Thank you for sharing your journey. Love your story and the images are sublime.
For me, my "art" came to me very quickly...within 6 months of picking up my first serious camera. One little thought to break from convention and move the lens during the exposure while birding in a local nature preserve last summer.
It's taken a few iterations to fugue out how to talk about the Why behind it but that has recently become clearer through a class where I observed other more experienced photographers talk about their own visions for their work.
Sometimes I have the sense that abstract / experimental ICM photography found me and is using me as a medium for capturing deeper stories about light.
Sorry Joe, I must have missed this comment the first time around. Thank you very much for sharing your story. It is good to hear what inspires you and how you found the side of photography that really speaks to you - or rather how it found you! I think that is a lovely way to look at your work.
Yet another blog from you that has made me think and try to relate what you said to my photographic position. Looking back I feel my photographic voice has developed depending what stage of my life I was in. Before I married my voice was chaotic and I just snapped at things here and there. After I got married, my photographic voice concentrated on our marriage and the development of our family. Then ultimately they left us for their own lives and had families of their own and photographically we concentrated on them but as we had moved from the West Midlands to South Wales we spent a number of years photographing South Wales which was new to us and that became our photographic voice. Now, having reached four score years and ten, the voice has changed again and we tend to concentrate on the environment in which we live and can reach physically most easily - for example I am carring out a project photographing the four seasons in the town in which I live. So I think your reply to David Mill about "our voice coming out of what we love and inspires us is so true", but also I would add that our physical situation plays a huge part particularly as we get older.
Thank you very much for your comments Bill. It was good to read your thoughts about your own photographic voice and I agree that our physical situation plays a large part in what we are able to photograph. I think our voice does change as we grow, but maybe our message can be consistent even if our locations are not? 🙂
Another really thoughtful and interesting blog Gill. I think your photographic voice definitely comes through in your images, which show your love of nature and desire to protect it. Although I’ve been taking ‘snaps’ for over 50 years I think I’m still developing my voice, as I didn’t start learning about photography seriously until I retired. I’m focusing mostly on trying to create good and consistent compositions and am enjoying experimenting. This has certainly got me thinking though about what I’m trying to express.
Thank you very much David for your comments. I am glad you enjoyed the blog.
I think it is good to think about what we are trying to express with our photography. I feel this gives our work consistency and provides focus, enthusiasm and passion. I think our voice come out of what we love and what inspires us. 🙂
I think thats exactly how our voice develops, by focusing on the things that interest us. That way our voice become more personal and more authentic. 🙂
A really lovely article Gill full of very wise and thoughtful words. The images illustrating the blog are superb. Thank you for taking the time. Peter Maddern
A very timely and practical post Gill. I am working on most of the things you suggest - time reflecting on my interests and passions that have stayed with me over the course of my life to date, journalling and spending time alone with my thoughts, writing a newsletter also helps clarify my thinking, generating ideas and experimenting, working on projects. At this point, capturing pretty images of beautiful places is no longer enough for me, but being able to clearly articulate what I want to say in my photos is hard. Is that why they call it art?
Thank you very much for your comments James. I think that is very much the definition of art - when we begin to express ideas and feelings through our work - which is also when we begin to find our own voice. Taking pretty photos is no longer enough for me which is why I find projects and blog writing so much more satisfying.
Having read this blog I so identified with it. Having studied geology and then cartography my search for a sense of belonging eluded me for many years. Spent all my life in the oil and gas industry, photography found me later on in life. Last year I had my first exhibition prior to that some works were published in magazines and then my first coffee table book, plus selling a few pieces.
But finding my voice is still a work in progress thinking it was LE landscapes which I so enjoy only for others to say move more into the creative side, like motion blur and the Adamski effect.
My hope is that my photos help others to find their own story that’s being told in their lives. So the search continues to find my voice.
Thanking you so much for sharing your story your journey.
Thank you so much for your comments Gary and for sharing your story. It is always interesting to read the motivation behind peoples photography. I also love seeing how our journeys shape our image making and our voice.
A thought-provoking topic this week Gill. For me, my love of certain aspects of landscape from a young age has shaped my photographic voice and I feel that age has definitely been a factor as it has developed and changed. As a child, despite living in London, I loved trees and water, refuges from the noise of the suburbs. These subjects were very much at the forefront as I learned the craft in my twenties - and they have continued to be a primary subject to this day, influenced by moves to countryside and then coast. How I have depicted them photographically has changed, and probably will continue to for as long as I click a shutter, but I have to agree that pulling the images into projects helps to develop voice further. To completely misquote Ralph Waldo Emerson… “Photography is a journey, not a destination.”
