When I went to a workshop for professional photographers back in March, many of us got into a discussion about defining our style. How does a photographer discover their style? Is it the way they take their photos? Is it how they edit them? Is it how they pose their clients? Is it how they interact with their clients? Is it all of the above?
I know it’s a struggle for a lot of photographers to define their style, and once they find it, they often feel limited by it. I, for one, pretty easily define my style as bright, clean, and classic. I know that I want my pictures to be timeless, that’s why I don’t do a lot of textures or use lots of actions on my images. That’s just my personal preference. Don’t get me wrong–I love a good image with a grungy, texturized feel. I’ve just found that every time I try this style on my own, I end up preferring my original edit.
But lately I’ve been stretching myself–trying new things. I’m really loving distortion, especially when photographing children (glance up at the image of my sweet Abby in the orchard at the top of this blog and you’ll see what I mean). And I’ve enjoyed playing around with sunflare, too. And black and white images? I never used to like them. My style is all about bold, bright color, right? Well, done correctly, you can really achieve a bold and bright feel in a black and white image.
So when I was going through the images from this session of adorable Miss {A}, I knew that I wanted to try a few new things. I loved the haze that I was getting from the evening sun coming through the grasses and thought that these pictures would look great edited with a vintage feel. To me, they look like they could be pulled out of a Crewcuts ad with her adorable jumper and accessories. And I just love the black and white edits. Her dark hair and eyes contrast so beautifully against her creamy skin.
This session is one of my favorites not only because I had such a great time hanging out with {A}–who, by the way, came up to me out of the blue and hugged me–love that! But it’s also a favorite because of the emotion that the images convey. I love how they aren’t all just of {A} looking at the camera, posing, and smiling. I love the strands of hair on her face, I love her profile defined by the setting sun behind her, I love that they make you feel something when you look at them. And I love that I’ve given myself the creative freedom to try something new. Something to enhance my style. Something to help me grow as a photographer and as an artist.
