Self-Expression – Voices 51

Around 9th or 10th grade is when I started taking pictures on my phone. Now, when I went to take a picture, I’d want it to look nice. I thought the pictures I had were so cool, but looking back, they were garbage.

One of my friends had a DSLR. He suggested I entered a photography competition.

Because I had so much fun taking pictures, I thought might as well learn more about it. It was intimidating at first.

I got a super entry-level DSLR, but I loved the hell out of that thing. I spent hours learning how to shoot manually, all the technical aspects behind the camera, all the jargon.

The time came for the competition, and I ended up getting second place. That was definitely an ego boost. It was motivational.

Then, I got Photoshop and Lightroom. I learned what everything did, and began developing my own editing style.

I think right now, the thing I’m improving on the most is developing an editing style. It’s something that sets you apart from every other photographer.

I went through a whole overly critical phase, where I was comparing myself to people who were way better than me. I was trying to imitate them, but at the same time come up with something original. It was not coming together at the same time.

Some pictures aren’t perfect pictures, but they mean a lot to me because there’s something tied to that picture. There’s one picture that I’m really fond of. It’s not the greatest picture, but it’s the first picture that I took that I was proud of.

I’m trying not necessarily to convey how something looks, but what it feels like. I’m not a complete purist.

I want to have a unique, but also very aesthetically pleasing style. I want people to identify my work easily when they look at my pictures.