Schooled & Inspired: Raise the Bar

The thing I love most about this job is being able to sit down and dream up whatever photographs I want to create. Naturally, what I like creating is newer and better images. I’m always looking into how I can make better images and expand my default of my photographic vision and skills to then show more people, and THAT is the name of the photography game. (if you want to be successful that is.)

Part of my agenda this week is to dream up some new tests that I want to do, and part of that dreaming requires research and drawing inspiration from other photographs. It’s a bit of a love/hate part of the creative process. As I’m sure you can relate to, looking at the work of those that inspire you also gives you the feeling of being schooled.

One thing I do is when I find imagery I like, (inspiration board) is to break down the image and decide what it is I like about it. Is it the lighting? the moment? styling? Location? Models? What are the production elements that went into that image? How can I integrate the things I like into my own work?

Lets take this image by Dewey Nicks shot for Tommy Hilfiger a while back:

What elements do I like about this?
•The Location. Probably a lovely exotic place that is hard to get to
•The movement of the models.
•The moment that is happening between the models
•The simple lighting. Probably one overhead angled strobe in a beauty dish. Something of that nature.
•The styling is great. Poppy colors, flowy dresses, in a sophisticated fashion
•The props: cabana setup with lantern and pillows
•High end models($60K/day models). Casting can make or break your shoot.

The overall vision of this image is what I love. The feeling that is created by those elements. When you break down the elements, you can figure out what you want to integrate into your own work and tests to develop your own style. How do you make that happen? You gotta be a hustler. You’ll never get anywhere in this business if you don’t hustle.

So lets bring it back to my point. Looking at other imagery and breaking it down should school you and inspire you to create better images, in turn causing you to raise the bar in your own work. Let good work inspire you to create rather than get you down. Keep aspiring to close that creative gap between what you envision and what you actually produce.