style
As mentioned in the about section, I have been shooting photos for just under two and a half years.
I also mentioned that I shot many thousands of photos finding my particular niche and style. I believe in the first year I was shooting I fired 12,000 photos (on a Canon Digital Rebel/300D), and in the second year boosted that to about 16,000 (on a Canon 20D). As with any kid excited about a new hobby, at first I shot anything and everything. I produced countless photos with no apparent artistic intent. Not to suggest that this was wasted, as it provided a great venue to learn the technical aspect of photography, which has since become second nature as a result of those nigh 20,000 photos.
But as I progressed, I became less and less interested in shooting each and every subject that presented itself. At first this worried me because I thought I was losing steam in a hobby that I had initially invested nearly a thousand dollars in. This, to say the least, is a somewhat jarring proposition.
However I found that even as my interested in certain photographic subjects waned, in fact my interested in other areas increased almost exponentially. While I initially envisioned photography as simply a hobby, as well as primarily landscape and inanimate in nature, my style saw a subtle shift to portraits.
It wasn’t clear at first exactly how this worked, but as I started shooting people more and more, and really began to gain an appreciation for it. It’s a curious balance, since all indicators suggest that I suffer from social anxiety disorder. That being said, in many ways as soon as I take the camera out, I am suddenly right at home, and perfectly in my element.
My style, if described in a word, is calm.
The style originally just focused on standard portraits, which was primarily headshot, however the style has then adapted itself to my other shooting. The focus is still primarily people, however perhaps in less conventional settings. I love music photography, for example, and very much enjoy shooting concerts and musicians. I still enjoy an occasional landscape photo, but the simplicity in the composition has essentially been absorbed by my portrait style.
Recently I’ve taken my shooting into more studio settings, albeit in generally real-life surroundings. The manipulation of light is a powerful force for great work. Moreover, I prefer a more controlled, and calm shooting setting, and doing this in a deliberate photoshoot is much more possible than simply shooting your friends as you go about your day (although that hasn’t stopped).
Finding a deliberate style is no easy task, but once accomplished, makes the process much smoother, and generally more artistically satisfying. This blog will, in the future, illustrate the process of continually honing my style, and I’m very excited about that.
Keep it real, folks.