Open your Heart to Authenticity
Beginning the journey to developing your own personal style of photography is nothing more than opening your heart to being more authentic.
Many, many, many of my followers and students are so aimed at wanting to create something that others find visually pleasing, that they totally lose focus on why they really wanted to learn photography.
Photography is the one thing you have that can be entirely yours.
It’s not your job. You don’t have a boss giving you exact guidelines. It’s yours. It’s as easy (or hard) as that.
In my case the one true thing that leads me away from my creative path is other people and their ideas about what they find visually pleasing. A little bit like going to see a horror movie and complaining afterwards that it wasn’t a romantic comedy.
If your photos don’t get a lot of “likes” on Instagram, or harsh words can make the best of us capitulate and try to create something that enthuses more people.
Praise seems to evaporate into the realms of the universe, but harsh words, they stick around and jump out of the bushes every time to pick up your camera.
Once other people start to realise that you’re quite camera-savvy they’ll come up with all kinds of ideas about the kinds of things/people/places you could capture with your camera. Themselves, for instance. Or things they’ve seen other people taking photos of.
In the past I let other people’s suggestions guide me into taking photos of things I felt no connection to. Purely because I knew their suggestions were kind and well-meant.
But really, you have, as a photographer the unique chance to actually mould something in a way that you find pleasing, instead of the other way around. Like in your job.
Photography is the one thing you have that can be entirely yours. And should be entirely yours.
The camera can be your eyes and your whole self, if you know how to make it work for you. it can be How you tell the story of what you see, and how you feel it.
Photography is essentially a way for you to show to create images that keep you in tune with your You-ness and to let others how you see your world.
How you use your photography is entirely up to you, you may want to document your life in a pretty or arty way, or you may want to create your own little world with creative photography methods. You may want to combine both in your own unique way.
Each of your images should be created to show exactly what YOU want to see at that point of time in your life.
Take a step back and imagine the difference between that kind of photo and a photo that is taken with other people’s expectations.
If you’re taking photos of people then take them in a way that you are experiencing their personalities instead of how they wish to see themselves. I promise you, they will love your interpretations more, because they will see their own authenticity in every image.
Learn how to use your camera. It is your tool and if you know how to use it then you’ll be able to make it create photos that look like the inside of your mind.
Learn how to read light. Take it as it is and work with it, instead of trying to manipulate it.
Be open-minded when it comes to your style. It’s an ongoing process. You don’t pursue it once and that’s it. You begin by laying the foundation and then go back to tweak every now and again.
What you like to see and what you enjoy creating are who you are. With this in mind the doors are open to developing your own style of photography and using it to show the world your YOUness!
Thank you for reading! I’d love to learn about your photography experiences, how you are doing with creating your style and about your personal struggles. Feel free to comment below.