Finding Your Photographic Style – Part 1 of 2

[Editor's Note]  Today we have the pleasure of bringing you another new writer, Brooke Snow.  Brooke is a lifestyle photographer in Northern Utah and creator of the Brooke Snow Online Photography Courses.  We are pleased to have Brooke on-board and we know you’ll be also!]

Finding your style and developing your own voice as a photographer is a journey.

And what an amazing journey it is!  Lets explore two stages we can encounter along the way as we learn to develop our own unique voice.

1.  Imitation

Imitation can be a touchy subject.  Ideally, its not the place we want to stay in forever, but from a learning standpoint I think it is a pretty critical first step.  As a baby we learned to walk and talk through imitation until we became proficient on our own.  I feel the same is true for any art form.  Typically, we are attracted to photography because of the work of others we have admired.  Their work may stir in our soul a yearning to create something similar ourselves.  This is good!

Allow imitation be a guide for you as you develop skill and learn from your experiences.

Consider this stage an incubation period. Copy a variety of different photographers!  Allow their work to inspire you in a similar vein.   The experiences you have at the imitation phase help you know what you are attracted to and what you are not.  Most of us don’t begin the journey with perfect clarity of where we want to go or have confidence yet in our own ideas.   Trying a variety of different approaches is one of the best ways to narrow your focus to what you are truly attracted to.

Sometimes you never know until you try and often it is through experience that are tastes and vision are refined!

The following images represent work in my imitation phase.  They’re a bit more on the fashion and serious side of life.  Its not the type of work I create today, but I’m so grateful for the opportunity to dabble in different styles to help verify my true voice when I finally found it.

2.  The difference between admiration and attraction

When it comes time to define our own style, we should understand: the difference between admiration and attraction.

According to the dictionary:

Admiration is “a feeling of wonder, pleasure, or approval.”
Attraction is “magnetic charm; fascination; allurement;”

Learning to discern between work that we admire and work that we are attracted to is a key ingredient for finding our own voice.

You will always have a more powerful impact in your work when you create from the heart.

After spending several years in the imitation stage (it takes a while to figure things out!), I finally chose to listen to the attraction voices in my heart.  I put portrait photography aside and pursued a focus solely in lifestyle.

I was attracted to candid moments, I was attracted to storytelling scenes of real life, and my heart smiled and danced and sang for joy when I had the opportunity to create images in that style.  Though I admire portrait work, I’m attracted to lifestyle. Here lies a big blinking neon sign for me to follow in that direction if I want to develop my own artistic voice.

I found that the times I heeded the call to create images that I was attracted to, I was happier.  I was also more creative and I could see my own perspective of the world in my photographs.  I felt more connected to my work, as if I had finally found a way to communicate on a more personal level.

We’re all attracted to different things.  This is one aspect that makes art so enriching and varied.  When we begin to create work we are personally attracted to, an amazing thing begins to happen: we attract the type of subject that is attracted to the same style.  When both of those things align, amazing things follow!

Next month we’ll explore some creative exercises to help us define what our photographic attractions are.  Do you think you know already?  I’d love to hear what attracts your photographic heart!