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Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
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Features

The Essential Sense of Self Awareness as a Photographer

Chris Gampat
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07/26/2015
2 Mins read

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Fujifilm XT10 first impressions (14 of 15)ISO 4001-80 sec at f - 4.0

You, yes you, have a specialty as a photographer. Maybe you’re an incredible landscape photographer that can make someone’s jaws drop wide open. On the other hand, you could be a great portrait photographer who not only creates beautiful portraits but also makes people feel great about themselves afterwards. But no matter what you do, you have a specialization.

You, yes you, as a photographer can’t do everything. Maybe you’re good at shooting portraits, candids, weddings and other photojournalistic stuff, but you’ve got an inherent weakness unless you’ve been doing this for well over 35 years. Even then, you probably can’t do everything.

So when someone asks you to shoot their wedding but you’re really a specialist in landscapes, why would you say yes?

“I’m shooting my first wedding and I’m terrified. Got any tips?”

That’s something bound to be said on Reddit or other forums often and even in emails to us. It’s cool to start out if you really want to get into it, but in general you should have a big interest in doing and shooting something before you get into it. Why? It has to do with the creative mind. As a guy who hasn’t shot weddings in years, I reject pings and requests to shoot weddings literally every day. It’s not something I do, but I totally can do it. How do I figure that?

– I used to shoot weddings.

– I still shoot events.

– I still shoot candids often and know how to get those timeless photos during the reception and ceremony.

– I shoot portraits and specialize in doing this with all body types.

But beyond that, I’m nowhere as business savvy about the modern wedding market as I was a couple of years ago. And yes–it changes that quickly.

If you have had no real previous interest in wanting to shoot a maternity session or ever looked into it, then you probably don’t have the creative mind to pose a couple, a mom, or include the right props. Reading tutorials online isn’t going to be the only thing that can help you. The absolute only thing that can make you better is experience after intensive research.

Shooting people’s most intimate and memorable moments isn’t a game. It’s work that requires a specially honed craft and almost no one gets it absolutely perfect right out of the gate. There are things from my previous photo sessions that I wish I had done differently because I learned more.

While you’re supposed to start somewhere, you should probably start just doing things for experience and with lots of research and studying of photos, compositions, etc.

And with this, self-awareness as a photographer becomes more apparent.

events landscape photographer portrait self awareness wedding
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Chris Gampat

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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