Making Better Images

PDN just published a great little article on "PDN's 30 Alumni: On Lessons Learned" Give it a read.

One of the most common threads through the photographers who were in the article was that they keep shooting. Striving to make better images and shoot personal work keeps you fresh and helps you hone your vision.  So many times photographers get so caught up in well... making a living(that's not a bad thing). Shooting only paid assignment work is what we all need to do, but if it's the only thing we are doing, our creative vision will suffer. Making time to shoot personal work is the key, and most of the time we have to make that time for our lazy selves.

I've always lived upon this theory. I love to shoot regardless of whether or not I'm getting paid. As long as it's pushing me to hone my creative vision, explore, or learn. We need to push ourselves to expand our capabilities and develop our style. Granted, I can always be shooting more.

Happy Shooting!

Comments

[K. Strecker]

I've got to say, this is the first time I've ever been compelled to comment on someone's blog. But damn does this ring true. I'm still primarily in the assisting phase of my career, and it's outrageous how many assistants I've met and worked with who spend so much time running this freelance ratrace that they literally stop shooting all together! They just figure they'll fall into shooting professionaly by osmosis or something. . .

[Bartek]

Speaking of better images...I just found your blog/work recently and I'm blown away man. You've such a natural and your images are stunning dude, fantastic work! I'm trying to figure out a good way to achieve a similar look, so I'm wondering if you'd share some pointers about how you get such golden, yellow and "beachy" images? Is it the whitebalance? Anyways, killer stuff! I wanna see more :)

[jay]

happy shooting indeed! nice post