The Beginner Photography Podcast

Shooting Everyday for Creativity with Anja Poehlmann

• Raymond Hatfield

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#354 On this episode of the Beginner Photography Podcast, host Raymond Hatfield interviews Anja Poehlmann, a documentary family life photographer. They discuss how shooting every day can affect both creativity and personality. Anja also shares how digital cameras have made shooting easier since she moved to Hawaii for a 6-month internship. She created a website as a way to document her life in her new home and was inspired to start shooting photography as a career.


THE BIG IDEAS

  1. Celebrate Authentic Moments: Capturing genuine, everyday experiences creates meaningful photos that reflect real life—not just posed perfection.
  2. Embrace Imperfection: Accept clutter, chaos, and less-than-ideal lighting as part of your story. These imperfections often reveal true emotion and connection.
  3. Commit to Daily Creativity: Practicing photography every day, even in tough conditions, builds discipline, confidence, and creative problem-solving.
  4. Guide Your Perspective with Intention: Ask yourself (and your subjects) what moments are truly valuable to document, then use your unique viewpoint to create images that matter.


Resources:

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Connect with Raymond!


Thanks for listening & keep shooting!

Anja Poehlm:

And I personally don't like photos. Like studio photography is for family is not for me. I just find it awkward and stiff. Like people dress up in a certain way, not sometimes not even in their own clothes. So some photographers have client closets and I completely understand that these photos have a place, but they're not for me, especially if someone dresses up in clothes that not, that's not their own, or they go shopping for the photo session. And then you have a beautiful photo of your family hanging on the wall. And everybody knows this is not actually your family. Nobody ever smiles like this or is in harmony like this because everybody like families are crazy I like to capture reality and that's not necessarily always the most pretty thing.

Raymond Hatfield:

Hey, welcome to episode 354 of the beginner photography podcast brought to you by cloud spot, which is the easiest way to deliver and so your photos on line I'm your host Raymond Hadfield. And today we're chatting with documentary family life photographer Anya Puhlman about how shooting every day can transform not only your creativity, but your personality as well. You know, there are really certain types of photographers or certain photographers who I find, or in this case recommended to me. Thank you, Julie, who are more than just photographers, they embrace creativity of all kinds, photography, video, writing, mixed media, all these things, that I just adore. And as much as I love photography, I don't think that photography is the perfect tool in to tell every story and leaning into those other creative processes can help, produce really interesting and entertaining results. So, I want you to be sure to check out the show notes of this episode to see some of Anya's work, because it truly is some great stuff. So with that, we're going to go ahead and get on into today's podcast interview with Anya Puhlman. I want to know, when did you know that photography was going to play an important role in your life?

Anja Poehlm:

I find this quite hard to answer because there wasn't a specific moment when I realized, oh, photography is something that's gonna stick with me or something. but I think when it was more than just, I would just carry a camera and just take a few photos here and there was when I moved to Hawaii for half a year. So I was in university and university in Germany is great because you don't have to pay any tuition fees. So you can extend um, student status for as long as you want, not for as long as you want, but, but for a while, so to finish before I finished my university degree, I decided to study abroad for a while. but I realized like studying abroad means a lot of money and I don't have that money. So I, instead I did an interview in Hawaii for half a year, at the Hawaiian ABC TV station. Um, And, um, so when I went there, that was literally the other side of the world. So I took my camera at that point it was, I'm going to age myself here, but that was when digital cameras kind of came out and I had my, Canon power shot something bridge camera with four megapixels, which was absolutely amazing. At that point, I know. and I took that with me and I, um, actually created a website and created my own blog. So that was before I knew about WordPress and block, block stump or block spot or what, what they were called, I'm not even sure they were around that at that point, but I created a blog on my website that I coded myself because I loved that in university and put my photos on there. And that was my way to kind of share my experience there with my friends and family at home that I wouldn't see for half a year. So I think that was the first time that I used my camera for more than just taking like a few photos when I'm on vacation or something, but kind of show how life looks like on the other side of the world. And it kind of spiraled from there. So I came back from Hawaii. And I was living with a guy there who said, you really have an eye for this. You should keep going. And I came back and my dad had, uh, DSLR, the Canon is 300 D like the first rebel. and I kept using it and he was just getting annoyed that I kept using it. So he got me my own, which was the follow up of that. And it literally spiraled from there. And from there, I just really, literally dove into photography and learning everything about how to expose the image correct and how to play with different lens and lenses and everything and then slowly kind of grew into a business.

Raymond Hatfield:

So for you to make the decision to go to Hawaii and start a blog and take these photos to share images of your life and what that's like tells me that there was still something inside of you that really, valued, imagery before that point. So were you taking lots of photos as a kid, as you were growing up? And they were just, they were just snapshots. Is that correct?

Anja Poehlm:

I didn't take that many. So I had like a point to shoot camera when I was a kid, but I wasn't like that photographer kid. Like I had a friend who was into photography and I was thought like, that's so cool. I should do that. And I never did it. And I took one on me like with me when I went on vacation with friends or my family, but I wasn't actually into photography until I was at university and the digital cameras came out because I found that a lot easier to to work with because you could see instantly what your image looks like and you didn't have to wait a week until everything got developed and you realize, oh, they're all bad. Can't use any of them. Um, obviously I would still use them. Like I mean, I looked through my old photos that I took when I was a kid or a teenager. Because I, I went to my parents place over Christmas and I brought back some, some old photos and they're like terribly exposed. Obviously point and shoot, point and shoot doesn't really know what you want to expose for. And terribly framed, like no composition at all for the most part. And if there was a good composition, I'm pretty sure that was an accident. So yeah, photography was really only something I got into once the digital cameras came out because it was so much more accessible.

