At Photography Firm we consider ourselves extremely fortunate to make a living doing the thing we love, but like any job, some bits are more fun than others. Some days it’s great to work on location with models, make-up artists or art directors and share that creative energy and other days (possibly after shooting a wedding!!) we might prefer to hide in a darkened studio and shoot fifty shades of felt with just the company of tea, biscuits and spotify.
Whilst we always strive to inject some personality and creativity into our commissioned work, we’re usually working to a brief, so the finished product is part negotiation with the client’s expectations. Our passion for photography is what created the business which now keeps us busy so we think it’s important to always find time to shoot purely for the love of the art. Of course, if you’re lucky enough to have a studio full of equipment at your disposal, the possibilities are endless but it’s really about just picking up a camera and experimenting. Flexing your creative muscles and challenging yourself technically keeps you sharp, engaged and better-equipped to impress your next client with some innovative imagery. It’s great to set yourself projects or pick specific subjects and explore the photographic possibilities.
We sometimes look to current affairs or news stories for inspiration. An added benefit of shooting topical subjects is the possibility that your images will become popular on stock sites. We’ve found that several images we shot for portfolio have also become successful online. Web and print publications need imagery to accompany their articles and stock libraries provide a quick and easy way for them to find photos of the hot topics and zeitgeist trends. 6 or 7 years ago, images of bankers teetering on cliff edges would have sold well but thankfully recent months have seen us photographing lots of fruit as the media’s once more reminding us we’re not getting our 5…6….7 a day. The benefits of a “Rainbow diet” it seems are not just physiological, but photographic, providing us myriad opportunities to experiment with colour, form and composition, while the recent talk of a “sugar tax” to combat obesity sent us scurrying to the draw next to the cupboard where those biscuits used to be…..
When you love photography, satisfaction can come from shooting even the most ordinary subject – a good shot is a good shot, so start experimenting and see where it takes you.
