Look with intent

(bright music) - Perhaps one of the most important and also most overlooked steps in becoming a professional photographer is developing your own vision, voice, and style, because without that, your work will just blend in to everything else. So in this chapter, I want to highlight five steps that you can take in order to begin that journey of finding your own voice and developing your own sense of style. Now, here I'm obviously assuming that you're already photographing family and kids but you want to step up your game a little bit. Well, how do we do that? Well, in this first movie, I want to highlight this one idea which is look with intent. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, what I want you to do is to look at other photographers' work and evaluate it. Look at it and say, well, what is it about this photograph that I absolutely love, or what is it that I despise? And take some notes on that. Rather than just looking at it and liking it or not liking it, ask the question why, because when you ask that question, it can help you to develop your own sense, your own answer to that question. Next, look with intent at your own work. Pull up some of your photographs and begin to evaluate it and ask yourself, well, why do I actually like that picture? Like here I have some of my pictures. And let's say this one with this mom and daughter here. I love the warm light. I love the sense of touch. I love the intimacy. I love that the mom is looking at the daughter and then the daughter is looking back at me, so I love that there's some layers to it. Or what about this one up here? Different photograph, different kind of light. This kid is jumping off of this rock at the beach. I love this picture because it's 100% genuine and real. This kid gets to be a kid. And in my family and kid photography, I want photographs to be genuine, authentic, and real. That's really important to me. What about this one down here, these two brothers? Why I like this one, that they've climbed up in a tree and they're actually doing something rather than just standing there and feeling awkward. So I like the subjects to really interact with the environment when that works. Let me highlight one more, maybe this one right here, this family. I love that the youngest daughter is on the dad's shoulders, then she's leaning over to her mom, almost like a bridge. Then we have the other daughter sandwiched in there. And they just feel so, or there's a feeling that's so warm there, and I love that natural light, love that they're a natural environment. I like the back light, that sunset light. I'd write those things down. This is why I love this photograph. And what you want to do is start to assemble a list of why you like certain types of photographs and why you don't like other types, because this will help you clarify your own voice and develop your own sense of style. And ultimately what this will do is it will attract certain clients to you. So rather than being a generalist who kind of does anything and everything, you'll be a photographer that has a specific look. And those clients that want that look and that vibe, they will come running to you, and it will help to amplify your business. You'll get to do more of the work that you actually love. It all starts with this whole process of looking with intent and asking the question why. So even now I recommend that you pause this course, take a few minutes, look at some other photographer's work, look at your own. Jot down some notes so that you can begin this journey of finding your own voice and developing your own style.