Quote of the day: “Knowing what you love to photograph, and what you do not, is the first step in the recognition and refinement of your vision.” — David duChemin Within the Frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision

Lone crow in treetop

Finding my artistic voice—an exercise in discernment

With each new photograph I make, I learn.

I learn about the technical aspects of photography—the basics of the exposure triangle, working in different types of light, depth of field and sharpness, showing movement, freezing movement, understanding how the camera “sees” versus how the human sees.

I also learn about composition and art, weight, balance, the effect of color, lines, shapes, what to leave in the frame, what to leave out, and how the eye reads the frame.

Apple still life

There are no right techniques and wrong techniques. There are no rules of composition. But there are ways to learn to read pictures and understand how different elements and techniques create a certain feeling or mood, inviting the eye to stay or wander around the frame. This is a kind of learning that is never done. There is always something new to learn or try.

I feel as if I have finally gained enough practice and experience in making photographs to look beyond technique and composition towards expressing my own unique voice.

Lone maple leaf in the rain

The desire to express MY artistic voice, not just copy someone else.

I resonate withe David duChemin’s quote above because finding my artistic voice and expressing my voice have been arising more frequently for me.

I always feel a bit embarrassed when someone asks me what kind of photography I do and I answer, “Oh, any kind. I do some landscape and nature photography and macro and still life. I make portraits and I’ve shot some events and weddings.”

I feel like I’m admitting that I’m a total amateur who doesn’t know what she’s doing.

I have learned from doing all of these kinds of photography and that experience is helping me to find my artistic voice. I find joy in many different kinds of photography so I’ll continue to do more than one thing. But I also have learned some kinds of photography that I don’t want to do.

Playing during Kids Beginner’s Mind Photography Class

I’m starting to add the practice of careful discernment to my saying “YES” or “NO” to a project. I found a recent post by Chela Davison called “Weekly Practice: Your Check-List for YES” that has been helpful to that practice.

Davison suggests that you build a checklist based on looking back at some of your favorite projects and experiences to find common themes across all those experiences. She also suggests that you look back at things you took on that turned out not to be good experiences and ask yourself what was missing that you needed?

And since most of us are great at fooling ourselves (at least some of the time), Davison also suggests creating a Cross-checklist that help you keep from falling into your habitual traps.

Apples

I’ve found the cross checklist to be incredibly enlightening and it is helping me avoid many of my common behavioral traps.

While using a checklist and cross checklist is not going to directly help me discern and develop my artistic voice, it is helping me create a flow in my work that nourishes and sustains me. I’m learning to say “NO” to some things so that I can have the energy and time to say “YES” to things that I’m passionate about.

Because feeling good is important to me, I’m learning to get clear that a “YES” to something that is going to deplete me and cause me to be in pain for the next 3 days is not a real “YES” no matter how much I want it to be.

I’ve gotten clear that photographing events and weddings is a “NO” for me. Portraits are a “MAYBE,” depending upon what kind of portrait is desired and the time frame involved.

Teaching photography and Adobe Lightroom is a “YES,” but no more than one class per week. Otherwise, I feel like I don’t have time to do the “free play” photography that sustains and teaches me. One on one teaching is a big “YES!” I love being able to zero in on just what the person wants to learn and help them overcome hurdles that have been frustrating them.

I’m making time for at least one photo shoot per week where I just go out wandering and see what draws my eye. I’m also coming back to what first drew me into learning more about photography, flower photographs. Slowly I’m finding my voice through discerning what to say “YES” to and what to say “NO” to.

How could the practice of discernment help you?

Iris macro shot

A Plug for Some Great Videos

I’m learning tons from a set of videos by David duChemin.  Available HERE, The Created Image Series is a series of 10 videos with over 14 hours of content.  If you’re just beginning in photography and you want to learn the technical details of photography, these videos are probably not for you. But if you’re ready to learn more about the ART of photography, they are absolutely perfect!  I’ve watched about half of them. I’ve enjoyed each of the videos I’ve watched and as I said before, learned a lot.

YES!