I've always enjoyed this type of candid photography best, but I would really like to grow into other areas such as concept photography and more travel/landscape shooting. Both these require more time and planning that I just don't have right now so I've had to shelve those desires at the moment.
My other frustration is with style, I guess. There are so many creative people that have an obvious niche or style of their own. I've always felt a bit unsettled on this in my own work. I'd like to figure out how to define my own personal creativity. Not sure if anyone does that... or maybe define is too solid of a word. Anyway... I would just like to be confident in my ability as a photographer and find what sets me apart from the sea of photographers that seem to be out there. It's so easy me for let other people's work define my own.
These are just ramblings and jumbled thoughts in my head. Probably doesn't mean much to anyone... I apologize if all of that doesn't make sense.
These photos are a couple months old... more from South Carolina.
That was a great post! I totally hear you with the style issue, I think that is something all artists deal with. Photography isn't really my niche but it seems like one of the more difficult mediums to find your own voice in. For me, with painting or design stuff I love experimentation. Almost everything I do looks totally different from the the last. I also think its perfectly fine to borrow ideas from other artists as part of experimentation. I hate using cliche phrases lol, but one thing I heard in college alot is that art is not created in a vacuum, meaning people have always been borrowing ideas from each other. The thing to watch out for is to avoid just making carbon copies of other peoples work, so similar it just feels like a cheap nock off. Your pictures are super creative though so I'm sure that wouldn't be an issue. I think as artists explore different ideas often times they come across a style they really enjoy and end up sticking with it for a while until it starts to feel stale or a new more exciting idea comes along. You are a really amazing photographer so I would say just keep at it and maybe pick a style or subject matter to focus on when you have time and see what happens. Hopefully that was somewhat encouraging or helpful lol.
ReplyDeleteI'm thankful that I've gotten over the whole creating "original work" thing. [: I don't think anything is completely 100% original. Everyone seems to be a "photographer" lately and I really struggle with even calling myself a photographer because I don't want to cheapen the art or the title by using it without having earned it, ya know?
DeleteThanks for the kind words/encouragement!!! [:
You're welcome! I will agree that everyone is taking pictures these days, but I think its the quality of your pictures that makes you a photographer. There is a huge difference between images taken by an artist and images taken by some random mom with Instagram filters, lol. It's obvious you know what you are doing with a camera, you're really good, don't sell yourself short!
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