A "Voice" of My Own

When it comes to color I like to go bold or go home. I also love to capture the beauty in movement with my art.

This picture shows my love of black and white, and my own style and flair of creativity. Shot in natural light.

These two photographs represent some of my clean studio work, a style I like, but it lacks originality on its own.

We have all heard the phrases "find your own voice" or "find your own place in the world". This is extremely important in the photography industry. Since photoshop and high resolution cameras are now more available (and affordable) to the general public everyone THINKS they can be a professional photographer. Anyone can make a clean, clear photograph. Anyone can crop and do mild retouching on a photograph. This makes the fashion, glamour, beauty, and portrait photography industries harder to break into than ever before. So how can I expect to break out and make a successful career for myself? I need to be different of course!!! I need to create a style that is unique, a style that is fresh and new, a style that models and magazines will be dying to have their name on. I need to develop a style that is MINE.

How will I begin developing my own style? I will first take the advice of a mentor photographer and stop focusing on the styles of other photographers. Am I inspired by Richard Avedon? Yes. Would I love to have the career of Mario Testino and Michael Thompson ? Of course! However, should I waste my time trying to mimic their style, composition, and use of light? Only if I want to end up like every other wannabe photographer with a subscription to Vogue.

I will look at my old work. What do I love to shoot? What speaks to me? What hobbies, passions, and aspects of myself can I carry into my work? Then I must play around with different modifications of light, color, and composition until I find my niche. After that I will refine, build, and market my style.