Raymond Hatfield:

And just to clarify, you really started to get into photography while you were in Hawaii or it wasn't until you got back that you thought, Oh wow, this is amazing.

Anja Poehlm:

It was really when I got back and had a DSLR compared to just a bridge camera. So the bridge, the bridge camera does, I don't know if, people who start photography now even know what bridge camera is. It's basically a hybrid between a point and shoot and a DR. So you can't change the lens, but you can still change. You can shoot manually if you want to. So you can change aperture and shutter speed and iso and all of these things. You have a lot more control over what the camera takes, but not, not as much as with a camera where you can change the lens.

Raymond Hatfield:

Right. Good. Thank you for clarifying that. I'm sure I didn't even think about that. I don't even know how many, uh. Bridge type cameras there are still available today, or why the, what reason someone might have to, uh, to get one outside of, uh, you know, just an iPhone or just go straight into a, to a DSLR. So when you got back from Hawaii and you said to yourself, I think I'm going to really invest some time into learning photography. What was that route? Like, were you taking classes? Was it through a book? Was it just being self taught? How did you learn photography?

Anja Poehlm:

And it was mostly self taught. So it was the time. So that was in 2006. when I really got into photography, so I got my camera, my own DSLR in December 20, at 2005, for Christmas. And after that, I kind of started buying different lenses and I read a lot on forums online. So there was a lot of, online photography forums where you could, it's kind of what the Facebook groups are now, where you can get ideas, people share their photos, people critique them, sometimes unasked, um, as you That still happens

Raymond Hatfield:

today, yeah. Still happens,

Anja Poehlm:

exactly. But, I just kind of, used the dials and saw what happened. it was really fun. So I kind of, I went out with my, with this camera and went for a walk and all photos turned, were completely black. I was like, what happened? And it was because It was just that the settings were completely wrong. I didn't let enough light into my camera through the lens. So the shutter speed was one over 1000 at like F8 on a gray winter day where you can't see anything. So I kind of tried to understand how these numbers work together. I did read a book, but I read a lot on forums and just kind of tested and saw what happens when I change some of the numbers and kind of with that. And then for a long time, I kind of worked with like semi-automatic modes, like the, aperture priority. Mm-Hmm. and kind of gotten a, got a grip, like how the camera would expose an image based on that. So I, I just learned by doing it and I do actually think that's the best thing, but just literally everything you wanna learn, just practice and just see what happens. There's, I mean, you can't really mess anything up. Unless you're working for a client that pays you, but if you're starting out in photography, that's very, the chance that that's going to happen is very slow, very low, because you probably wouldn't take a job when you just got your camera a month ago.

Raymond Hatfield:

Uh, you'd be surprised. I get quite a few emails, but, uh, anyway, so when it comes time to, trying to learn these things on your own, that can be a steep learning curve. If you don't know what it is that you're trying to figure out, you don't know what the results are going to be. So what were some of the biggest challenges that you had, gone through.

Anja Poehlm:

So something that I noticed took me a while to really understand is why I like certain pictures better than others. And that was, depth of field. So just seeing how the, so at first when I started, I didn't actually notice why I like one portrait better than the other because I didn't really learn to see an image like that. So I saw some, someone had a really nice bokeh in the background, like really nice blurry and you could see the portrait of the person and just stood out and then he had another one where it was really cluttered. It's like, it's kind of the same photo. Why do I like this and not this? And it took me a while to really understand what the difference is and how to achieve that. And one thing that took, so that took a few weeks or months, maybe to really nail that, to understand that. And then that was a time when I shot everything at 1. 8 or 1. 4 when I had my, uh, 50 millimeter because you can. And the other thing that took a lot longer, like that took actually years and I'm still working on that is seeing light, seeing light, how light changes an image, how it affects an image, how sometimes when you're in a, you know, you take a photo and you think, oh, it looks really pretty. And then you look close and look all these shadows under the eyes and under the nose that you didn't actually notice before. But once you see it, you can't unsee it. And then you need to figure out how to work around that, how to change someone's like, move someone's face or like move to a different spot and kind of move away from just looking at the pretty background. And looking at what the subject does first, like how is a subject in a scene, how it makes them look best, or if it's not a person, if it's a landscape, like how can I get the best angle to make sure that I use the light to my advantage rather than disadvantage? And that's something I'm still learning.

Raymond Hatfield:

I think that's something that, many photographers just work on forever, right? Like there's no way that you could, I mean you could be like really good at light, but it seems like after it, you know, interviewing quite a number of photographers, it seems like those who have, staying power, I guess, for lack of a better term, are those who are infinitely curious on how to make their images better and when photography is just nothing but capturing whatever light is in front of you, figuring out to the best of your ability, how to see and control that light, I think is, is going to serve you very well because it can't, it can't not. Right, that was a terrible way to end that question, but want to move more into what is it that you are doing today because at the time it sounds like photos of friends and family. How did that transition into doing some paid work?

Anja Poehlm:

it kind of was a progression, like a very slow, steady progression. So I took photos of everything that came in front of me, literally everything. and then friends came and asked, can you take photos of my family? Can you take photos of my child? I've just had a baby. Can you take photos of them? And I did that for my friends and friends of friends came and I just charged like 50 euros or they paid a dinner for me or something. And then at some point people came to me asking, can you shoot my weddings? It's like. I've never even attended one, so I'm not sure if I should do that. And I just said yes to, I practiced with a friend and then at her wedding, I was, um, made of honor. And I brought my camera cause I always had my camera on me. I took some photos there and practiced a little bit. And then someone who I didn't know who came through a friend, they got married and that was a big wedding. There was 200 guests. They were all young Christians. So she was 18, he was 24. And like the whole, whole room was full of young Christians who are about to get married in the next five years. so I charged them 250 pounds for like a whole day, like 14 hours.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah.

