shooting for the love of photography

If you have followed my blog for a while you may have seen a change in me in the past 3 months.  Heaven knows I have seen one in myself.  When I graduated from photography school I was ready to take the world by storm!  My goal was to work my way up through different publications shooting editorial work until I landed at the dream job. Martha Stewart Living. This goal, of course would take years to fulfill but I knew it could be done, I just had to work hard.  Well God has a funny way of showing you what you should be doing instead of what you want to be doing.  My focus changed from Editorial to Weddings, something I knew I didn’t want to do!

It turns out I loved shooting weddings, but I got to the point where I was just going through the motions.  Yes I can nail my exposures, but to me it just wasn’t good enough.  My picture looked blah to me and I couldn’t figure out why.  I know I have written this before on the blog, but it really did change my life.  I did some serious soul searching and kind of rediscovered film.  I forgot the joy that comes from shooting on the classic medium and it made me remember why I love photography so much.  Photography is an art form that is really really hard to master (I am still working on it and always will be) and I feel like digital kind of lessened the value of it a little bit.  Now don’t come at me with pitch forks just yet digital shooters!!!  I still shoot digital at times and I know there are absolutely amazing digital photographers who are wonderful artists.  What I am saying is that the phrase “I can just fix it in photoshop” makes me die a little inside.  Ok, so maybe that is a bit dramatic, but it does truly bums me out.

So what is the point of this rant?  I don’t believe you need to switch to film to be a great artist and love photography.  You just need to love what you do and always strive to be better.  Really work on understanding light and always be learning new things.  Read and study books from the true masters of photography like Ansel Adams and Richard Avedon.  Take a History of Photography class.  You will be amazed by the humble beginnings of this amazing art form.  The greatest thing about photography, digital or film, is that the principles of light never change.  If you understand light and exposure you can shoot any medium.

I could go on forever but I won’t.  The last thing I will say is that I really do LOVE photography.  Here is a photograph that I took on Velvia 50 when I was in school.  Keep shooting!