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Defining Your Style

By Jon Canfield 

Most of us got started in photography as a hobby—as a way to express ourselves creatively. Some were lucky enough to know what they were attracted to from the beginning, whether it was landscape, wildlife, wedding, or portrait photography. Others, myself included, had no firm idea of what compelled us to pick up a camera.

I know that in my case, I was interested in nature photography. But I spent quite a bit of time working with a variety of subjects before deciding it was landscape and macro photography that I wanted to concentrate on. I have a great deal of admiration for wildlife photographers, and love to view their work, but I don’t have the patience to do it myself. So, having decided what interested me the most, I wanted to find what it was that made for a successful photograph.

Along with reviewing work from other photographers that I admire, I made sure to take the time to find what it was about a scene that attracted me to the scene to begin with, and how to turn the image I had in my head to one on paper.

If you haven’t taken the time to find what draws you to pick up a camera, whether it’s for pleasure or profit, I suggest going through your existing images to look for trends. Do you see a pattern developing in your shots?

Once you start to identify these patterns or trends you can begin to concentrate on improving your compositions with an eye toward defining your own style. Hey, it worked for Ansel!

 

Posted 08-14-2008 7:08 PM by Eileen Fritsch
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Comments

sonalstarr wrote re: Defining Your Style
on 08-21-2008 7:38 PM

Excellent insight into how to focus and optimize a skill. Really enjoyed this, thanks!

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