This is a post about how one location serves as a visual guide to how my style as a photographer developed. It doesn't really include tips on how to find your own style as mine came about because of the circumstances I was in at the time. This blog entry is more entertainment than how-to guide but I do hope it provides some assistance to anyone that needs it.
I visited the Isle of Luing (rhymes with sing) on 3 occasions over the last few years. The first was a few months after I got my first DSLR, the second at the end of my first year at college and the third at the end of my second and final year (so far...) at college. This, more than anything else that I've photographed gives me the opportunity to look back at how I've changed as a photographer. My editing style, my in-camera techniques and my sense of narrative are all there to look at and study.
Most photographers will have something similar. Pets and family will be the most common. I'm just lucky enough to have access to such an interesting and beautiful part of the world that I like to visit.
That access comes in the form of a holiday home, owned by my aunt and uncle that was originally owned by my aunt's father. They've restored it over the last decade or so and it now serves as a pleasant getaway on the west coast of Scotland. I can't go in and out as freely as I would my own home but arranging time there is not difficult.
It was a great proving ground for my photographic skills. I first arrived there as a 'noob'. I was barley aware of how to use my camera and remember trying to get some lovely long exposures of the water and being frustrated that even at dusk, I could only open the shutter for a fraction of a second before things were over exposed. I had no idea that I would need a filter on the front of the lens to achieve this.
Still, despite my lack of knowledge, I managed to take a handful of decent photographs and came back happy with what I had done.
Two years later, in the summer break of my college course that signified the halfway point, I returned to Luing with a load of new technical know-how. And some ND filters. I was eager to test out both and got to work immediately.
When I first got into photography, it was with landscapes. It's quite an easy thing to get into in Scotland as you can be just about anywhere on the mainland within 5 hours of leaving the house. It's certainly not an easy thing to perfect though as that travel time can mean leaving the house at 1am to get to your location for sunrise or coming home late for sunset. And that's not including the adverse weather or terrain you might face and the countless other challenges that landscape photographers have to deal with.
Staying on Luing takes one of those challenges out of the equation, though. The travel time. Having the island's two furthest settlements being only a few miles apart was a godsend. It allowed me to get up in the morning to shoot the sunrise almost anywhere on the island, get back to bed, go out around lunchtime before returning in the evening and going out for sunset again. This convenience really made me aware of how important it is to spend time somewhere, rather than just travelling from home for a one off trip. Staying there for a week also meant that if I didn't get what I felt I could get, I could return the next day and try again.
This was all new to me. I have travelled extensively in the past but this was my first holiday with photography at the forefront of my thoughts. Anything else I had done had been a one off day trip for either the sunrise or sunset. Here I could do both in the same day. And what a difference it made. Second attempts were 24 hours apart, rather than months, with lessons learned still fresh in the mind. I was able to really push myself and came back happier than ever at my haul of photographs.
They had the 'wow' factor that I had lusted after. Looking at them, I thought they'd look great on the wall of a stylish living room or hotel lobby. I couldn't wait to get some prints and see how they'd look. I returned to college content that the course was helping me become the photographer I wanted to be.
But still, even though I had photographs that would look good on walls and would go on to get quite a bit of praise and attention on social media (relative to my small bubble), while I was there, I had taken what I would consider to be another set of photographs at the same time. These were far less 'flashy' and not at all like the wall art of the set above.
This set had more of a documentary feel than the others. They didn't look as pretty and didn't sit well in the same albums on Flickr but I liked them nonetheless. While people would ask for prints of the first, more eye catching set of photos, I found the ones I kept coming back to were the more down to earth variety. It would be this style, rather than the technique based stuff that would shape the coming college year.
The big influences of the second year of my course were projects (I'll talk about these in another blog entry). Rather than single, eye catching images, these would be a series of photographs, taken over time that would tell a story about a place, or culture or something of that ilk. Discovering this approach essentially turned my photography upside down. This style really took hold with our Documentary Brief. It would be the first time that I spent an entire project photographing in one style, rather than bouncing about to whatever caught by eye. I photographed the change in my hometown and while the project itself suffered from a lack of focus (not blurry photos) do to me getting lost in my own nostalgia, it opened my eyes to how photographing something personal to you, rather than something that simply looks good, can have an effect on your photographs and you. I followed that up with 'Paul: Memories of My Father' which obviously was an incredibly personal project and one that will have a lasting effect on how my career progresses, I'm sure.
I had clicked with the documentary style. To me it was an honest form of photography and one that required some research into the subject as well. Less bullshit and learning new things are both massively appealing to me as I reach my mid-thirties so I think documentary/editorial came along at just the right time. I have nothing against anyone who extensively manipulates photos with Photoshop but I'll never be one of them. It does very little for me.
