Becoming a landscape photographer
Becoming a landscape photographer
My journey and the opportunity to ask your photography related questions.
Hello, I’m Gill and I write a photography blog inspired by the landscapes of Suffolk and beyond. Please subscribe to read more of my writing and visit my website to view my images.
This week my blog is going to be a little different. I have been doing a lot of teaching recently so have had little time for my own photography but I have had some time to reflect on my own journey and how I got to where I am. Sessions with clients usually spark some sort of self reflection and I think this is really valuable.
Today I wanted to talk a little about my own photographic journey and what I have learnt and then I thought I would throw the post over to you all and invite any questions that you may have about photography in general, my journey, what life is like as a professional landscape photographer or anything else that might be interesting. You are free to ask anything photography related and I will do my best to answer.
So first a little about my journey.
This year will be my 14th year of making money from my photography and my 6th year being a ‘professional photographer’. The reason I have made a distinction here is that I wasn’t supporting myself with my photography until 2018, it was just part of what I did. I was mainly occupied running a holiday business and hiring out classic bicycles.
2018 was when I first started running workshops and making a full time living from photography. Up to that point I think I was probably just fiddling around the edges.
I started by selling cards to people from my garden gate. I was lucky enough to rent a house next to a lovely pub overlooking the river and there were always people walking past. They would often stop and chat and their comments helped my believe in myself and my photography. Emboldened, I approached some local shops and started selling cards and calendars to different outlets along the Suffolk Coast.
At this time my photography wasn’t made up exclusively of landscapes. I dabbled in lots of things, experimenting as I went and finding what I liked and what I didn’t.
I photographed events (wedding anniversaries, christenings and birthdays and I hated every moment!) I tried my hand at product photography on location and in the studio and found that I really wasn’t very good at any of it.
I got asked to do some local sailing photography and quickly found that I really enjoyed being out on the water. I photographed junior regattas and summer sailing schools and sold the images to proud parents. It was hard work but lots of fun and I did it for several years. I also photographed many of the local sailing events including the annual East Coast barge matches and classic yacht regattas. I also did some work for sailing magazines which kept me out on the water in the summer.
But it wasn’t just yachts, I also tried my hand at pet photography and spent lots of time out in the field or in the studio trying to coax playful dogs into interesting poses. I loved the interaction with the animals but felt that this wasn’t really where my heart lay.
So it wasn’t really until 2018 when I stopped experimenting and settled down to focus on my landscapes that my photography really started to grow.
Unfortunately this was the year that my Dad died suddenly and unexpectedly.
Dad was a huge support in my life and I miss him every single day. However chaotic my life was, he was always there if I needed help and I am so sad that he never got to see me as more of a success than the part time photographer who flitted from one project to the next.
He didn’t see me on TV’s Channel 5 teaching Kate Humble how to take photos, or listen to any of my podcast interviews, or delight in my LPOTY success, or see any of the images that won me a silver gilt medal in the 2021 RHS portfolio competition. He didn’t know me as a workshop leader or photography tutor or author of any of the books I have written. And I will be forever sad about that.
I would consider myself an unlikely professional photographer, I don’t have any formal photography training, I had little business experience, I was painfully shy and hated talking to people, yet I have done things that I would never have thought possible because photography has given me a sense of purpose, a reason to get out in nature and a confidence that I never had previously.
So what I have I learned from my journey.
I didn’t set out to be a photographer, I dabbled. I wanted to learn and I was driven to get better at making images, but I didn’t think I could ever be a professional photographer. I read a lot, I looked at a lot of other peoples work (and always felt inadequate) I took courses, I went on workshops with photographers I admired and eventually I started to put my work out there.
If you do enough things they will eventually lead somewhere. I tried so many different genres of photography and realised that nothing except landscapes really resonated with me. People and products and even yachts and dogs to some extent were not my passion. If you are not making images with your heart then there is no point. Your images will lack connection - they will have no soul. Finding the thing I loved and putting all of my energy into pursuing it was the way my photography grew.
Believe in yourself and avoid comparing your work to others. You are unique and your work will be too. Take criticism and critique on board, learn from it but don’t let it define your photography. At the end of the day photography is an art form and how you wish to express your art is your choice.
Learn from others, be a sponge and absorb as much as you can. Watch your favourite photographers on YouTube, listen to them on podcasts and if you feel inspired book a workshop. There is huge value in working with others, sharing perspectives and understanding how others see the world.
Along the way I have had to learn lots of other things beside how to use my camera. I would consider the list below to be the most important for me:
Lightroom and Photoshop - these are my go to editing packages. I would advise anyone looking to take their photography further to learn how to use them as I feel they are as important to image making as a darkroom is to film photography.
Indesign - I spent a long while learning how to use this design package. It is intuitive once you get used to it. It has allowed me to design all my own cards, calendars, books, adverts and marketing products and I would be lost without it.
Writing - Learning how to write and making it part of my practice has really helped. Selling articles to magazines is easier if you write too, as most publications aren’t interested in images without words. I have also found that writing plays a huge part in the daily running of my business, so perfecting it has been a really useful challenge. It is also very satisfying to know I can do it, especially as my English teacher at school told me it was not a subject I would ever excel in!
Website - I employed someone to design my website for me but I know how to maintain and update it. In my opinion having a website is vital for anyone wanting to take their photography further.
Learn the landscape - this might seem a funny thing to say but learning about the landscape I am working in is a fundamental part of knowing how to portray it. Knowing the geology, the landforms and the wildlife all help me to connect with a location which then really helps with my image making.
I hope reading about my journey has been interesting - it may not be the most conventional way to become a landscape photographer but hopefully there will be something to take away from it.
Thank you very much for reading and until next week enjoy your photography
Gill
And now it is over to you - if you have any questions about photography in general, my journey, what life is like as a professional landscape photographer or anything else that might be interesting, please ask in the comments. You are free to ask anything photography related and I will do my best to answer.
Absolutely extraordinary photographic adventure bringing you to the professional that you are. I have no questions as yet but thank you dearly for instilling such fresh ideas into my photography.
Thank you for sharing Gill. So interesting that a key part in the early days was making postcards and calendars. I have only just started printing my own work - quite a learning process. Do you feel that printing your images was an important step in building your technical skills and understanding what resonated? If so, any key learnings? (this question could be a whole post, I know)