Open Your Eyes to Expand Your Talent

This soccer photograph was the first photograph i had published. This lead to another job with The Daily Iowan which in turn lead to other work.

For the 10 of you that follow this blog (ok, 3 of you), I hope a common theme has become apparent. Flexibility.  As a photographer,  you have to be flexible.  Many young photographers have an idea in their mind that they want to be, say, a “sports photographer”. And so they start shooting nothing but sports in the hopes of someday being at the Super Bowl and while having goals and motivation is a great thing, it is not the only thing that will advance your photography.

Recently a blog i enjoy wrote about the need for people to stray from their most commenly traveled path. The notion being that doing things outside of the comfortable pushes personal development. This, as he points out, conflicts with some previous thoughts he had about sticking with what you’re good at, the argument being that there are people who want to be something they can’t be. Instead of focusing on what you’re bad at, you should focus on the things you’re good at.

This photograph (never published as the brand name was too dominant) was taken for an editorial on energy drinks at college campuses. The look of this image was honed at automobile and track races (panning). I honed this skill shooting sports, then given the opportunity applied it to something completely different.

I don’t think these two perspectives are mutually exclusive. As a photographer, you should try and focus on your strengths, but within that context it is very important to expand your talents and your vision.

If you want to become a great photographer you need to expand your photography skills beyond what you are comfortable with. However, at the same time it is important to focus on your strengths as becoming good at one form of photography will allow you the fortune of experimenting and learning at other forms of photography.

I’ll use myself as the example.

I primarily shoot sports. It’s where I make 90% of my photographic income.  I think it is my favorite form of photography. I enjoy the atmosphere of competition and I enjoy capturing that atmosphere.  It is also, I would argue, the form of photography that I’m best at.

Sports photography is my strength. It is what ultimately landed my first published photograph. Through that first photograph at the Woodstock Independent i was granted the opportunity to shoot many many more photographs for the Independent–sports or otherwise.  With that portfolio i went to The Daily Iowan (a school paper, perhaps a portfolio wasn’t needed) I was hired as a paid intern where i continued to shoot sports but primarily worked on day-t0-day photojournalistic shots–politics, editorials, biographies, breaking news, etc.

Since i first picked up a camera about 10 years ago I have worked to hone my strengths and relied on them to advance my photographic career, but the entire time I have worked very hard to broaden what I consider my strengths.

At the end of the day, the great photographers are great at photography–of any kind. By this, I mean that they can take a camera to any sort of event and photograph it. This may be a concert, it may be a football game, it may be a wedding, or perhaps a family picnic. Photography is not about becoming a great “sports photographer” or “concert photographer” or “horse jumping photographer”. It is about becoming a great photographer. For that to happen, you must embrace all forms and you must become great at them.

This is a photograph published in The Daily Iowan of an MTV Marketing Exec (on the large screen) giving insight to a buisness lecture at The University of Iowa. This was certainly not sports but ultimately my skills as a sports photographer led me to this shot.

To prove the point, i encourage you to check out these photos  at sportsshooter.com.  Yes, most of the subject matter are sports, but the sporting events are merely canvases in which great photographers have painted great photographs.

I would also encourage you to check out Magnum Photo’s.  The subjects of these photographs are often vastly different but the result is often the same: you will find yourself staring at the photograph.

Tags: expanding talent, journalism, photography, photojournalist, sports, talent, tips

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 at 8:13 am and is filed under News, Photography News, Photography Tips, Photojournalism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.