Anja Poehlm:

Absolutely nothing. And funny enough, after the church ceremony, one of my cards failed. it said like, please format your card. And I had a panic attack, put it away. But I remembered that A few days before I read in that Flickr group about someone who had something like this happen to them and they got them back through a recovery software. So I was like, I'm just going to put that away and just pretend that didn't happen and just keep going. So you have to be prepared for like things that you were actually not prepared for. which was, I think that was my biggest learning at a paid gig that this can happen and I need to be prepared for it. Luckily I had two cameras. So even if those photos had been gone, I still would have had some photos on the other card on the other camera. I completely went off. Oh yeah. So basically from that, I then, like, I kind of imagined like lots of young people getting married in the next few years, I got bookings from that one wedding for five years. And I only did that part time. So I had a full time job as a video producer. And so that was on my weekends and in the evenings I would edit. But I would, even after I moved from Germany to the UK, I still had people inquire with me. Oh, you shot my friend's wedding. Can you shoot ours next year? And I'm like, no, I'm not there anymore. Unless you pay me to come to Germany and pay for my flight and transportation. I will not do that.

Raymond Hatfield:

Okay. So today you're no longer shooting weddings, right?

Anja Poehlm:

Not really. So I kind of, I did weddings when I came here. So I came to the UK without a job because I wanted to see if I wanted to be a full time wedding photographer. And I did some second shooting for some photographers and did some work there. I had a few of my own and then decided I kind of want my weekends back. So, and I still had a full time job at that point, then again, because I ran out of savings, so I just took a job. and at some point I was just like, I'm not ready to do a whole day Saturday wording anymore, and then be done for Sunday, because I'm knackered, and during the week I might have some time, but all my friends are busy. So I kind of stopped doing them, but now occasionally when someone comes, I will take a wedding, but not longer than five hours. I only do short weddings, which is actually a good market because most photographers now only offer full day. And there's still a lot of people who don't want coverage all day. They just want, it's just a town hall wedding. They just need someone for an hour or two. And that's, that's it. Kind of what I do occasionally. I do like two or three a year. So really, really few

Raymond Hatfield:

of those. But today you're, you're mainly focused on families. Is that right?

Anja Poehlm:

Family and small businesses. So I do, I'm a family photographer and a personal branding photographer and filmmaker.

Raymond Hatfield:

Okay. So let's talk about, family photography because family photography is one of those things that the majority of people listening, they bought their camera because either they're. Their family grew or they wanted to document their family or, something to that effect. So I want to learn more about, your style of family photography, because it's not, Hey, everybody get together, get in real close, look at the camera and say cheese. Can you tell me a little bit more about, how you approach family photography?

Anja Poehlm:

Sure. So my approach is very documentary. So I didn't until like two, three years ago, I didn't even know that was a genre that you could do and make money from. But apparently it is, you just need to find the right people who understand what you're trying to do. So one of my values is honesty and authenticity. And I personally don't like photos, like studio photography is for family is not for me. I just find it awkward and stiff. And even lifestyle to a point is like people dress up. in a certain way, sometimes not even in their own clothes. So some photographers have client closets and they take them a golden hour to a pretty field and everybody's going to have an hour of fun. And I completely understand that these photos have a place, but they're not for me because they're, to me, they're still too fake. Especially if someone dresses up in clothes that's not their own, or they go shopping for the photo session just to match the color scheme of the photo session, what it's supposed to be. And then you have a beautiful photo of your family hanging on the wall, and everybody knows this is not actually your family. Nobody ever smiles like this, or is in harmony like this, because everybody, like, families are crazy, they're chaotic, kids are fighting, they're having tantrums over the silliest things. And, um, It's just, I like to capture those things. I kept, I like to capture reality and that's not necessarily always the most pretty thing. But if I remember back to my own childhood, so I'm the third of three kids and my parents kind of stopped taking photos of us when we were all out of the cute stage. So there's, so my older siblings have a lot more photos of them than me because I was the last. And I really regret that there's not a lot of photos of me with my parents just doing normal things or me with my siblings or me alone. My sister and I, we did gymnastics as kids. And I did that for, I think I started when I was four and I finished, I stopped when I was 10 because my school closed and there's not a single photo of this. And I've really, it's really, really sad because this was a big part of my life. Like if you look at a 10 year old and six years of those 10 years that I've lived, I've been, you full of a hobby that doesn't exist on photos. I just want to provide this to families to kind of, I know everybody should take photos of their kids doing like football, whatever they do, what their hobby is with their phones. But it's also like, they can't be in the moment and that, and that time. And they also, that are not in the photos, unless we take a selfie and like, we smile at the selfie, take a selfie photo, and again, these photos have their place, but I just like. I want kids from today not be in the same position as I am now, where I look back at my photos and like there's a whole chunk of time missing in photos, and I wish I had them because it would help me understand who I am now. So the last few years I've been kind of on this journey to understand where I come from, who I am, why I am the way I am, why I act the way I do, and a lot of that is connected to how I was brought up, and having these photos can help us. understand who we used to be and who we are now, kind of as the result of that. So that's why I really, really love just documenting life as it is.

Raymond Hatfield:

So when it comes to doing these documentary family sessions, having interviewed some documentary wedding or documentary photographers, family photographers on the podcast, and having seen some online, it seems like there's really, several different aspects of this, right? Several different ways that you can go about doing it. You can be hired to be there for, from sunup to, from PJs to PJs it is, or, you know, you could just be there for an hour or an event. How do you tackle that?

