Lately I've been honing in on the work of Mike Marshall, Charles @hildreth , and Lastsuspect.
I'm in love with the editing styles of Last Suspect and Hildreth, I constantly refer to their photographs for editing techniques... one day I hope to afford a session with Hildreth to see the magic behind his editing techniques.
Until then I'm scrounging back to Digital Camera's magazine issue from 2012 for his pointers!
Great stuff, and incredibly inspiring.
I love the softness of the photographs and the sharpness of the subject matter...without sacrificing the quality of the photo.
And I love the utilization of scenery with Last Suspect and Mike Marshall, their photography constantly inspires me to travel and to push my perspective away from the subject matter.
If you're into photography, I'd suggest checking them out!
Anyway, here is what Sara and I got into today.
About a week ago I had the awesome opportunity to shoot my gorgeous gal pal, Shelby, inside of her little brothers indoor skatepark.
Shooting this showed me just how important location is to me.
Which means I need to make it a goal to go on more adventures into abandoned buildings and explore!!!
p.s. Please don't forget to show my debut set "BACKYARD" some love, shot by @alissa and styled by @radeo <3
Happy Birthday America!
Had an awesome 4th of July!
Went for a morning run, cleaned my car (which makes me feel like a completely new woman), swam with my puppy dog, then hung out with some of my favorite people.
Life is good, always.
Hope everyone had an amazing 4th of July, American or not!
Practice, Practice, Practice
I always find myself asking what is it about a photo that draws my attention? What makes a photo inspiring?
I've yet to find that "this is it" feeling with my photography, that feeling that so many other photographers give me.
But it's ok, because I always feel like I'm one step closer.
This next semester I plan on taking my first photography class. It should be fun, motivating, and a handful of hard work.
I'm excited to learn the basics, but I do hope to keep in mind that curiosity is the birth of creativity, and as someone who is a novice in the field I would hope to never lose my curiosity.
The Art of Photography
Have I ever mentioned that I love my Praktika LTL? Because I do.
I found it about five years ago at an antique shop in Georgia, buying it was a hit or miss since I knew nothing about the mechanics of older cameras at the time. However, my stepdad/best friend, Chris, was all about helping me learn how to use my first SLR.
Within the first month of me buying my Praktika, we had gone to Walgreens more times than most people in America have gone in their life time.
After finding out that my camera had a broken light meter I realized I better learn what all the numbers on my camera and lens meant, so I did my research. I hardly understood the balanced triangle of shutter, iso, and aperture…but who does at first?
It was after the tedious and frustrating (yet fun!) documentation of each shot in a little moleskin with the Shutter/Aperture used (not mentioning the ISO since it was generally 400 and unchangeable once a film canister was loaded), that I learned what lighting required which settings.
Film has this timeless feel about it, and as convenient as digital photography has become, and despite how much I have learned from my own digital ventures, I will always be grateful for the day I stumbled upon my Praktika, because it opened up a world of curiosity that has inspired passion, creativity, and a constant yearning for growth.
I believe this is why I get frustrated when people purchase a digital camera and a nice lens and consider themselves a photographer…the beauty of the art of photography has been lost, despite the ever growing digital industry. I will be the first to say technology is absolutely amazing, I use it every day and it surely makes learning photography much easier.
But the beauty of photography, for me, stems from the meditation that comes with putting all of yourself into a different medium.
I don’t think one can fully understand this concept without going through the tedious process of shooting film (or any other art form that requires process). While being immersed in the different stages that your form of art requires, you are filled with a multitude of emotions, excitement, anticipation, worry…and these feelings only come with knowing that Control+Z can’t be hit, that there is no “Undo” button.
Where there is struggle there is growth and appreciation, and I believe digital photography has stunted the meditation process that comes with the true art of photography.