Thank you very much for your comments Lin, I am glad you enjoyed the post. I definitely think our childhood provides us with interests that ultimately become the things we are really passionate about. It was good to read about your journey and the things that inspire your photography. And I agree, photography is definitely a journey. 🙂
Thank you, Gill, for giving me an 'ah-ha' moment. It was your invitation to look back. I didn't look back to my childhood, but I did look back to the event that led to my interest in photography.
I was 21 and had been on a church mission trip to northern Norway - after all, where else do you spend August except north of the Arctic Circle? But I was the only person in those pre-smartphone days to lack a camera. For my visual memories of the place, I had to buy a coffee table book about the town. So when I returned, I asked my Dad to take me to his favourite camera shop, and there my journey began.
My voice, then, is about my love of place.
I knew that to some extent my voice was about how I saw the world in the sense that, as someone who is highly sensitive to bright light and therefore wears glasses with photochromic lenses, I saturate my images a little more than most.
That makes absolute sense David, thank you for sharing your thoughts. It is really interesting to see what has inspired people to pick up their cameras and continue taking images. I can really resonate with a love of place as I think that is what inspires many landscape photographers but it is the way that you want people to see your images and why that is interesting.
Thank you very much for reading and I am glad my post gave you that ah-ha moment. 🙂
What photography means to me and why I take photographs has been on my mind lately - and it was great to read your blog, which helped to clarify some of my thoughts.
I have taken photographs for many many years, but always at the back of my mind I have asked why as I didn't put them online, didn't show many to family and friends, didn't enter competitions and wasn't a member of a camera club. I was beginning to ask myself what was the point, and was in danger of drifting away from photography.
Then, about a year ago, we moved to a little village. I started to take photos of the village and local countryside and put them on the village Facebook noticeboard - people liked them and asked for more. I put more on, more regularly. People then began asking me to put a calendar together and produce some greeting cards - which I am now doing. People that have moved away from the village and now live in the US, Canada, NZ and Australia say my photos bring tears to their eyes as I jog happy memories. One couple even said they are now moving to the village partly because I made it look so nice!! The Parish Council have commissioned me to take certain shots.
This has built my confidence and I have now (successfully) entered camera competitions. I have even joined a camera club, but not sure this was a positive step.
But the bottom line is I now have a PURPOSE and can now answer the question why I take photographs - because it gives people pleasure and I can't ask for a bigger compliment or bigger purpose than that.
That is brilliant Mark, thank you so much for sharing your story and your reasons why you enjoy photography. It is lovely to be able to do something so positive with your images.
Thank you too for reading my post - I am glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
Excellent essay that really resonated with me, as my style tends to be focused on nature, landscapes and more specifically birds. I've previously written about how calming, almost meditative it can be when I'm out on a shoot, alone in the woods, or as I did a couple of weeks ago, hiking a trail high above the coast of Kauai.
This passion has been with me several years, but only since retiring have I been able to fully embrace it.
Thank you so much for your comments Bob, I am glad you enjoyed the post and found something within it that resonated with you. Being out in nature with the camera is definitely calming and meditative and it is good to hear that you have been able to embrace that fully.
This is some really great insight! I run across the suggestion to find your voice in photography a lot, but very little info on what this means or how to achieve it. I feel like I'm very much still in the beginning. I have a solid sense of who I am and my why, but I'm still learning and experimenting with the art. Hopefully all of my unconscious choices along the way will demonstrate a cohesive path!
Definitely Erik, I think your voice is definitely coming through in your work. I think I have just followed the things that I am passionate about which has grown into the voice behind my images.
As always, thank you very much for reading and for your comments. 🙂
In the days of being a draughtsman, you were expected to develope your 'hand' or 'fist' in essence your style, which set you apart from your colleagues. Similarly to another comment, I am still trying to find my photographic style! There are so many genres of photography to try out, just haven't landed on the one that truly fits!
Thank you very much for your comments Chris. I think it is interesting that you feel you haven't yet found the genre that truly fits. I don't think I spent time looking, I just followed the things that I was passionate about and my photography evolved from there. I think the key is to keep taking images on a regular basis and you will eventually find what really inspires you.
Thank you very much for sharing John.
Thank you for sharing your journey. Love your story and the images are sublime.
For me, my "art" came to me very quickly...within 6 months of picking up my first serious camera. One little thought to break from convention and move the lens during the exposure while birding in a local nature preserve last summer.