Anja Poehlm:

So the photography scene in the UK or Europe is very different to the US. So in the US, photography is a lot more ingrained into like a, family's life. So here it's very hard to, I personally find it very hard to find someone who wants me there from PJ to PJ. So my sessions are quite short. They're about two hours. and I try to get as much as I can within those two hours that kind of defines that family. And I do that by asking them before, like, what are the things that they do during the day? What kind of moments would they like to have captured? So it could be a morning routine or it could be like afternoon at the playground, or it could be the evening, like the bedtime, getting ready for bed, going to bed, reading a story and something like that. So I would love to, in a way, I would love to do like longer sessions, but I feel like the UK is not just not, not quite ready yet. So we still have a bit of time to, to understand what that means and what the value of that is. So my sessions are a bit shorter than that, but that doesn't mean that I don't get to capture the real moments. I just have to basically have, the family needs to decide what kind of moments of the day are most important to them for me to capture.

Raymond Hatfield:

Do you find that they know what those moments are or is that more of the role of a photographer to understand what are really the important moments?

Anja Poehlm:

I think it's my, responsibility to kind of give them guidance. Like I asked him very specific questions. What is it, what does a day look like for you? Like a normal Wednesday or a normal Saturday, whatever that, so whenever they book me, they decide what kind of day I would come Saturday, Sunday, Wednesday, whatever it is, depending on their, schedules. And then I asked them, what would a normal day like this look like if I wasn't there? And then I asked, can I ask specific, like, so what are the things throughout that day that you want your kids to remember visually? And then they're like, actually, uh, I really like the morning times when we make porridge and sit down at the table and then we're kind of, kids start to mess up the house. Or, after nap time, especially when the kids are very small and they just nap, they still nap during the day. Like after nap time when we then prepare, when we go out, go play and then come back and prepare dinner together. Something like this. So I do ask them very specific questions for them to understand what the things are that they value most or what they think that their kids will value most and like a few years time.

Raymond Hatfield:

So, let me ask because at least the way that I see, if I were to hire a photographer to photograph our family, for me, the end goal is going to be like, I want a few photos that I can frame and not necessarily that those are camera aware photos, but there is some element of like. You know, I guess I've never put this, I've never verbalized this before, but there's some element of, we are all together. We are all having fun. I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm not sure if I would frame a photo of the whole family, you know, making porridge together. Is there a time where you do try to get more, say, camera where photos, for lack of a better term, or are those photos of the family making porridge, what it is that your families are looking for?

Anja Poehlm:

It's a combination. So I do ask people, I do say that to people, like, if there is a moment where you feel like you just want a photo of all of you together, I'm happy to just do that, like that doesn't mean that the rest of the day is not documentary. I do want to make sure that I create the photos that will mean the most to my clients. And if that means 10 minutes of the day or my bookings, I just. Semi poem or select, how about you just sit all on the couch and just read a book together? Kind of figuring out a way that looks natural for them to be on a photo. But that is only if I feel like those people actually really want that. Otherwise, I wouldn't offer that. And I do actually, I do try to, so with my documentary photos, I try to incorporate as many people as I can in photos. Um, so it's, it's about layering. It's about kind of telling the story through different stories within the frame. It can be that there's one parent with a child on the front doing something, but then shooting through you can see the other parent with another child doing something else, and then you still have them all in the picture, and if you, close your aperture down enough, so it's not just something super blurry in the front or something super blurry in the back, you can still see, you can make out who that is in the frame, you can, you still have a family photo that's very camera unaware. That's still, I personally think ready to be framed.

Raymond Hatfield:

Hey, Raymond here, and we'll get back to the show in just a moment. You know, as a photographer, you want to be able to quickly come up with creative ideas that stand out. So to help you, I put together a list of 46 creative ideas to get you out of a rut. That you can download by heading over to creative image ideas. com. And honestly, even if you're not in a rut, shooting any of these creative ideas in this free ebook will help you to think more out of the box and create something unique and give you that critical real world photography experience. So again, head over to creative image ideas. com to download your free 46 creative photo ideas. Now with that, let's get back to today's interview. Gotcha. Yeah, when the way that you described it right there using composition and adding as many people in the family into the image as possible does make it more like I could imagine if. Like I'm just picturing this in my head, you know, my wife and I in front of the bowl of porridge or whatever. And the kids are mixing it up and we're kind of all in that shot. I could see framing something like that. So that, that does make sense. I got a question about, the video that you have on your website. You have this really cool video that explains kind of who you are and what it is that you do and in it, you say, I want to show you how the everyday moments are just as important, as those days that we celebrate. I want to know how you do that, because arguably, something like a wedding is, one of the most important days of somebody's life. But how, as a photographer, do you make, making porridge in the morning, or going to the park with the kids? do you, as a photographer, make those moments as powerful as an image as one possibly shot on a wedding day?

Anja Poehlm:

Well, first of all, like I said, with the questionnaire, I find out what moments mean the most to them. And it could be that they're all like just hanging out together or doing something. So the photos that I tried to create are very specific to what the client tells me. And then just shooting again, trying to use as much use layering and using composition in a way that shows how people are connected. So for me, connection is a really, really big thing. So it doesn't necessarily always have to be touching, but touching is the easiest way to see the connection where someone just brushes the hair out of a child's face or, holds a hand or sometimes it's just looks when you see the child looking at their parent and you can just see this thing that the parent probably doesn't see in that, in that moment until they see it in photo. So I've had, um, a session with a gay couple recently in Brighton who were moving to Australia. So they're now in Australia and they booked me to photograph them before they moved away because Brighton was such a big part of their life for the last year. That's where they became a family. They have now two children and, I send them a sneak peek of the photos and he's like, I cannot stop crying. You literally photographed us the way we are. And it's just like, I mean, that made my heart melt and it's really hard to explain how I do it because I just do it. Like I try to just see the connections between people and see how everything works together. So everything in a frame needs to have a purpose. That's why I try to, so for example, I don't shoot wide open. If I can, unless it's really dark and try to everything like I try to frame an image so that everything that's in there tells a part of the story and that's how it creates meaning in the whole image. So if there's a picture in the background of, I don't know, grandma, who is not there anymore. I wanted to try and frame an image where I move myself around. So this image can be part of the frame without being maybe even center, or using heads or bodies to cover things that would kind of distract from the background, kind of just moving myself around so that clutter in the background I don't mind clutter, but sometimes it's distracting. So I kind of move myself so that the things that are in the frame actually make sense and they contribute to the story of the image and the story of the family. I don't know if that makes sense.

