I’ve been really lucky to have made friends with other photographers in my area. Of course, it’s fun to “talk shop”, but I’ve really learned a lot by just spending time with other photographers, seeing how they shoot, talking about their approach. I’m someone that really likes to be in control so usually, when I’m organizing a shoot, I’m following a pretty thorough process that I’ve laid out for myself to ensure that I’m getting the kinds of images I set out to create. There’s really nothing wrong with this approach and actually, I find that having my process so well defined makes it easier for me to enjoy the actual fun part of shooting when the time comes. However, the desire to have everything so planned means I rarely would go out and shoot spontaneously. Overall, planning extensively has helped me more than it’s harmed me, but also, I would often feel reluctant to just get out there and take photos unless I really knew exactly what I wanted to do.
One of my goals for 2019 was to shoot more and my friend group of photographers really helped here! I’ve learned a lot more about what it’s like to shoot with less of a pre-defined plan and it’s been great! I still do quite a bit of planning overall and there are definitely certainly concepts in my mind that I wouldn’t shoot without thoroughly mapping things out. But shooting more spontaneously has helped me to develop a different muscle and has given me more confidence about my own skill level.
Here’s some photos from an afternoon spent hanging out and shooting with friends. This was back in January and the weather was split between being ultra sunny and raining/misting. Some of these are digital, some film. I was shooting Kodak Portra 400.