It's taken a few iterations to fugue out how to talk about the Why behind it but that has recently become clearer through a class where I observed other more experienced photographers talk about their own visions for their work.
Sometimes I have the sense that abstract / experimental ICM photography found me and is using me as a medium for capturing deeper stories about light.
Sorry Joe, I must have missed this comment the first time around. Thank you very much for sharing your story. It is good to hear what inspires you and how you found the side of photography that really speaks to you - or rather how it found you! I think that is a lovely way to look at your work.
Yet another blog from you that has made me think and try to relate what you said to my photographic position. Looking back I feel my photographic voice has developed depending what stage of my life I was in. Before I married my voice was chaotic and I just snapped at things here and there. After I got married, my photographic voice concentrated on our marriage and the development of our family. Then ultimately they left us for their own lives and had families of their own and photographically we concentrated on them but as we had moved from the West Midlands to South Wales we spent a number of years photographing South Wales which was new to us and that became our photographic voice. Now, having reached four score years and ten, the voice has changed again and we tend to concentrate on the environment in which we live and can reach physically most easily - for example I am carring out a project photographing the four seasons in the town in which I live. So I think your reply to David Mill about "our voice coming out of what we love and inspires us is so true", but also I would add that our physical situation plays a huge part particularly as we get older.
Thank you very much for your comments Bill. It was good to read your thoughts about your own photographic voice and I agree that our physical situation plays a large part in what we are able to photograph. I think our voice does change as we grow, but maybe our message can be consistent even if our locations are not? 🙂
Another really thoughtful and interesting blog Gill. I think your photographic voice definitely comes through in your images, which show your love of nature and desire to protect it. Although I’ve been taking ‘snaps’ for over 50 years I think I’m still developing my voice, as I didn’t start learning about photography seriously until I retired. I’m focusing mostly on trying to create good and consistent compositions and am enjoying experimenting. This has certainly got me thinking though about what I’m trying to express.
Thank you very much David for your comments. I am glad you enjoyed the blog.
I think it is good to think about what we are trying to express with our photography. I feel this gives our work consistency and provides focus, enthusiasm and passion. I think our voice come out of what we love and what inspires us. 🙂
Enjoyed the read and lovely images!
Thank you.
My voice is still developing and I photograph whatever I find interesting:)
I think thats exactly how our voice develops, by focusing on the things that interest us. That way our voice become more personal and more authentic. 🙂
A really lovely article Gill full of very wise and thoughtful words. The images illustrating the blog are superb. Thank you for taking the time. Peter Maddern
Thank you so much for your kind comments Peter, I am glad you enjoyed the blog. 🙂
A very timely and practical post Gill. I am working on most of the things you suggest - time reflecting on my interests and passions that have stayed with me over the course of my life to date, journalling and spending time alone with my thoughts, writing a newsletter also helps clarify my thinking, generating ideas and experimenting, working on projects. At this point, capturing pretty images of beautiful places is no longer enough for me, but being able to clearly articulate what I want to say in my photos is hard. Is that why they call it art?
Thank you very much for your comments James. I think that is very much the definition of art - when we begin to express ideas and feelings through our work - which is also when we begin to find our own voice. Taking pretty photos is no longer enough for me which is why I find projects and blog writing so much more satisfying.
Having read this blog I so identified with it. Having studied geology and then cartography my search for a sense of belonging eluded me for many years. Spent all my life in the oil and gas industry, photography found me later on in life. Last year I had my first exhibition prior to that some works were published in magazines and then my first coffee table book, plus selling a few pieces.
But finding my voice is still a work in progress thinking it was LE landscapes which I so enjoy only for others to say move more into the creative side, like motion blur and the Adamski effect.
My hope is that my photos help others to find their own story that’s being told in their lives. So the search continues to find my voice.
Thanking you so much for sharing your story your journey.
Gary
Thank you so much for your comments Gary and for sharing your story. It is always interesting to read the motivation behind peoples photography. I also love seeing how our journeys shape our image making and our voice.
A thought-provoking topic this week Gill. For me, my love of certain aspects of landscape from a young age has shaped my photographic voice and I feel that age has definitely been a factor as it has developed and changed. As a child, despite living in London, I loved trees and water, refuges from the noise of the suburbs. These subjects were very much at the forefront as I learned the craft in my twenties - and they have continued to be a primary subject to this day, influenced by moves to countryside and then coast. How I have depicted them photographically has changed, and probably will continue to for as long as I click a shutter, but I have to agree that pulling the images into projects helps to develop voice further. To completely misquote Ralph Waldo Emerson… “Photography is a journey, not a destination.”
