I stumbled into this short vid on a friend’s blog (another photographer). Man, I was super inspired to play the guitar and to sing. Phil Wickham plays with so much passion. Check out his song “Divine Romance” on itunes, touching. Those of you who know me, know I can’t sing but hey. So enjoy.

It’s wedding season and I’ve been thinking a lot about my approach to shooting weddings. Being the laid back guy that I am, I detailed and formulated something that really fits who I am. So hear is my new mantra as a wedding photographer: “Scott Andrew is like a good friend at the wedding who happens to have some very nice cameras and takes really great pictures.” Does this make sense to anyone? I’m diggin’ it!

Style is soooo controversial in so many aspects of life. From skateboarding to furniture, from food to vacations, from clothing to photography. It is insane how much time is devoted to learning, acquiring and developing style! I like to think that I am “coming into my own” with my style, yet I find it constantly evolving from within.
On one photography forum I am active on (FredMiranda.com),I found an interesting thread on style and one poster wrote this. It just about sums up my thoughts on the matter:

Style is simple. So simple that it is hard. I just dealt with this with a 30 year old photographer who has been shooting for over ten years professionally.

He called me up and asked,” Josh, I want to do something with my studio portraits to really make them stand out. Do you know of any websites I can look at of amazing portraits?”

“Do you want to make great portraits?”

“Yes.”

“Look at that family in your mind, and tell me what you want their photos to say.”

“I want it to say, ‘Wow, that is great.’”

“That is the result you want. You won’t get it by shooting for the reaction. Mark Twain didn’t say, ‘Hey, I want to write a story that people are going to be wowed by’ and then wrote “Tom Sawyer.” He wrote Tom Sawyer, because he had a voice inside him that had something to say, and then put the words down on paper to accomplish his goal.”

“But I want my pictures to really pop!”

“Stop worrying about the reaction. You can’t get the reaction without the message. If you just copy someone else’s image you are just mimicking. If you know what you want your image to say, then I can help you do the technical stuff to get there. Otherwise, you are just snapping images.”

That is the heart of style. It is looking at your subject, and having something to say about it. In photography, it has to do with mastering the craft of painting with light, and then using that skill to create your message.

A sculptor is not as fortunate as we are. We can snap a 1,000 images and hopefully stumble across a random thought in the bunch that stands out to us. This is what I call subconscious making of art, because we rely on our reactionary mind to capture a story. Sculptors have to look at the rough ashlar stone and see the image first. They have to find the message first. They do not have the luxury to carve 9 sculptures a second and choose the right one. They have to work the stone with their skill purposefully.

Style is about purposeful shooting. It is being awake to your subject and how they relate to their environment and realizing that you are part of that environment. It is about shooting with both eyes and your mind open so that you are able to converse with your subject on an artistic basis.

If you have nothing to say, then you are a technician. If you are not skilled in your craft, then (at best) you are a mimick, and no matter how great the image, you will never be happy; because you are not creating art, but performing a karaoke version of photography.