So, I was looking through my blog today and I actually fell asleep, I got so bored. My pictures are boring, safe, but nonetheless (is that all one word?) boring. So how do you inspire creativity, how do you get your clients to be different and daring? How do you think outside of the box? And since I am asking questions, how long should my "portfolio building" phase last? It has been over a year, but I want to be awesome before I charge people, it just doesn't feel right to ask for $ for boring...

Anyway, any advice would be greatly appreciated. Feel free to rip into my blo pictures, I truly want to get better and although ignorance is bliss-it doesn't really get you much in life. Thanks, I love this place

I think your blog pictures are great! It looks like you are thinking outside the box and using some great angles.

Before I start a session I pick one thing to really focus on. Once I get comfortable stepping out of my comfort zone on one thing I am ready for the next. This has really helped to broaden my images. Some things I've worked on are really wide angle shots including lots of the background, shooting from a low angle, shooting from above, shooting very tight etc.

Hopefully that helps, but I think your images are great, not boring. Just keep shooting!

Thanks for the encouraging words, I definatly feel (see!) the need to step out of my comfort zone, it seems I will have great ideas before hand, but I just can't get them out f my head and into my camera...Thanks!

I'm glad you posted this question because I've had trouble with the same thing.... nice to know it's not just me The good news is you're hard on yourself, which means you're only going to get better, right? (that's what I'm trying to tell myself anyway!) Sometimes it's just exhausting, it seems like no matter how much you improve, you want to be better! And then you start asking yourself, "What was I thinking?! I suck at this! Maybe I should quit!" And then you remember that you just spent the last six years busting your butt in art school, and like 10 g's on equipment... Okay, maybe that's me. But anyhoo... I try to pinpoint what it is I don't like so I can target those areas. Seems like I go for "safe" a lot of times as well. So I guess I have no answers, ha! But I sympathize, if that's worth anything!

Our friend Mr. Picasso said, "Good artists borrow. Great artists steal." I'd recommend you start stealing until you're the best

Kidding aside, I firmly believe that art is communication. And it's the ability to have a message and communicate it authentically that makes for good art. Good images make you know something or feel something.

And why do they do that?

Because when the artist created it, he or she had something in mind that they wanted viewers to think or feel. Generally for wedding photography this is something like, "this bride is elegant and sophisticated," or "this couple is fun-loving and playful." For senior portrait photography this might be something like, "This young man is thoughtful and artistic," or "this young lady is fashionable."

Once you know what you're trying to say, it's easy. After that it's just technical details. Using your lighting and composition knowledge (and mad photoshop skillz ) to communicate that message. But it's all about the message.

And how do you find that message in portraiture? You have to get to know your subject. You have to develop a personal relationship with this person so they will open up to you and show you who they are. Then you'll show that in your images. That's what makes your images authentic, and differentiates communicative art from a picture.

And how do you get this personal relationship with your subject? That's easy, Robert Capa told us 70 years ago. "Like people and let them know it."

Oh, and failing all that, just buy a better camera. That works, too

Awesome advice, Matt!

That's funny about Picasso, Matt. Reminds me of what Clay Blackmore said last year on his tour...that R&D stands for "rip-off and duplicate."

I would take a Beckstead workshop, he will show you lines and shadows and open your mind to another level. I have really focused and practiced what he taught and it worked well for me, now it is color depth I am working on. Workshops from David and other greats can really help. Do you need composition, business, etc, whatever you want to do better find who does it well and teaches it.

Doesn't surprise me... when we were studying Cubism, it seemed that Picasso pretty much copied everything that Braque did and look who of the two became a household name... granted, they were working together on developing that style, but it seemed like Braque was bringing more to the table.

Thanks for all the great, and well said advice.
Funny that a couple of you brought up artists. I have been raiding our local library over the past couple weeks and pouring through works by Degas, Waterhouse, Monet, even Norman Rockwell. I love art that tells me something, or makes me feel something, and I want my photography to do the same thing, not just be a pretty picture (although I can settle for a pretty picture!).

As far as copying others work, I see The Image Is Found remakes everywhere, and why not they totally rock, but it would be nice to be able to come up with something fresh, and exciting on my own...

Just thinking out loud, I guess...Thanks!

I totally love this kind of conversation because it's such a crazy thing, we all get so into our own heads and it's SO easy being an artist and trying to create something to look at something else and say that is so amazing! I sometimes lose track of what I am doing and the thing I am creating and then I'll have a client tell me that just looking at my images, even other peoples sessions made them happy for the day.

NO ONE is an ISLAND, I totally adore The Image is Found and Nate and Jac's work! BUT they ride on the shoulders of others it's a cycle

Elliot Erwitt was an AMAZING Magnum photographer and when I discovered him I thought OMG I've seen these pictures on so many amazing blogs, except he was shooting decades before anyone of the photographers I'd seen had even picked up a camera!

Click to view attachment

check out his work at http://www.elliotterwitt.com/lang/index.html

Steve D is right too, I try to pick a new way to look at the images and the settings and each time it adds a new dimension to my work!

Workshops in general are grand just because they get us out and looking at things differently, to me it's like being reminded that we're all human not just voices on a forumn or gorgeous images on a site and it gives me the freedom to be more myself!

I agree with a lot of what has been said about copying others. The key to being fresh is to expand on whatever style you choose to adopt. I personally have no formal training in photography or photoshop. What I did to train myself was to spend months looking at other photographers websites and bookmarking the ones that stood out. From that I think my style emerged, it wasn't cookie cutter copying of one photographer but a combination of things I liked from about 20 photographers. I think your images are great, especially your black and whites.

Melissa, thanks so much for the Elliott Ewritt link, I love his sense of humour and how he could put it in his pictures. Great point on standing on the shoulders of others, I guess everyone does it to some degree, the whole "nothing new under the sun" thing comes to mind.



Scottie, I'm glad you wrote this, I think I have been thinking that I was cheating by looking at other peoples work. In the end I don't want to copy anyone, but I can use it as a starting point to figure out my own style.

Thanks again everyone. OSP rocks

Great thread.
Lots of great advice.
I guess I really needed to read what Matt wrote. Good stuff.