Starting Over.


February 2018. Canon 6D 47mm f/22 1 sec ISO 100


Don't ever be afraid to start over. Sometimes we need to walk away from what we are doing and the ideas and habits that we are engrossed in in order to think clearly. For myself, that was a major life change of moving out of state and starting a new job in a brand new area that I knew very little about. It took months before I even touched my camera. And it has taken about 18 months before I've even felt the confidence to use it again for my own amusement.

But with that being said, the time off was well-needed. It has given me new perspectives and opened my eyes to what matters in terms of where I should focus my art. This would not have happened to me otherwise, and my work would have probably not gotten better. Is it great now? Not really, but I can feel improvements in how I approach image making, and that's worth a lot.

So give yourself a break if you feel stuck. Commit to returning to something you used to love doing (hopefully, photography is that thing) and try to approach it with new eyes. You never know the things that you will learn from that.

Popular posts from this blog

What Camera Should I Buy?

Image
Photographer: Al Jurina  Reader Q&A "What camera should I buy?" This is like asking what car one should buy. Sadly, there is no simple answer. Because we are all different in our needs, our camera choice might not be meeting those needs. In the end, it is about compromise. Some cameras simply cannot give you the features you want without spending the money for them. This post will give you two recommendations, but they do not come cheap. They are cameras that can do pretty much everything in their respective category, so they can cover a broad range of options for the photographer who wants to learn and/or does. Here goes: Point-and-shoot : These are cameras that do not have interchangeable lenses. They are smaller than SLR cameras, but sometimes suffer from shutter lag or other poorer low-light performance. They typically shoot decent video as well as stills and some of them have zoom ranges that would cost you thousands of dollars in lenses on an SLR. H
Read more

Control How Your Camera Views Light

Image
Cameras don't see light the way we do. In fact, they see significantly less of a range of light and darks than we do. Because of this, they can sometimes be fooled. However, despite their limitations, understanding the different ways in which they measure light can help any photographer improve upon the results. But to do this, we need to understand something called "metering". Metering is the way that your camera evaluates the scene and responds with the appropriate settings. For instance, if you point the camera at a bright sky, it's going to give you different settings or tell you the light is different, than if you point it at a dark grove of trees. Because not all scenes are created equal, camera manufacturers have invented things called "Metering Modes". Thankfully, these are pretty common among all cameras. Let's look at 3 of the most popular modes. 1. Matrix or Evaluative metering: this kind of metering is the default setting on most ca
Read more

Inspirational Portrait and Wedding Photographer: Jeff Newsom

Image
I don't quite remember how I stumbled upon this guy's work, but Jeff Newsom is one of my favorite wedding and lifestyle photographers out there today. Maybe it's because he stands out as someone who is constantly creating something original and inspiring. If you follow his blog enough, you will notice that he likes to drop in humorous comments and thoughts here and there. In any case, he's blessed with amazing talent and vision for creating original images and ideas. Check out his portfolio here: http://www.jeffnewsom.com/  
Read more