Create your own music
Shot during Labor Day Balloon Festival in 2022. An amazing yearly tradition in the heart of Colorado Springs, Colorado.
When young creatives, and by young I mean those starting off learning something new, we tend to copy those that we look up to the most. A young musician will learn the songs of their favorite musician. Practicing over and over till they get a song just right.
I remember being at home on sick days and watching Bob Ross on PBS and I would practice along side his paintings. Photographers might download their favorite photographers presets and go out and capture photos that match our favorite photographer. Soon our instagram feed is filled with a ton of images that match hundreds, if not thousands of others that also dove into the hype of the same photographer.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It is a great way to learn. Many photographers online teach amazing skillsets. It helps drive the passion for photographers just starting out. The problem happens when we don’t grow outside of this mindset of mimicking our heroes. After a while our work becomes boring. It becomes stagnant. Why? Because it is not our work. It is the work of others. We end up seeing the same photos over and over. We see the same presets over and over and after a while we wonder why our work does not stand out or get noticed. We wonder why we are no longer inspired by our images. It’s not that our images are bad, it is just we become desensitized over time.
There is a time when young musicians stop playing the music of others and start creating their own. This same transition should happen with photographers as well. A time when we start shooting the photos that inspire us. We create images that tell our story, through our eyes. We begin editing in a way that speaks to our soul. The faster this transition happens the better, at least in my opinion. It allows our work to stand out. It allows us to be even more proud of our work because it is more authentic to who we are.
A popcorn cart in downtown Seattle. Never got to eat any popcorn from it but it made a great image.
All of this is not to say you shouldn’t go and create work that is similar to others. If you see a cool fire shot from a local photographer, by all means go and learn the technique. Practice it with friends and family. Then spend some time thinking about how you can make it your own. Can you change or tweak something to make it even better? Maybe you can, maybe you can’t. Practicing this over and over will help you get better.
It’s easy to copy others, but very difficult to be authentic to you. And maybe you won’t get the desire outcome. Maybe you won’t get more clients. Maybe you won’t get as many likes on social media. But, you will be creating work that is true and authentic to you.
Oh, and before you say, I need a new camera or new lens to make all this happen… You don’t.. But we will talk about that another time.
