Portrait photography, so many possibilities
A fair number of my newsletter readers regularly lose themselves in photography. Sometimes that means lying in a field at the crack of dawn waiting for one particular insect. Others spend hours at their computer screen editing one particular photo.
Photography invites you to lose track of time. To be mindfully occupied with every aspect of the sport. Oh, wait, sports photography is perhaps the exception. I can imagine you simply get an enormous adrenaline rush there. Setting aside some sports, such as draughts.
Personally I have that with portrait photography. After a good four years on the street, I notice that the need to meet people and really listen to them keeps growing. I notice it in the workshops, which are absolutely different now from three years ago, but I certainly notice it in portrait photography too.
Where my focus over recent years lay, and still lies, on business portraits, I find more and more calm and pleasure in the studio work. That may also be because the studio Roy and I share on the NYMA site does not feel like a typical studio. All the elements are there, but it is above all a creative space, with long tables and plenty of chairs that can all be pushed aside when portraits are being made.
The versatility of portrait photography is appealing. I love challenging myself and looking further. I have the business headshot well in hand; when it comes to the environmental portrait there is challenge enough left. And I really do need that challenge. Progress equals happiness (Tony Robbins), I once said in the podcast. Getting a step further every time genuinely makes me happy.
Does that sound familiar? I notice, for instance, that new technological developments, or perhaps more knowledge of them, challenge me and make me wonder what else is out there. The other day I found myself thinking about a medium format camera. But that is another story entirely.
What can you lose yourself in? Do send me a message on Instagram, it would be good to talk it over with you.
This article first appeared in my newsletter. Sign up now and never miss a column. You also get my FREE e-book with five essential tips for street photography.