
- #Pictures with a deeper meaning how to#
- #Pictures with a deeper meaning skin#
- #Pictures with a deeper meaning professional#
The winds began to pick up and the white sands began blowing. I was in the White Sands National Monument near Alamogordo, New Mexico this past summer, sitting on a white sand hill, watching the sky turn from a deep hue of blue, to a dark sky, forming into a lightning storm. It was a meditative state, where I had set up my easel (camera on a tripod) and waited for the decisive moment to shoot (putting the brush to the canvas).


While waiting, I absorbed all the things going on around me, without any sort of preconceived notions, but instead, just letting the world happen around me without trying to control it. I realized early on, my method was to find a subject, compose, take in the atmosphere, and wait patiently.
#Pictures with a deeper meaning how to#
Then, you can start to see your style peeping through, because you’ve slowly learned how to create your own vision, by studying those whose work you have a connection. You need to learn it all, test it all, and learn different styles.

Would you trust this person to cut you open without learning from other, more experienced surgeons? It’s the same with photography, it’s on the job training. It’s just like a doctor fresh out their residency, learning how to become a surgeon. It finally makes sense that you need to know these technical skills to create something with more meaning. You are now using all your technical photography education, and putting it into practice. But what if someone challenges you to do some macro shots, architectural, portraits, or anything different from what you’re used to? It takes you out of your comfort zone, and challenges your knowledge as a photographer, while also providing you with ideas to incorporate into your own work. You may have a certain style of shooting that you are drawn to, like landscapes or street photography.
#Pictures with a deeper meaning skin#
Being peer reviewed by other photographers will not only give you helpful advice, but provide you with thick skin for future critique of your work. A photo challenge or assignment is a way to test out your technical, and artistic sides, combined to create a homework assignment that others will judge. You don’t have to exactly recreate an image perfectly like them, but just try to understand what they are doing, then try to recreate it. By learning how they craft their images, you will be clued into their vision, which will inspire your own creative insights. Step one is to try to shoot in the style of your favorite photographer. You are finally comfortable shooting in different lighting, setting up different lighting schemes, knowing your way around your camera, and all this will come in handy when you are cooking up your own voice or style of shooting.īy setting those aside, you need to learn a new way of photographing, and that will take dedication and hard work, but ultimately it will be the most rewarding endeavor, especially if this is what you want to do for a living. So how do you separate yourself from the technical nature of photography? The skills you have inherited through tutorials, articles, classes, workshops, online videos, etc., are still there in the back of your mind. “The real question is not what you look at but what you see.” – Henry David Thoreau

Now that you’ve realized that photography is more than a GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) stage, where you’re buying up the latest and greatest cameras, lenses, software, and miscellaneous items for photography, it’s time to evolve into a better photographer - one with purpose. You already photograph with meaning, you just haven’t realized how much your subconscious adds your perspective onto your images. For example, if you put six photographers in a room and asked them to create a unique image, each photograph would turn out different. Your photographs show your viewpoint and perspective of how you see the world. To realize that there is more behind a photograph than just a visual representation of time, place, and subject, and it can be much more rewarding when you challenge yourself to find your voice, your perspective, and create an emotional connection for the viewer. Composition and technical prowess are certainly important factors in creating good photographs, but how do you create great photographs with meaning? So I invite you to forget what you know for a second, and take a look at your photography in a different light. Well, basically you hit a plateau because you already know all the elements of photography from composition, to technical skills, to editing images, but somehow something is missing - substance, meaning, emotional connection, and finding your own style. It’s a crisis of self that you are faced with when you have reached a certain point of technical proficiency.
#Pictures with a deeper meaning professional#
There comes a point, or a plateau, as in every photographer’s career (whether you are an intermediate or professional photographer) where you hit a wall.
