I’ve never titled myself as a portrait photographer, just like I’ve never titled myself as a set genre photographer. I typically think of myself as a story teller photographer, and People are my subject of choice, always.
I think that it’s natural for almost everyone to gravitate towards taking photos of people when they start out, I know it was for me. The first thing I did when I found my Canon camera again, after forgetting that I had it for years, was to take it to a birthday party and take photos with it. After getting my next camera, the Sony A7iii, the first thing I did was go down to a local park to test out how it worked, and asked a group of girls having a picnic if I could take their photos. Of course it shouldn’t come as a surprise, when I got my Sony A7iv, the camera that I’ve used for the past year plus, I’ve taken 100’s or even 1000’s of photos of people as well.
What did surprise me though, was what has been happening just recently. Again, I’ve never considered myself much of a portrait photographer, but have been asked to take photos of announcement photos, gender reveals, senior portraits, family photos, and more. This warms my heart greatly, as I love taking photos of people (pretty obvious with 217 photos attached to this blog post). But what started to surprise me, was the fact that I absolutely suck at posed or “manipulated” portrait photography. I’ve been feeling lately like I’m struggling to find images that I really like, and honestly haven’t found all that many that I’ve fallen head over heels in love with either. This in no way is because of the subjects I’ve been shooting, it’s 100% me getting in my own way.
This has really only been a recent thing, and very well could be just a bump in the road of my photography, since I’ve shot other similar events last year that I didn’t seem to have any issues with. I have no doubt that, like every event I come across within photography, I’ll learn from “mistakes” made at each event, and become a stronger photographer from it.
It’s been great looking back at all the photos I’ve taken, all the memories I’ve captured, remembering all the time’s I heard “thank you” from people, and realizing how many people became new friends because of my journey through photography. I really do love the people I photograph, and I know I’ll get over whatever it is that’s causing me to second guess my talent of capturing people in multiple ways (posed or not).
As always, I hope you enjoy the photos I’ve attached to the blog post. If you’d like to continue this, or any other conversation, I’d love to talk with you and take inspiration for future writings. Feel free to email me at grimlockmedia@gmail.com
Until next time, I’ll catch y’all later.
Andrew Hoyle - Grimlock Media
