I’ve been interested in photography for a very long time, which is why I decided to incorporate it into my content more. I’m not an expert in photography by any means but I hope that I can share something of interest. In this post I thought I would share a little story time about ‘how I developed an interested in photography’.
Like I said before I have been interested in photography for a long time, though as a little kid I never liked to be in photographs unless it was my mum taking them, I think it’s because I have never liked to be the center of attention. This is still something that I struggle with a bit. I don’t know when my interest in photography really started, I have always been creative and even as a child I knew that I wanted to do something artistic when I grew up. When I think back about how it all started I have so many fond memories and some of them just make me smile and laugh, like my sister and I loved to pretend we were model’s when we were kids and our mum would take pictures of us, we would do cute little poses, it was so much fun.
I have always loved taking pictures, I started out with my mum’s point and shoot film camera and then I was eventually given my own, I think it was purple from memory, I would take pictures when we were on holidays, of friends and my family. We have multiple photo albums filled with pictures from when we were growing up, it’s funny isn’t it how times have changed, we now save our pictures to a folder on our computers or devices but how many of us actually get them printed these days or is it just me?
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Anyway, I was lucky to get into digital photography and learning Photoshop pretty early, I started learning Photoshop in primary school so pretty early days as far as Photoshop goes. It really was what made me fall in love with photo-manipulation/ compositing, something I have dabbled with on and off over the years, and obviously more recently, it’s become an integral part of how I create my images.
As far as digital photography goes I think we got our first digital camera in the early 2000s back when it was still quite new, it was a point and shoot camera, though eventually we purchased our first DSLR and I think this is really when I started experimenting with photography, taking creative portraits, still-life’s, nature photography, event photography, weddings & family portraits. Over the years I’ve done a little bit of everything. I eventually purchased my own DSLR and have been using it for the past 10 years I only recently purchased a new one, it was still working and I felt no need to purchase a new one until I wanted something that also shoots video, also it weighs a tone and I find it very hard to use these days because of that so I also wanted something lighter in weight as well.
Anyway, as I experimented with different types of photography, I found myself being interested in getting back to basics, learning film photography and dark room processing which I have always found fascinating. I was interested in this right from when I first started going to high school, I choose my first high school because they had photography as a subject, though I never actually got to do it as a subject before moving on to my second high school (which is a whole other story) it stuck with me though and I eventually followed my interest after high school. I purchased my first film SLR and did a course that enabled me to learn dark room processing. This was also one of the things that made me become interested in collecting old film cameras, which started off with my grandfathers old Agfa Isolette (pictured further down) that I was given as a gift and have somewhat of a sentimental attachment to.
Over the years I have let my passion for learning take me in different directions, learning fashion styling, makeup, graphic design, image compositing, studio photography but everything has given me the skills to put back into my photography.
I have always been inspired by stories, as well as vintage and fantasy aesthetic, though my style has changed quite a lot over the years. I originally wanted to take portraits of other people and I did for a while but as my mental health has changed over the years, I found it hard to pursue this direction because of my social anxiety and moved in to taking self-portraits instead. Though I find my modeling needs work, what can I say I’m not great with expression and body language. Another reason I moved in this direction is because I find it hard to communicate what I need and direct people, which made taking portraits of other people quite hard.
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I do find self-portraits have some limitations but I find that it’s easier for me to work this way. I would love to take pictures on location but I don’t drive and have no desire to, so it does make it hard for me to do that. I feel like this is where compositing comes into my process, I can take pictures on location when I can and use them later on or use stock photography, though I do prefer to use my own pictures where I can. And then I can set up my studio lights and background to shoot my character and edit them together in photoshop to create my image.
One of my favourite places to learn is through a site called ‘Creative Live’ #notsponsored, this is where I have learnt a variety of different things that I can use when creating or taking pictures, including different types of photography, lighting, different editing techniques, and more… Even though I do have a few different qualifications in photography and graphic design it feel like I have learnt more through the kind of courses that creative live offer than through some of the expensive course that I have done. I mean if your not looking to have a qualification or can’t afford expensive courses their courses may be more suitable to your needs.
Taking self-portraits isn’t the only type of photography that I love, I have always loved taking pictures of nature and in recent years this has become another of my favourite things to photograph. I really started doing it more after watching Kathleen Clemons workshops on Creative Live, she showed me that I didn’t need some fancy lens to take pictures of flowers that I could use what I already had, though having the right lens does help. But she also introduced me to some programs (Topaz labs impressions, glow and texture effects) that I love using in both my nature and self-portraiture work to this day.
From a young age I knew that I wanted to do something creative, I wanted to be an artist (or a writer), though my drawing and painting skills leave much to be desired, But I do love and appreciate the way paintings look and that’s why I love making my work have that painterly feel to it.
Still to this day I am fascinated by Photography, and I am still constantly experimenting with different styles, genre’s and techniques. I believe that as an artist you are constantly evolving and I think this is why some of my photos or images look so different from others. I have never liked boxes I believe to put yourself in a box (sticking to one style for example) can be suffocating, I have tried often to do this and as someone who has a creative brain, I end up finding myself feeling lost and searching for more. I feel like this with most things, be it my blog or different art mediums, my Instagram feed, I just feel like I can only share a small part of myself. I get that it makes thing more cohesive and whatever, but people are multidimensional and to only share one part of yourself for the sake of aesthetics isn’t something that interests me. Though in saying that I can totally appreciate it, it just doesn’t work for me and that’s okay, we are each our own person and what works for one might not work for someone else and that’s okay too.
I hope you enjoyed this post and I learnt a little bit about the author behind this blog. Because I want to share more posts on photography on my blog, I thought it would be fun to share a little bit about how I actually became interested in photography, it just seemed like a no brainer.
Soon I’ll be sharing a video and post that I’m still working on showing a start to finish of creating one of my self-portraits, for this one in particular I created a vertical flora background what isn’t something I have done before as well as showing my concept, photographing process and my editing process I hope to share that in the coming weeks but we will have to see how I go putting it together.
How did you become interested in photography? If its something that interests you of course, Was there a specific moment or maybe an artist or photographer that made you want to learn? Let me know in the comments I’m always fascinated to hear people stories.
Until next time, I hope you have a lovely day.
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