Raymond Hatfield:

It does. It does. And a side note, you talking about using people to cover up things that maybe you're distracting or, you know, shooting through people. I also love doing that. I love using people as compositional elements. And one of my biggest pet peeves ever is at weddings, whenever you pull up a camera and you try to say, use somebody's shoulder as, the left side of the frame and you're shooting over here and they're like, Oh, I'm sorry. And then, yeah, it's like, no, no, no, I'm, I'm using you. I'm using you as composition. Don't ever feel like you have to get out of my way. I totally get that. But going back to this couple who you send them the photos, they're like, I can't stop crying right now. How much of the photos that you created for them are what you would shoot organically versus what they said was important to them before the session? Does that make sense? I guess I'm just trying to figure out how much of the artist goes into it versus how much the client says, this is what I really want. Can you do this for me?

Anja Poehlm:

That's a very good question. It's a tough question. because it's hard for me to kind of separate those two, because so, my goal when I shoot a family is not to create art. That is a side product. And if I can, I will. But my goal is to create something that means something to them. And the art comes second, but the art for me is always in there. So everything that I see, I try to make everything pretty in a way that, has meaning. So it's, it's really hard to explain because a lot of the things I just do. Because I just see it like that. I feel artistry in general, art, is so hard to put in words. Because everybody sees it differently as well. Everybody has a different, taste. Like, what kind of things they like. So, for me, really, the main goal is to create photos that mean something to the family. And if I can create photos that I personally would call art, that's a bonus.

Raymond Hatfield:

I like that so much. Yeah, that is, it is very hard with how subjective photography is too. and that's one of the reasons why we don't really talk a lot about, technicals on the show is because the technicals, that I might choose for a certain scene are going to be totally different than something that, uh, that you might choose. And I don't really want listeners to get an idea that, Oh, In X scene, you have to shoot X settings because it is difficult, but I appreciate you trying to, uh, to put that into words, even though it can be very difficult. I want to know a little bit more about, the artistic side of you then, because I know that, shooting every day is something that is, important to you using photography as a form of creativity is important to you. And I want to ask about your long portrait because the long portrait is a very cool idea for those listening who haven't checked it out yet. I will let you explain it, but I really want to know, where the idea came from and also, like, what is the key to sticking to a creative project like this?

Anja Poehlm:

So basically my creative projects are my way to create art for myself without having to rely on clients. And it also gives me the opportunity to just try and play and fail and just see what works and what doesn't. So I've, I've got a lot of, uh, Ideas for personal projects. And not all of them ever will be put into practice. And some, I started like that, it's fine. It's too much effort. I can't do that. So I didn't want to have a lockdown that I just. I started and I didn't really continue. But the long portrait is actually kind of I haven't touched it in two years and I really want to get back into it. The long portrait is kind of a portrait on steroids so instead of just a photo of someone I take about a two to three minute video of someone just looking at the camera and that can be super intense. And then I overlay that with an interview so I've got five questions for everybody who takes part in my In my long portrait, and then I create a story based on what they tell me. And, uh, so it's just to kind of understand, to give a glimpse, get a glimpse of who they are in that moment. So it's not a portrait of someone who's, that they can carry with them. Like, yeah, I'm still that five years later. They might be, but they might completely have changed directions. They might have different goals. They might have different values. So it's just a snapshot of who someone is at that time, but more than just a photo, but it's, it's video and audio. And it's kind of this really, really intense moment. It's intense for me to edit as well, sitting there and looking at in someone's face into someone's eyes for like two minutes straight while I edit this and try to tell the story of who they are, whether I know them or not. And it's just, it's something I saw someone do something similar absolutely ages ago, but it was without audio. And I was like, I like this, but I feel like something's missing. And then I kind of played with that idea and decided I'm going to do it audio and video. So having the person looking at the camera, not talking, they're not saying anything, but then separately I record an interview with them and try to use it to tell the story of who that person is.

Raymond Hatfield:

I have to, uh, admit, I can't imagine what it's like to edit that because just watching it for me, it's a very, powerful and intimate look at somebody, even though not only are we miles apart, but also years apart as well. And that is, that is really powerful. And I think one thing that I take into consideration when creating some sort of project is like, what is the end goal? Right? Like, you know, is this going to be hung somewhere? Is this going to be printed somehow? Is this going to be posted somewhere? So for your idea for the long portrait, where it's not a traditional image, these are going on YouTube, is something like that video aspect taken into consideration for this? Or is just your history in video? Does that just make it a non issue? Like that's okay. People like like videos. Does that question make sense? That was a giant question. I apologize.

Anja Poehlm:

With a lot of my projects, I actually don't really look at the end goal, which probably isn't how most people tell how to approach a personal project. No, but I'll tell you what,

Raymond Hatfield:

it gets you to get started, which is the hardest thing for me.

