Developing ’style’ to your photography and Rick in the flesh…

Looking at photographs of Rick, a young energetic dancer I had the pleasure to photograph, I was happy to find several shots that caught my attention. This is one of them. Many people ask if they can come to my photography sessions to learn, to see what I do. And how is that I can capture the human body the way I do. Frankly, I don’t do much, except set up the lighting, put some music on, and shoot. I pretty well leave most of the work to the model, which in this case, is a dancer. I let the model decide what they want to project to me. Tell me what you want to say! And I’ll try to photograph it.

What most people then don’t have a clue about, is in editing and deciding what to do with the photographs after a shoot. I have told my students to take many photographs of whoever it is, and decide later when editing, what is a good photograph, or a bad one. Forget about the photo-shop manipulation. Just pick out the ones that strike your eye as good. I used to do this with a grease pen (back in the days of film), but now, we have a thing called a computer and software that makes it all so easy for us. Then go back and re-edit!

Of course, I am talking about photographs that are meant for personal usage, when you have control over what you think looks good, and you have to please no one else. Only then, will you have developed a ’style’ to what you do. Not everyone will agree or like what you do, but be open to honest, good criticism.

Well, there you go. I didn’t expect to write about editing when I decided to post this photograph of Rick up, but oh, what the heck!