Blogging, at last!

It seems a lot of people in my life have suggested blogging as a tool to aid in my professional growth while keeping others up to date on my progress. I keep putting it off because I have other things to do but finally here I am taking it for a test run to see if it is something I like and could actually stick to using. My problem with journaling (at least as a kid) is that I would write extensively for a few days and then move on to something else and not make another entry for eight months. While it is still interesting to pick up these childhood ramblings as an adult I can’t help but wonder what was happening during the gaps. And with blogging I can’t help but think it wouldn’t be very interesting to read something that only gets updated a few times a year…

A good amount of the time that I have not put into blogging has been spent trying to determine exactly who I wanted to be as a photographer and the direction I hoped to follow in professionally. Although I’ve been shooting for years the last year has definately been a time to reassess my goals and revise the plan to achieve them.

As it stands I can sumarize who I am as a photographer quite simply:

I love telling stories with my camera.

Although this is pretty much a given as a wedding photographer I aim to do this with my senior and family sessions too. I’m not about creating a stiff and fake formal family portrait. When you hang my images on your wall I want you to laugh a little as you walk by because you are taken back to a real moment of happiness. When you pause to reflect on your portrait session I hope you have a feeling that this was unlike any other session you’d experienced because it was easy, genuine, and fun.

Senior portraits are especially fun for me. Part of this is because this is an exciting time in life – each senior is transforming into a young adult and will soon go off and face the world. I know, I know it sounds melodramtic, but it is a truth that I think many overlook. Seniors are also fun because for the most part they are willing to try just about anything and some of the creative ideas I have just won’t work when your subject is wearing a $2000 wedding dress.Part of this makes me love senior portraiture the most – willing subjects who are old enough to follow direction and who, aesthetically at least, are often in the prime of their lives.

I try and push the envelope with my senior sessions. I don’t think it was that long ago that I was walking the halls of Stadium High School exchanging wallets with friends. It seemed sad to me, even as a teenager, that people would spend so much money for photographs that really looked like the photographs everyone else had. Maybe that made them cool, I don’t recall, coolness was never a priority for me. Still, I knew that each of these seniors had stories to tell and simply putting all of their awards, athletic gear, musical instruments, and letterman’s jackets in a pile next to them for a few photographs didn’t do them justice.

I try and get to know each senior a little before our sessions and use this to make images that are not only stunning but meaningful. I’ve shot seniors playing instruments at sunset, midair on their dirtbike, with their best friends (human, canine, feline, etc.) and in their first ever varsity peformance in a sport they loved. In the long run, I hope these images are likely to go down in history as being artistic representations of who they were as a senior and the story they were living.

Sacha
www.artisticimageries.com