Finding a Direction

Photography has always been a love and a passion, more now than ever before. I have been working hard these past 2 years to figure out where I stand as a photographer, to grow in my technical ability, to hone my creative view and to find my voice as a photographer. I have always been the guy who can do most anything when it came to a field. I was never good at just being one thing in one industry. Having been a graphic design for the past 11 years I have worked with video, audio, packaging, promotional, outdoor, web, kiosk, etc, etc, etc... Someone asks me if I can do it and I say yes and then figure it out and once I do it becomes the thing that everyone wants me to do until that next thing comes around. So, knowing that should give you a bit of an idea as to why finding a focus right now is difficult. I didn't always do all of those things just because I was asked, I was always excited to tackle something new and to accomplish it. In the past that has taken me through many different fields within my industry and now with photography I am trying to figure out how to keep it new and keep it fresh like I like to while finding my true voice as a photographer and growing in one discipline until it has been mastered.

I keep playing with the idea of just offering a wide range of photographic services but my research points to the successful commercial photographers as being consistent with their vision. I can understand why this would be important since the person who is hiring you must know if you are going to deliver what they want and if they see multiple styles in one book they don't really know who they are getting for the assignment.

So that leads us to the next question. How can I differentiate myself in this market, what can I do that is not being done and how can I take the risk of whether people will like what I do or not when I have a family to provide for. In these touch economic times starting a new business is probably not the best decision but I cannot ignore this passion. Photography has lit a fire in me and right now it is raging so fiercely that I am having a hard time focusing it. I am slowly learning how to harness and control this energy but it is a tough road. To have so much love for something and just have no idea how to move forward. I feel stuck at the starting line revving the engine waiting for that light to turn green.

I have identified my two largest obstacles at this point, first is creativity, I need to make a decision about who I am going to be as a photographer and how I am going to market myself. I need to create a look and stlye that is my own and that is unique enough to help me stand out in a crowd. The second is a lack of understanding for the business side of things. That has been clearing up slowly, I am reading everything I can and I have to say a big thanks to my digital mentors (blogs) Chase Jarvis, Tim Tadder, Joe McNally and Vincent Laforet as well as all of the great books and publications out there.

Ohhh, but where to go from here... that is the question that is haunting me lately. I recently completed a series of photos from a studio shoot that I abslutly loved. They are still not completely there but I think I am starting to get a feel for where I am going.







I have always believed that the IDEA is the most important piece of the puzzle in anything I have done and it is no different in photography. The things that have always spoken loudest to me are the pieces that have the great conceptual idea behind them. Once you have the idea it's all about executing that idea and, that, I think gives variety while maintaing a certain style or direction. I think as I move forward my next pieces will need to all be idea generated, pieces that convey the idea effectivly through photography instead of words. Using my knowledge of graphic design, composition, marketing, advertising and the tools such as photoshop to give me the edge I need to be competitive in this marketplace.

I think commercial portraiture is where I want to be, moving forward. This is the kind of stuff that really get's my attention.

This image is from Tim Tadder's Blog and is Copyright Tim Tadder

I'm still not sure if that includes brides and kids and food and products or if it is more specific. I don't yet know if it's all just studio or if it's location based or both but I do know that I want to figure it out fast and start working because it kills me everyday that I read a blog post about someone else's cool assignment. I want to be the one working them and writing them and pushing the envelope every day to create the work that gets noticed.

I will get there, it's not a question of if...

Stay tuned!