My favorite thing.

I read this article over on Photofocus, and thought I'd throw my two cents in. Photography is such a personal thing to me, and I feel it has many levels, so to pick my one favorite thing about it is pretty daunting. It's sort of like asking Santa Claus who his favorite child is. :)

But I've had quite a few sessions lately where the parents of small kids have been really focused on getting their kids to 'behave' or 'sit still and smile'. And while I totally get it as a parent, as a photographer, it's just not ideal. My favorite photos are those in which the kids are being themselves- playing, laughing, jumping, being rambunctious. And those usually end up being the parents' favorite as well, not just because it's a great moment in time to be able to capture, but because that's how we KNOW them. We play with them every day, we run and jump with them, we tickle them till they laugh and drool. And when they get older, start talking back, dating, and generally growing up, we can sit on the couch while we wait for them to make curfew and look at those photos and remember how it felt to hug them and swing them around in our arms. We can smell the sweet sweat of their little baby neck, feel their soft little chubby hands holding one of our fingers.

So, while it's not necessarily a one-sentence answer, that is probably my most favorite thing about this, as a business and as an art. It's the ability to freeze something so fleeting and so intimate, and the ability to crack open those emotions and memories every time you see an image.

What's your favorite thing???

http://intuitiveimagesphotography.com/

Real talk.

Listen.  There is bad photography.  There are bad photographers.  There are photographers with incredible technical skills and no people skills.  There are photographers with wonderful people skills who couldn't compose a shot with the rule of thirds printed out from wikipedia.  People have different skills, for sure.  But by FAR, the most important skill a photographer can have is self awareness.  To have the intuition to know yourself, and adjust your actions and you words accordingly.  If you think you're amazing, and you just plain aren't, well then that's a problem.  For you.  If you think you're terrible, but are actually quite good, that's also a problem, from a business sense. The same principle applies to business sense, by the way.  You cannot expect to run a business and act and speak as an amateur.  If you want to charge people money, you can't whine and complain about something your kids are doing to your PAYING CLIENTS while expecting them to take you seriously.  You can't do eight different things half-assed then wonder why none of them are successful.  If you are completely unaware, and have no sense about your own abilities, you will fail.  No question.

How do you obtain self awareness? Through a combination of humility, intelligent discussion, and being open. If you are incapable of any one of these things, your process will be stunted.  As will your artistic growth.

One of my biggest pet peeves with the portrait industry right now is copycats.  Everything looks the same.  And I think it's a symptom of lack of self awareness, on many levels.  For one, there are master photographers out there with a specific style and voice who are open and willing to share their knowledge and skill with those who want to learn.  This is a wonderful thing.  And the freeflow of knowledge is an important and vital thing in a creative industry.  The flaw, however, is that so many photographers are not aware of their own ability, and even more tragic, their own voice and point of view.  So they take classes, pay for seminars, read books, blogs, beg other professionals for tips and tricks.  When what they are really seeking is an actual voice.  Because they have none.  Nothing identifiable as their own. You wanna waste your money and your time and your effort trying to be a watered down version of someone else?  Go for it.  But don't expect anything in return.  Certainly not my respect.  Certainly not the label of "artist" or "professional".  There is a massive difference between inspiration and just plain copying.  And it's apparent.

Every day I get closer to finding my own voice, my own perspective.  But I can, at the very least, say that I am always myself.  I have never once, not ever, seen something incredible and tried to copy it.  (Oh, how do you do that? I wanna do that!)  Never once asked someone how to do something so I could try to do the same.  I am aware of my own abilities, my own point of view. And for that, I am proud.  

Journaling.

I'm just going to take a second here in the midst of editing 7 photoshoots to talk about something.  Generally, in photography, I prefer to be documenting something.  My preference is to be able to choose my subjects, my timing, my everything.  To create something that is all from me.  But in photography as a business, large parts of that equation are removed.  I don't get to choose my subjects, they choose me.  I don't always get to choose my location.  I don't get to choose what they wear or how they look when they get there.  And that can be frustrating, to a point.  But somehow, over the last year, I've discovered that I'm okay with it.  Here's why.  Family photography and portraits are just a different kind of documentary. When done correctly, they tell a story.  They reveal who this family is, how they interact with each other, what their lives are like.  And I've realized (somewhat in context with my own family) that the honesty in that is sometimes more important than setting up a shot.  It all goes back to the integrity of the image.  And it's why I have a really difficult time accepting props and external... junk in a photo.  Because it's not a documentation of who these people are. 

Saturday at the beach was an affirmation of this.  Families came and went, each with their own dynamic and spirit.  And, as I am spending these few days editing their photos, I'm seeing how personally specific they all are.  It's such an interesting balance of a photographer's style and the subject's spirit.  Sometimes people get it wrong.  Style can't overwhelm the spirit, or you end up with something that's not genuine.  And that personal, honest journalistic quality is something that's so important when photographing families. 

In two weeks, I will be photographing a family who has never lived together until now.  When their child was a few weeks old, the dad was deployed to active duty. It's been three years.  Their son is now three, and his dad finally came home, and they are now getting acquainted for the first time.  My photos of them will be the first photos they will have as a family.  I'm getting emotional just thinking about it.  But, years from now, when their son is grown, and he looks back at my photos, what will he remember?  What will come to mind about how he built his relationship with his father?  Those are all things I keep in mind when documenting families. And all reasons why I've changed my perspective on portraits in general.