Thank you very much for your comments Lin, I am glad you enjoyed the post. I definitely think our childhood provides us with interests that ultimately become the things we are really passionate about. It was good to read about your journey and the things that inspire your photography. And I agree, photography is definitely a journey. 🙂
Great blog, really enjoyed reading this Gill, I studied photography at Falmouth Uni and so much of this really hit home for me…. A lovely poetic read
Thank you so much for your comments Louise, I am glad you enjoyed the post. 🙂
Thank you, Gill, for giving me an 'ah-ha' moment. It was your invitation to look back. I didn't look back to my childhood, but I did look back to the event that led to my interest in photography.
I was 21 and had been on a church mission trip to northern Norway - after all, where else do you spend August except north of the Arctic Circle? But I was the only person in those pre-smartphone days to lack a camera. For my visual memories of the place, I had to buy a coffee table book about the town. So when I returned, I asked my Dad to take me to his favourite camera shop, and there my journey began.
My voice, then, is about my love of place.
I knew that to some extent my voice was about how I saw the world in the sense that, as someone who is highly sensitive to bright light and therefore wears glasses with photochromic lenses, I saturate my images a little more than most.
I want you, then, to see a place as I see it.
Does that make sense?
That makes absolute sense David, thank you for sharing your thoughts. It is really interesting to see what has inspired people to pick up their cameras and continue taking images. I can really resonate with a love of place as I think that is what inspires many landscape photographers but it is the way that you want people to see your images and why that is interesting.
Thank you very much for reading and I am glad my post gave you that ah-ha moment. 🙂
What photography means to me and why I take photographs has been on my mind lately - and it was great to read your blog, which helped to clarify some of my thoughts.
I have taken photographs for many many years, but always at the back of my mind I have asked why as I didn't put them online, didn't show many to family and friends, didn't enter competitions and wasn't a member of a camera club. I was beginning to ask myself what was the point, and was in danger of drifting away from photography.
Then, about a year ago, we moved to a little village. I started to take photos of the village and local countryside and put them on the village Facebook noticeboard - people liked them and asked for more. I put more on, more regularly. People then began asking me to put a calendar together and produce some greeting cards - which I am now doing. People that have moved away from the village and now live in the US, Canada, NZ and Australia say my photos bring tears to their eyes as I jog happy memories. One couple even said they are now moving to the village partly because I made it look so nice!! The Parish Council have commissioned me to take certain shots.
This has built my confidence and I have now (successfully) entered camera competitions. I have even joined a camera club, but not sure this was a positive step.
But the bottom line is I now have a PURPOSE and can now answer the question why I take photographs - because it gives people pleasure and I can't ask for a bigger compliment or bigger purpose than that.
That is brilliant Mark, thank you so much for sharing your story and your reasons why you enjoy photography. It is lovely to be able to do something so positive with your images.
Thank you too for reading my post - I am glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
Excellent essay that really resonated with me, as my style tends to be focused on nature, landscapes and more specifically birds. I've previously written about how calming, almost meditative it can be when I'm out on a shoot, alone in the woods, or as I did a couple of weeks ago, hiking a trail high above the coast of Kauai.
This passion has been with me several years, but only since retiring have I been able to fully embrace it.
Thank you so much for your comments Bob, I am glad you enjoyed the post and found something within it that resonated with you. Being out in nature with the camera is definitely calming and meditative and it is good to hear that you have been able to embrace that fully.
This is some really great insight! I run across the suggestion to find your voice in photography a lot, but very little info on what this means or how to achieve it. I feel like I'm very much still in the beginning. I have a solid sense of who I am and my why, but I'm still learning and experimenting with the art. Hopefully all of my unconscious choices along the way will demonstrate a cohesive path!
Definitely Erik, I think your voice is definitely coming through in your work. I think I have just followed the things that I am passionate about which has grown into the voice behind my images.
As always, thank you very much for reading and for your comments. 🙂
In the days of being a draughtsman, you were expected to develope your 'hand' or 'fist' in essence your style, which set you apart from your colleagues. Similarly to another comment, I am still trying to find my photographic style! There are so many genres of photography to try out, just haven't landed on the one that truly fits!
As usual your posts are thought inspiring!
Thank you very much for your comments Chris. I think it is interesting that you feel you haven't yet found the genre that truly fits. I don't think I spent time looking, I just followed the things that I was passionate about and my photography evolved from there. I think the key is to keep taking images on a regular basis and you will eventually find what really inspires you.