The approach had a real effect on the photographs. Had I been doing a project on long exposure landscapes, I would have spent most of my time waiting on the right weather and then my time shooting would have been spent adjusting things on the camera. With a documentary, while visual aspects are important, you can shoot things quickly and concentrate less on filters, histograms and shutter speeds and simply concentrate on the narrative. This is good for me in particular as I have a short attention span. If a project is start-stop, I find it harder than if I can build up some momentum. With me, ideas breed ideas. If I thought of something else to photograph, I could just go straight ahead and do it rather than waiting until the conditions provide the next chance.
Landscape shoots can be months apart at times, but with my Documentary project, I could be shooting several times a week so the pace and involvement is never allowed to settle. It was actually quite exciting. Maybe it's just how I do things but I've always worked better when I can completely commit to something. Dipping in and out isn't conducive to a coherent project.
When I next returned to Luing, I was 'recovering' from college. I'll go into more detail in a subsequent post about 'Memories of My Father' and the Luing project but I arrived the third time feeling that photography had changed for me. I wasn't the eager student, desperate to try out new technique, lenses and filters. I was a graduate, having had in incredibly draining few months studying, writing, photographing and revisiting memories that stirred up powerful emotions.
When I got there, I wasn't thinking of stylish living rooms or hotel lobbies. I was looking to have a break from the stress and look to the future of life with a camera in my hand.
I thought that a project on Luing would be fitting. I had spent a bit of time there and I was now less interested in photographing the tourist landmarks and more interested in the place itself and the people it cultivates. I had developed a familiarity that kept things personal without the opening up of wounds that my college project had involved.
I didn't put any pressure on myself here. I had photographed Luing before, so I knew where to go and what I could expect there. I was also much more experienced and confident that I'll get what I want when I push the shutter button. This more relaxed approach meant that I was photographing more by instinct than in previous visits, where I had been very conscious about getting the techniques right. This time round I just observed and photographed when I found something that caught my interest.
What I tried to look at was what made the area unique, or at least different to how I normally saw the world. I was there for 5 days and photographed a lot less than previously, due to weather but felt that the photography was at a much higher standard as they gave the viewer a better insight into the area than previous photos I took. I'm still proud of the photos from previous trips and I'm happy to say that some of the 'wall art' ones look more attractive than the latest ones but that would be missing the point, I think.
You can see here how things changed as I photographed Fladda Lighthouse on my various visits.
The first, rather messy snapshot with multiple subjects competing for attention. It's very much a beginner's shot. Taken in the middle of the day with very little technique on show. I saw a pretty scene and photographed it.
The second, more focused and technically minded with a 7 minute long exposure at dusk creating an attractive vista. There's far more effort in here and it took know-how and a bit of determination to get it.
And the third, more simple shot. Handheld and with no complex techniques used to tell the story of the lighthouse dwarfed by the nature surrounding it. Whether you prefer the more stylish or the documentary approach, the evolution in styles is plain to see. A thought that occurred to me once I started looking back was that this type of photo would be far more recognisable to the people who live on Luing than the prettier ones. Not that they'd actually fail to recognise Fladda Lighthouse from the second photo there but that they'd relate to the third, more. The second is a fantasy, made possible by the abilities of the camera and the photographer. And it's up to the photographer whether or not they want their photographs to be a fantasy.
Of course there are thousands of other photographs taken over this time and my trips to Luing weren't the only time the evolution in styles happened or is visible. But it is where the change can be charted as I have direct comparisons to look at and that's why I've concentrated on that for this post. Otherwise I'd be showing every photograph taken over the last 4 years.
Another thing to consider is that now that I am settling on a look that suits me, my photographing and editing are in sync. I photograph things with editing in mind. Less and less am I shooting first and worrying about the edit later. Knowing how I photograph and knowing how I edit means I can pre-visualise the photographs better and I think that's also helping me to improve.
The most significant part of this is that my photographs are now more consistent as I am shooting in a style I enjoy and feel suits me. I had always been a bit of a schizophrenic photographer (as I touched upon with the second lot of photos from visit 2). I remember showing a load of photos I had taken to someone who said that it looks like they could have been taken by 5 different photographers. It wasn't meant as an insult and I didn't take it as such but I was aware that my style of photography tended to change with the weather, often within the same photoshoot. And it still does and always will to an extent. I'll still take long exposure shots of places and fashion-esque portraits with extensive make up as they're fun to do and good to look at. But now they'll be a deliberate departure rather than just me being erratic and directionless.
Photographic style is important to photographers. At least, when you're quite new to things and just learning, it feels like it should be important. All the big names have one and you don't. Often people will try to find a style. But to get cliches out of the way early on, your style will find you. You can't force it. Your style isn't just how your photos look. It's where you position the lights, it's how you interact with the subjects, it's the locations you travel to, it's the light you favour, it's the stories you tell, it's the editing you do afterwards, it's your age, it's your outlook on life and about a thousands other things piled onto one. Your style is a product of your experience. Not just with photography but all throughout your life. So many small factors can change how you look at something in the future. So trying to navigate that maze and point out a 'style' by the use of colours or camera settings is folly. You can't cheat it. Just take photographs the way you want to take them and you'll see it happen in front of your eyes.
