Shelley Anderson Photography Blog

I am going to be honest and say that this past month this topic has come up a lot with me.  Last month I went to my first MN PUG meeting and I went empty handed as I didn’t know that the topic involved bringing a sampling of your work for critique from the group, but it did and I got to sit back and enjoy without worrying about my images.  I will say that the whole night was a lot of fun and I thoroughly enjoyed myself even though I didn’t know many in the group and I honestly didn’t know many of the photographers there very well. (none of my close photographer friends were in attendance and I normally have a hard time sneaking away at night due to activities and homework with the kids).  This is how the evening went:  we viewed a slideshow of an individual’s sampling of their work and went around the room to describe their style/look in one work -well or a few words as one word didn’t always work for me.  I did have a couple beers and pizza and it was a neat experience all the way around for me.  I kept thinking to myself “what words would they be saying if we were viewing my work?”  DO NOT view my latest kid work on my blog…please peek at my senior work/senior website:)

I have also been to a few photographer classes locally taught by Eliesa of Photogen where we have had to bring samples of our work and this honestly freaks me all out a bit/insecurity all the way around on my part:)  But, it is fun seeing other people’s work!  I love listening to her talk as she is so inspirational and a few things that she has said in the past is that “don’t put up what you don’t want to be known for”.  and we have discussed the importance of a style/brand/look in detail.

I met with a fellow photographer this past week and I gave him some cc on his website. (He has repeatedly asked for cc from me over the past few months and I had just never gotten around to it. )  I honestly hate giving cc as I don’t feel like I have the right to give advice in many ways…but we had a nice lunch and a beer and he asked again”when am i getting your cc on my website”…so I did it:)  whew!  One of the things I told him is that he has many different editing styles in his portfolio and we discussed this in length.  It was just something for him to think about.  And for me to think about, is this a positive or a negative business wise?

Back to me…

I have been told that my work can be too similar…and i get that.  i am a work in progress:)

I guess I see my own personal style when I look at my images…sort of:)

Does my personal style have more to do with my lighting?  composition? or editing?  just curious on what others think!

In three different words how would you describe my style of work?

I guess over the years I have defined and defined my editing to where I have it I am comfortable with.  I honestly have gotten so busy that I don’t “play” in photoshop like i used to as much.  my color edits and my bw edits pretty much look very alike when i’m done?

I used to haze up images, or do a bit more vintage look, etc, etc and I just stopped.  I used to edit the same image in color, bw, light brown and sometimes even more ways for fun.  used to.  now i just do color and bw.

One other thing that I stepped away from the PUG meeting was the Rousley was kind enough to come up to me and he said “With you, more than anyone else what you see is what you are going to get”. He said that if you hire me there are no suprises.  My work always looks like my work and he can tell my work.  I would like to think is his a positive as a business owner/artist?  I dunno.

I shoot a lot of individuals so I walked away thinking my work was going to be “bashed” for the lack of a better word as with images of individuals you have a harder time capturing a feeling/emotion.  A lot of the images we peeked at for cc were of couples, weddings, families and kids interacting.

Now that I am doing some modeling shoots, again-single subjects, I am working hard at getting more “lifestyled” images…so this is a personal goal for me.

When you look at my senior gallery in particular I do get that my work looks a bit alike.  I am going to try to make some changes this 2013 senior.  The hard part is that most of my seniors only get 8 edited images so I edit the ones I know the mom/senior would want for the most part, not necessarily the ones that I want that I took due to I really try hard to get them at least 3 of that 8 that would work for the yearbook to choose from.  HMMMM!

I have been thinking about this a long time.  Is this a bad thing or a good thing as an artist? Thoughts?  I know I have a style, we all have a style even though we are all basically shooting with the same digital camera and same digital lens.  The fun part is that all of our work looks a bit different from each other.

I am a constant work in progress.  But, I honestly love what i do…I would love it if you would take the time to describe my work by leaving a blog comment.  Or any comments that you have re:  style/branding/look!  Please peek at my senior website only though as my main/commercial website is under current construction:)  I don’t shoot that many families anymore so I am switching it to be my commercial site…goal for the weekend!

Thanks much!  Have a super day:)  Sorry for the novel this morning!  I do plan on playing a bit this week on a few of my favorite images to make them nitty gritty more fashion-like for fun.  Do I plan on changing my current bw formula.  I doubt it:)  As always, thanks for stopping by my blog and following my life/work a bit!

Hugs,

shelley