Collecting & Creating | May Self Portrait

This month I have been investing significant amounts of time
to filling in gaps in my photography education.
And it feels so good.
Life circumstances have forced me to be a self-learner
and for a number of years I was not okay with that.
Diagnosing your own weaknesses naturally stimulates frustration,
and face it:  sometimes books are hard to read.

When I was little and visiting a shoreline
I’d feel high delight discovering a collection of rocks and empty shells.
They dotted the sand and presented themselves in plain view.
Yet something inside told me my fistful of finds were a treasure.

Minnesota Photographer Self PortraitThis month, I attended a photography workshop, one of my first ever.
The technical learning was great.  I felt like my set of tools was expanding, but more than that
I was finally able to fully recognize the reason I feel such hunger to improve.

I just love to create.

Every photograph is a collection, really.
Color and cameras, emotion and exposure, faces and flashes, love and lightstands.
My clients bring some of it, I bring some of it.
Then I gather it,
mix it together,
create something.

I believe art begins with collecting.
Appreciating what you have before you,
putting it back out for others to see.

The beauty of this truth is that it eliminates ego.
Instead of hungering to be appreciated,
if we just could learn to appreciate more.

Collect,
Create.
Use your tools.

It’s as lovely as it sounds.

This is the continuation of my 2014 self-portrait series.
See other posts from the series here!

Comments

  1. Amy Moors says:

    Thank you!

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