Anja Poehlm:

Yeah. Well, everybody's got different motivation. For me, it's just trying something and see if it goes, if it works. For the videos, I do have the idea. I would love to have an exhibition of this. I think that could be quite interesting. I haven't really looked into that yet. But yeah, because I don't really, I don't necessarily start projects thinking about what I'm going to do with that in the end. I'm just, I have this idea now and I want to see if it works and just see where it goes. So I'm kind of less about the final I'm more about the journey than the goal, which is super cheesy But I think that's the easiest way to to describe it.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah. Oh my gosh. That is such a hard thing. I'll be honest. I can't even relate to that at all. Like I really wish that I could, I really wish that I could, because I'm sure that it would be a lot easier for me to start a project, just having this idea and just going for it. But for me, every step has to be planned out before I even start. And that makes it, as you can imagine, extremely difficult to get going, because if you don't know what that end goal is, my head just says, well, then what's. But then I look at, something like your long portraits and I think that is such a great idea. Like I wish that I, could have, or would have done something like that. so if anybody's listening and they have one takeaway, it's, it's just to get started. That's my biggest takeaway from this episode. Like just get started and just do something because that is going to be the momentum, that you need.

Anja Poehlm:

The thing is everybody, like I said, everybody needs a different kind of motivation. If you do need, and I'm like, something in the end to come out of it, then make this more a personal progression goal. So I've had, projects where my goal was to shoot vertically because I always forget to turn my camera around. So I did a project a hundred days, like I called it a hundred mornings. I'm very good with, with naming my projects, but, um, it's all very literal. So a hundred mornings. So every day before 11 AM, I wanted to take a photo for a hundred days and it had to be vertical because I kept forgetting to turn my camera. And that was my goal just to kind of remember to use my camera at different ways. And just be a bit more creative. And then also, because I always took those photos on my way to work. That was when I was still employed. It also helped me to see the same scene differently every day. And to see what can I do on the 20 minute walk to work? What can I see differently every single day? Which, corner can I photograph differently today than yesterday or what of what happens on the way? What people do I see? What's the weather like? And just kind of, just be more aware of what's right in front of you.

Raymond Hatfield:

Did you ever miss a day?

Anja Poehlm:

No.

Raymond Hatfield:

If you had, would that just kill your motivation or would you just pick up the next day?

Anja Poehlm:

I would just keep going. So I've been doing Project 365 for over three years. I'm in my fourth year now and I think I missed two days. And I was just like, okay, I'd fine. I forgot. I'll take another one tomorrow.

Raymond Hatfield:

Okay, so with these 365s, this is like the beginning of the year, 365s are very, it's something that a lot of people want to do. We, as the Beginner Photography Podcast, we have a daily photo challenge as well. And it's funny, because like, January, February, really strong, March, not so much April. And then by the end of the year, everybody has forgotten about it. So what tips do you have to stay motivated and continue doing a 365?

Anja Poehlm:

My top tip is don't start January 1st because January is so full of pressure. We always, we all want to live healthier. We want to exercise daily. We want to do yoga. We want to learn another craft. We read

Raymond Hatfield:

a hundred books.

Anja Poehlm:

Yeah, exactly. Read a hundred books in the year. And then if we add on another one, like it's, I don't know if you or your listeners have read Atomic Habits, but basically that's what James Clear talks about. Don't do, if you want to create new habits, don't start with all of them at once. Do one at a time and add one. So if you add everything you want to do on January 1st, most of them are going to fail. So I started mine in November because that's when my birthday is. At one point I was just, I'm just going to do this now. I wanted to do this for absolutely ages. Again, back to Flickr times is when I saw the first people do that. Like 2008 or 2010. I think the first time I've heard of it, it's like, Oh, that's really cool. But I could never do that. And then like thinking about it long and long and long enough, I, at some point just decided I'm just going to do this and I'm going to start on my birthday. because also it means I started when the weather and the light was the worst. Like at least in the like northern hemisphere. So we have very little light. We have worse weather. I mean, I don't know if you can hear it, but it's chucking down again. So I kind of needed to be okay with shooting in the dark and, having just a short window of time where I could take photos with lots of daylight. And that helped me push through because then if I pushed through that, if I started with this, but I had the longest time, then I went into the easy time and summer where just, we're out more, there's more happening. We tend to do more with friends. It's just life just seems to happen. Starting in spring, and it just gets easier. So yeah, my second tip would be. Don't be afraid of. Dark and dark, dark days and grubby weather and also make your own rules. So there's, um, some people like to have a theme per day per week, per month. I personally don't like that because then I feel very restricted and I'm like, I need to shoot within that theme, but I don't actually know what to shoot within that now. So I'm just not going to shoot. So for me, it's just. I just shoot whatever happens, and sometimes I forget, so I have to get creative in the evening when the light is out. There's a photo of me, in the bathroom with a mirror, and the mirror has like a, a fraction at the bottom so you can see my eyes twice. And that happened because I was like, oh, it's like 10pm, I still haven't taken a photo, what can I do today? And so now every photo that I take within my 365 is documentary. But it's always a reflection of who I am. And I really love, so after every year, I make a book and funnily enough, because my, my birthday is end of November. End of December during Black Friday, Blurb has 50 percent off books.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yes.

Anja Poehlm:

So I save a ton of money on making my albums because they're thick. I put one page, one photo, one page. So this is a 365 page book. It's a really, it's a really chunky book. And I absolutely love looking through it and just seeing like what I did throughout the year, because we forget as well, like. I can barely remember what I did beginning of November and we're like mid January now. It's a nice reminder of who you were at a certain point. And it's having a photo or a second of video can spark so many memories of what you did during the day or during the week or during a period of your time. And just all the memories come back. And that's again, why I love photography for as a profession, because I can give that to my clients too kind of help them remember who they used to be when the kids were small, how their life looked like, what the house looked like after, before they moved for the next three times. And just capturing these, these mundane things, especially with a 365. I mean, we also have to be okay with taking really bad photos and they might not be bad in the grand scheme of things when you look through them all, because they add to the story, but on the day I'm like, that was really not great for you. I really don't even want to share it. And I guess that's enough. I'm sorry. I think you asked for three. I've got loads of tips on that, but I think another one is to, to not make the project about sharing. But to make the project about yourself and any personal project can just be for yourself. You don't have to share you don't have to ask for validation or appreciation from anybody else But yourself and that takes the pressure off I would say personally

Raymond Hatfield:

So you said one thing though that was I believe it was learn to love the gross and muddy days.

