I was reading a blog post by Chase Jarvis yesterday about his frustration with photographers who seem to put an inordinate amount of time into creating catchy business cards and marketing materials instead of honing their craft. I come down somewhere in the middle about that point. While thinking about what to write as a comment to the post, an “Aha!” moment hit me. I’m writing it down before my thoughts are lost.

What am I doing with my photography, and where do I want to go with, or take, my photography moving forward?

I am growing a bit weary of random shooting. Well, let me rephrase. I love to shoot “stuff,” and almost always have a camera with me to capture what my eyes are drawn to. What I’m driving at is that I long to be more focused with my work. Unbeknownst to Chase Jarvis, I’ve adopted him as a mentor, because he is doing the type of work that I hope to on a consistent basis, and his blog is a really useful tool. Editorial prints. I am constantly looking at work in various media to see how things are shot. I’m looking at the angles, the lighting, the depth, color temperature…everything. I’m often comforted when I look at editorial images in magazines and think, “Hey, my shots of ____ look just like (or are better than) that.” The reality sets in that I have no clue on how to get my images into those publications.

Take a step back from that, though, is the not-so-sobering reality that I have a ways to go in terms of just having sound photographic fundamentals. Drawing the analogy to the point Chase’s post, I probably have created shots solely on raw available ingredients than I have with a sound understanding and mastery of my tools-of-the-trade. I, like so many others, am clamoring for some new gear—particularly a full-frame camera. In the meantime, I don’t have proper lighting equipment, nor much substantive depth on how to use that equipment when available. I love shooting with natural light. I have, however started to wonder if my “I prefer to use natural light” approach is really an unrecognized admission that I’m scared to death about external lighting.

It ruffles my feathers when people say it, because photography is not a hobby. It is truly something I feel genuinely drawn to do. I feel that with that acknowledgement, though, comes a tremendous responsibility to commit to learning the craft. Chase’s post really spoke to me because I feel like I made splash by saying that I am a photographer without really doing the gritty legwork. To the end, I’ve decided to take a few steps back with my work and approach to establishing myself as a professional photographer. I am revamping my website to pare down what I’m pushing out for the world to see. Not because I’m ashamed of my work. I am, in fact, quite proud of my photography. Instead, I want to put a little less time into pushing out images, and take more time absorbing information and advice on how to become the photographer I aspire to be. There are a couple of books by David duChemin that address a photographers “vision” that I really want to sink my teeth into. Based on the excerpts that I’ve read, I believe his words may shed some light on ill-illuminated path on which I seem to be standing idle.

I don’t really know what direction this AHA moment will take me. Maybe it’s enrolling in a professional photography program. Perhaps it’s trailing and assisting those in the editorial field to build my base of knowledge. What ever it is, I am open, and willing, to putting in the effort to continually develop and mature as a photographer. I will leave “successful” out of that last line because the term is too subjective. My success may never be determined by garnering commercial clients to do their print ad work. Instead, I believe success—for me—will be defined by having all the requisite skills to be capable if and when the client calls.

It’s a process. I am willing to expose myself here for the purpose of laying my angst down and moving forward. I would really appreciate hearing from you. I would particularly like to hear from those who are also gnashing their teeth about the same issues and questions. I would also benefit from insight and advice from those who have climbed that hill and see the broad horizon clearly.

career, vision