2016 is going to be my year. My year for growth. My year for exploration. For learning. For building up my confidence. And for working out photographically, who I want to be and where I want to go. So what better way to round out January than to reflect on where my love for photography comes from and who has influenced this journey of mine. My inspiration.
Let’s start in the present day and work backwards.
My gateway to the online photographic community came through the Life {Unscripted} Facebook page almost exactly a year ago. I started 2015 convinced I was going in a certain direction but finding that page, and then many others after that, my eyes were opened to other possibilities. And I quickly realised how much I still have to learn! I love supporting other photographers, and watching their journey; it pushes me to try harder and be better. There are many many individuals I could list here, but my favourites, each inspiring me in different ways – their images, their words of encouragement, the size of their hearts – are Natalie ~ Act Naturally Photography, Crystal ~ Crystal Raynard Photography, Jen ~ Jen Dzen Photography, and Holly ~ Holly Nicole Photography. They are each their own light.
Rewind 15 years. When my boyfriend (now husband) and I travelled the world after graduation, we spent some time in the Everglades, Florida. We’d spent a few days kayaking through the mangroves (a whole other tale) before we visited Clyde Butcher‘s gallery. His black and white landscapes are vast and so full of texture; they capture the magical essence of the environment and more. The experience, his work, was eye-openingly wonderful. As we left the gallery I realised I was standing in the middle of a piece of art; the landscape was an artists canvas set out all around me. I opened my eyes to our surroundings and spent our remaining time in the Everglades looking for new perspectives, new angles, trying to recreate what I’d seen in the gallery with my simple point-and-shoot. Although I’d owned a point-and-shot camera for many years and used it constantly, and always been artistic in other ways, the visit to Clyde Butcher’s gallery was a defining moment. Creating this photographic art for myself had become a distinct possibility. When my point-and-shoot broke a few weeks later I replaced it with a 35mm SLR (…but it wasn’t until after I went digital that I got off Auto in 2014)!
There is however no doubt how my light for photography was lit. By my dad. This is him!
He documented our family holidays religiously (and by family holidays I do not mean just standard family holidays: there were epic pilgrimages to far flung European destinations, fully-laden campervan expeditions, for weeks on end) and we re-visited them every slideshow night. On one of these family holidays, somewhere in the Alps I think, I climbed a tree at a campsite and got stuck. As I cried and screamed perched in the branches of this tree, my dad stood watching, documenting the event for eternity (after which point he finally came to my rescue). I realise now, I would have done exactly the same with my own children: I even did it last week at my son’s birthday celebration as he ran away when his friends sang ‘happy birthday’, and I photographed the moment before I went to comfort him.
Documenting. Capturing memories. Un-posed, lifestyle photography. That was just what he did, there was no name for it, it was just part and parcel of everyday life. It’s only in thinking about this blog post that I had a moment of revelation: it all comes from my dad, the spark of interest, the subjects, the style (…not to mention a few lenses, lens cleaning kit, tripod etc etc). I am so very grateful for all that and so much more.
Thanks for stopping by! If you’re following the Inspiration blog circle, up next is Jenny of Snaps & Sprouts Photography.