LOVE props and will continue to hunt for fabulous finds, but I have come to my own conclusion that its not about the props or the cute hats, its about the subject, so save your pennies for some skookum glass. How I wish I would have spent a little less on props and picked up a fancy macro!
Be an Original and not a knockoff.
This is especially important if your biggest inspiration is someone local to you. By imitating and copying someone local to you, you are just doing yourself a disservice by being a knock off version, Do you want to be known as someones copy cat? Yuck! Tap into the creativeness inside you and around you, create your own visions and art. Having spoken to many of my photographer friends about this everyone agrees that once they stopped looking at what everyone else around them was doing, it was then they really they could tap into their own artistic creativity, and emerge with their own style & voice.
Draw inspiration globally.
With the above statement being said, draw your inspiration globally. I dont think I have really even looked at anyone’s work within 400k of my city, I really tried to focus on never being able to be confused with someone local to me. There is an insane amount of uber talented photographers throughout the USA, Canada, Australia and Europe. Find someones style you connect with and draw inspiration with it. When we are learning we do a lot of mimicking. Like a baby learning to talk. As photographers we see something we like and try and copy it mainly just to see if we can do it. ( at least thats my case) Just be sure to put your own spin on it. I remember on a message board a year or so ago I had copied a shot by someone I admired, was so thrilled that I accomplished it, the thread turned into a huge debate, and I was left feeling a embarrassed that I was a copycat, after that I vowed that even if I loved a photo I would always do it my way.
Turn the computer off and your camera on.
This is where I noticed the biggest improvement in my work when I stopped looking at what everyone around me was doing. Get to know your camera and lenses, and figure out how YOU create your art.
Be YOU!
No one else in the universe sees the world through your eyes. You are the only one with your experience & vision. Don’t try to be someone else….because YOU are the magic.
Its the little things in life..
sometime we get so focused on that perfect shot , even of our own children that we forget the beauty in the everyday! like how your little ones eyes twinkle as they are covered in spaghetti, don’t forget to just take snapshots!! it doesn’t have to be perfect!!
Wherever you are on your photography path I hope this helps you on your way.
ALSO I will be doing a Q&A blog post in June just for photographers, so If you have any photography questions you would like included or answered please email them to milkandhoney@mail .com with BLOG Q&A as the subject.
and to finish here is a snap of my little one, doing the two things he loves running & eating cookies
Love Lisa
Could I get the email from you? Thanks so much.
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