Being a newb photographer in a well-established pool of talent is not an easy thing. It was only last year when I couldn’t get anybody to stand in front of my lens unless they were a friend of mine or someone who owed me a favor. Signing up for local group shoots was discouraging since my email requests to many models to work with them were met with silence. I get it….when you are new, no one wants to take a chance because they don’t want to waste their time. It’s hard to see the capabilities of a photographer when they have nothing to show you yet. Believe me, I get it. So, I embraced each opportunity I had by practicing, reading a lot of camera techie stuff, working with a couple of MUA’s for ideas they had, doing some makeup, attending some learning seminars, and styling some of my shoots. This allowed me to practice getting proficient with my gear AND give the models/MUAH’s something well-exposed, well-lit, and in-focus that we all could enjoy. It also meant that my work is quite literally, “all over the place” in terms of not focusing on one particular genre. My exact thought was “I wonder what will happen if I do this….” And next thing you know, there was a photo shoot I designed to test that exact thing, whether it was testing a new light, trying a photoshop technique that I read about, or testing the capabilities of a new lens. Everything I did was designed to LEARN. Sometimes things worked, sometimes they didn’t. But I learned, and was able to establish myself among my immediate community that I will work hard for you if we work together. The ones that took a chance were always delighted with the results which made me happy. I started submitting some work to art shows and even got a few photos published as well. Cool! You can’t have successes without some failures though. As much as it sucks to get work rejected, it also lets me know which styles I should be focusing on. Recent rejections from things like the Dark Beauty/Gothic Beauty crowd as well as the local Detroit Damned art show tell me that I need to focus elsewhere. I will never be that “dark photographer” like some of my friends successfully are, and that’s ok. I celebrate other successes like having had my work accepted twice last year to juried shows at Scarab Club by people like Kyohei Abe & Tim Van Laar, or the recent International Photography award I was notified about. So there is an audience for my artistic/technical vision, and that’s one lesson I take away from this past year. Going forward, it is time to work on some new lessons and start to focus on the main reason I picked up the camera in the first place. However, focusing on my long term goals also means trying to break into a different group of people – a more Fashion/editorial group of people - so I am back at square one, trying to get established once again. If it is meant to be, it will be.
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