Anja Poehlm:

Yeah,

Raymond Hatfield:

you know, there's a lot of people who do who did start a 365 January 1st and this time of year, you know, I feel like we have this is the longest stretch until springtime. So how, how do we do that? How do we love to learn those muddy days? What are we shooting on those days?

Anja Poehlm:

I think that's the best time to experiment. So experiment with long exposures. And that doesn't even have to mean that you figure out how to, where to get a tripod from some, but just take a photo with a slower shutter and to see what the image looks like. Again, it doesn't have to be about perfection, but having just, if you take a photo and it's like one over 60, that's relatively slow. And especially when it's dark and you have like slight movement in the image. Just appreciate that some days basically feel like a blur and that's a good representation of what life is like and just really push yourself into those dark moments. Turn off the lights and see what you can do. Embrace the grain in the photo and embrace the imperfection of it and just walk around the house and see, we can shoot. Like if you don't have light, just shoot into the light, like into, like, if you have a nice lampshade, shoot into that. And that is your photo of the day. I've done that because I didn't have any ideas, but when I met, when my boyfriend and I moved into this flat, we bought a lampshade for the bedroom and I really liked it. So one day I was like, if I'm out of ideas, this is going to be my photo. And I did that. I did. Yeah. I think after, a certain amount of time, you know, how to kind of, see things in your flat and like, okay, if I really ran out of ideas, I can photograph this corner because it means a lot to me because there's some photos hanging or because I want to see how that plant grows over the next six months. I take this photo now and again in six months. It's hard, but just be okay with dark photos. Be okay with grain, be okay with blurry because it's just for yourself. And in the end, you'll be glad to just kept going instead of stopping because, Oh, I really can't do anything because the light is bad. I mean, if you really want, you can play with long exposures, just put your phone, your camera, On a table, if you don't have a tripod, just put it on a table, set the shutter speed for relatively long and walk through the image and photograph yourself blurry in the image. Like there's so much you can do just kind of, I like the restriction that the darkness can give you because it really, it really has, you have to stretch your imagination of what can you do. And again, just photograph, you can photograph details. And again, if they're blurry or if they're grainy, whatever, it doesn't matter. It's not about the perfection. It's about taking the photo.

Raymond Hatfield:

That is powerful right there. That is something that I hope a lot of listeners take to heart because, again, it can be hard to get started, but you know, just simply set up a phone or your camera and just do a long exposure and just experiment. I love that. I know that we are getting close to the end of our time here and you said that kind of one of the reasons why you got into photography was because there was this big part of your childhood being gymnastics and well, you didn't have any photos of it and that, that kind of hurts inside. So you try to give that to your family. So I want to know all these years later, what have you now learned about yourself, through photography, through shooting as much as you do?

Anja Poehlm:

I think the main thing I've learned is that I'm very good at discipline and I'm very tenacious. Like if I, so I have this, it's literally a problem. I can't, if I made a commitment to myself, I can't stop. And I know that sometimes we need to stop things that don't work, but I just, I feel like I can't. So if I promise myself, I'm going to do something, I'm going to do a hundred days for just 365. I would be very disappointed with myself if I stopped. And that can actually be bad because it kind of, it might keep me in a situation that might not be good for me. So I'm working on that. But I think it's just, my confidence has grown through photography because I'm, I'm an introvert. I don't go out to say hello to people, but my camera is a tool for me to connect with people that I find interesting. And it's so much easier to say, I'm a photographer. This is my camera. Can I take a photo of you? Just because I find someone interesting on the street. And I think it's, it allowed me to kind of step bit by bit out of my comfort zone and just grow in that sense, grow as a, it lets me grow as a, as a creative, because I then put myself in a situation where I have a very short window of time and I want to nail that photo. So that's a creative challenge, but also just, a personal challenge just to approach someone I don't know that I wouldn't do without my camera. Do you? So

Raymond Hatfield:

obviously, somebody you think that, wow, there's something about this person that I find interesting. Walk me through that. This is, this is what people want. They want to be able to approach strangers and be able to capture who it is that they are. So how do you do it?

Anja Poehlm:

So I've done that a few years ago with a friend. So my idea, my goal was to just get braver and approach strangers on the street and to take street portraits. because again, it's, it challenges me to, in a very short amount of time, see where the light is, take a nice photo and not feel like So my friend and I did, we went to London South bank, which is a very busy area. And we just sat there and watch. So that's kind of the first thing is just get comfortable with where you are. Don't keep running around like a crazy person. Just find a spot that you feel will look good in photos, makes you comfortable. It's not too crowded. So people don't rush past you, or you can't actually take a nice photo because it's too busy and just kind of sit there and watch and see what kind of people come past. And then at some point. Just stand up and walked out someone and introduce yourself with your name and say like, I'm a photographer and I'm, taking photos of people on the street. Do you mind if I take your photo? And nine out of 10 times you get a yes. And when you get a no, just deal with it. It's you think it's going to be so heartbreaking when someone says no, but actually when the first person said, person said no, it's like, that's fine. And it actually didn't faze me that much. So my goal was within an afternoon to get 20 portraits and I did get them.

Raymond Hatfield:

Wow.

