Self reflection and progression
Following on from my last blog post - a cherished moment - where I delved into quite a hard topic, today’s post is going to be a little lighter and probably much easier to write and read about - Self reflection and progression.
I’ve being doing a fair bit of reflecting since writing that piece and have been setting myself some small achievable goals to help accomplish some of things I’d like to do.
Before I could set myself these goals I felt I needed to take a look at where I was with my photography currently and where I have been. I picked up my new camera back in February of this year and obviously was very excited and a little snap happy. Since then I’ve been really trying to get to grips with my camera and learning how it works, rather than just turning it on and shooting. And already I’ve seen an improvement in my photos.
This first shot of the lovely Amy, I was so happy with when I took it, now reflecting back, although it isn’t a bad shot, I can tell I didn’t know a lot about the settings I was using. The image feels quite grainy and flat.
I was also very unsure in my editing process and went with the easy option of chucking it in black and white, mainly because I was worried about the amount of grey already in our studio setting washing out any colours. I’ve also clearly taken down the highlights from Amy’s beautiful face too much making the image even more flat.
The second shot however, I took recently and I’m far more happy with the outcome. I’ve become more comfortable editing and correcting colours.
Another great example for this is these photos I took of Jord (Amy and Jordan are both pretty confident in front of the camera so they are two of my favourite people to shoot, hence why you’ll see their faces a lot in my work).
The first image again you can see is super grainy, poor lighting and low confidence with my editing.
The second, possibly my favourite photo I’ve taken of Jord to date, I loved the outcome of this shot, the lighting was thought through, the background was perfectly defocused, and the subject is in perfect focus, making Jord really stand out nicely and making this a strong portrait. It also helps that he was wearing a hat so I didn’t have to edit his shiny head haha.
I’ve managed to get these results mainly by learning far more about my camera and lighting. I always shoot in raw and on manual, so I have full control of my images, and have been learning to adjust my settings based on what I need to prioritise, shutter speed, aperture or iso. I also did a bit of research into the type of lenses that might be better for the style of photography I’m currently enjoying, which is mainly portraiture and street photography. I settled on a 50mm f1.8 prime lens and have been loving the results so far. I’ve also been editing a lot and taking my time learning the Lightroom software a little more in-depth to get the results I want.
Progression takes time, patience and lots of practice, but also actively learning and pushing yourself is a big step to bigger results.
So far I’m pretty happy with where my photography is headed and with that in mind I’ve been thinking about where I want to go with it. I love this as a hobby, but I want to take it that step further.
A shoot I did for Daisy, her partner Jordan and their pups Mabel and Moose.
Doing this shoot really inspired me and made me want to branch out a little more with what I’ve currently been doing, I absolutely loved capturing these moments for this beautiful couple and was so happy with these photos, that I just want to do more.
So, now I’m circling back round to these goals…
The main goal, booking some clients.
I can’t thank my lovely friends enough for letting me photograph them, being patient with me as I learn all these new things and allowing me opportunities to develop and start a portfolio to put out there to potential future clients. Like any creative subject or even business, we all have to start somewhere, and it’s those people who support us from day one that really pave our way to what the future holds.
From a business standpoint, I’ve been really trying to learn and create all the basics I need for approaching or finding new clients. Creating a small social media following, a website, an email address, business cards etc, to try and make it as easy as possible for clients to find me and be able to contact me. These are things I find quite easy being that I already have a career as a self employed creative, so I’ve done them all before.
However, from a personal stand point, I’ve never really had to push myself to seek clientele and approach people or businesses and with that I’m finding myself holding back, for the fear of rejection or not being good enough. So one of my main goals is to try and push past that, approach people regardless, because it doesn’t matter if they say no, and if I don’t ask at all then I could potentially be missing out on opportunities.
Opportunities that can and will help towards my progression, and hopefully I’ll be able to do another blog post in a few months or even years from now and reflect back on this time in my journey.
I’m excited for what the future holds, let’s see where we end up…
