I just returned from a two week trip out to California and Las Vegas. The California side of the trip was spent with cousins in San Diego and L.A., and my brother in San Luis Obispo. The Las Vegas side was spent at the Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI) trade show. This was probably my 5th WPPI and I still seem to walk away with some new info on products and the business. I also seem to walk away a bit conflicted as well. Some of the best wedding photographers in the world are at the show talking about their work. It can be a bit intimidating because I realize there is still a lot of room for my photography to grow. That should motivate me, and it does; but it also frustrates me because I don't want to put myself in a position of trying to copy or imitate other photographers. So I am conflicted.
If asked whether I had any guidance for new photographers, I would offer this standard but true advice: stay true to yourself. Understand your style and how you like to shoot and capture images, and build on that. Perfect it. Make it your signature. That is what I should be practicing myself, rather than trying to recreate a style mastered by someone else. So much of photography, like so much of everything else in our lives, relies on confidence. Just like a pro athlete's performance can suffer when they are lacking confidence, I know my own photography suffers when I am losing confidence in my abilities. So yeah, I do have plenty of room to grow and expand my photography, and I want to continue to learn and experiment. But I also want to stay true to my own style. I know what I like and I know what I don't like. There are photos taken by some of these "rock star" photographers that are absolutely beautiful, and there are images that I really dislike. These photographers seem to see something wonderful in these images. I see cheese, or a weird stance, or blown out highlights. So why would I want to try and imitate their work if I don't like it?
I guess for any artist there is this conflict. We respect the work of other artists, and perhaps secretly wish we had their level of talent. At the same time we believe in our own work, proud of it in fact. I think the most successful artists, and probably the most respected ones, are those who have perfected their own style, and stayed true to it. In the end, that is what I want of myself.