Anja Poehlm:

Um, I think I got two or three nos, which is quite good. I didn't, I thought I would get a lot more no's, but because most people will actually say yes, It's a really good challenge. And I mean, if you have like a little, business card or a little card where you have like your Instagram, so you can connect with them and say, I'll send you the photo, just message me, then they have something from it as well. So I used to have, I don't know if you know, the company move, they have these really tiny cards. I used to make them in the past. It's just saying like, my name is Anja. I like taking photos and this is my Instagram. And then I just would give them that card and they can connect with me that way and ask, can I have my photo, please? And I would send it to them. And it's a really easy way to kind of make sure it's not just one side. It's not just for you to get something out of it, but they get the photo as well. And that personally makes me feel good because I took a nice photo of them. I don't know what they're going to do with it, but maybe it makes them happy.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. They wanted it for a reason. No, that makes sense. That is, I think it's funny when I try to think of, you know, approaching people on the street, I would assume, and I think many others would assume as well, that you'd get 19 no's and one yes, but to hear that it was the opposite and that you only got two or three. knows. And then the rest were yeses. I hope gives people confidence to go out and try it themselves because I would imagine that that is a huge boost of confidence, in your abilities as a photographer and interacting with those, in your community as well. So yeah, thank you. Thank you for sharing that on you. I do

Anja Poehlm:

think you have to kind of read the room though. So if you do that on a Monday morning at 8am, when everybody's rushing to work, the chances that you're going to get a no is very high. So do it at a time where you feel like people are not rushing to get anywhere. So I personally find weekends easier for that because people just have more time.

Raymond Hatfield:

Of course. Yes, of course. Of course. Especially in a more of a, uh, maybe you think a touristy location or more of a travel location would, would help as well.

Anja Poehlm:

It depends. I personally like to shoot locals more than, than tourists because especially in London like you can see who is the local and who's a tourist, because the locals in London and in Brighton it's very flamboyant and people just dress however they want and you can see the the the the tourists who are just, they're dressed differently. They have a different flair about them. So I would probably not necessarily, I mean, the South Bank is relatively touristy, but I would probably go, not necessarily somewhere where you can tell that 90 percent are going to be tourists. I mean, chances are that you're going to get a lot of yeses there too, but I personally find it more interesting to get the locals.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yes, I love it. Well, Anya, we are at the end of our time here. I know that people are listening, thinking to themselves. I would love to learn more about Anya, what she does and see some of her work as well. So can you share with us where we can find you online?

Anja Poehlm:

Sure. So I'm on Instagram at by underscore Anya P, Anya with a J, and my website is anyapurman. com. Which probably nobody knows how to spell. That's why it'll be

Raymond Hatfield:

in the shout outs.

Anja Poehlm:

Yes. So that's the best place, but I am on Instagram quite a bit.

Raymond Hatfield:

It is all about expanding your, experience, expanding your world of art and creativity to, be able to do these things. This is so great. I love this interview with Anya. I had three big takeaways as always, that I'm going to share with you. The first one is. You are the only person who can create the photos that you create. Wow! You are the only person who can create the photos that you create. So, no matter what camera you have, it doesn't matter if you have the same camera as, you know, a photographer who, is a National Geographic photographer or a sports photographer. It doesn't matter because you are the only person who can create the photos that you can create. It's not the camera. So lean into what makes you unique. Don't try to follow all of the same rules that Everybody else follows because that's going to make you the same as them. And you're not going to stand out. Takeaway number two was to be open to try new things. If it doesn't work out, well, again, that's one less thing that you have to worry about doing in the future. And now you have the space to find the things that you love the most. I will tell you, in the past, I have had ideas that I thought, this is gonna work, this is gonna be amazing, and I just kept putting it off, putting it off, putting it off, because, I don't know, I was scared, or it was a lot of work, or, something like that. And when it came time to actually do it, I didn't like it and I thought to myself, wow, I just spent, either months or years thinking about something that I don't even like. And imagine if I had just tried it that first time, then I wouldn't have had to waste all that time thinking about it. And then I could have moved on to something else that I might have enjoyed even more. So, try those new things. Don't just learn about them and think about them. Try them too. And the last takeaway was that the art of learning. comes second. This is one of my manifesto items. You can make money and you can make art, but you can't do both well. If you make art while working for a client, then hey, great, it's a surprise, but when money is involved, you will always shoot for your clients. And that's okay. Just know that that's going to happen. All right. Now, I want to take a moment to showcase, our member of the week, our listener of the week, Chuck from Aw Snap Chuck. Again, he is our listener of the week for leading the podcast, a five star rating in review in Apple podcast. Now, Chuck says, I've been listening to the podcast for a few years. Wow. That's awesome. The content is top notch and the interviews with photographers of all genres are inspiring and enlightening. I also enjoy the interviews with members of the BPP community. That is our community spotlight, series, those interviews. This is more than just a podcast, but even without the community, the information contained within these episodes will help you learn and master your camera, man, check. I am thrilled that you are enjoying the podcast and I thank you so much for taking the time to share your thoughts with me and letting me know that, I'm on the right track. If you are listening and you are enjoying the show, again, I can't tell you how helpful reviews are. If you are listening in Spotify, you can leave the podcast, a star rating right on the show's homepage. And if you want to leave me feedback directly, feel free to shoot me an email or better yet a voicemail by heading over to the contact page at beginner photography podcast. com. I hope to hear from you. All right. That is it for this week. Thank you again for tuning into this episode of the beginner photography podcast brought to you by CloudSpot. It truly is the easiest way to deliver and sell your photos online. You can learn more about CloudSpot and grab your free forever account at deliverphotos. com and remember the more that you shoot today, the better of a photographer you will be tomorrow. Talk soon.

Outro:

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