The Beginner Photography Podcast

3 Steps to Define, Cultivate, and Evolve Your Photography Taste

• Raymond Hatfield

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#449 In todays episode of the podcast, you'll learn how to evolve your taste as a photographer. By defining, cultivating, and evolving your taste, you will gain clarity and confidence in your creative pursuits, setting yourself up for success.

THE BIG IDEAS

  • Define Your Taste: Recognize that your initial inclination may not be what truly inspires you. Find photographers who resonate with you, and learn from their work.
  • Cultivate Your Taste: Surround yourself intentionally with sources of inspiration that align with your creative vision. Identify what truly speaks to you in photography.
  • Evolve Your Taste: Embrace change and allow your taste to transform as you gain more knowledge and experience in photography. Be open to evolving your creative style.
  • Practice with Intention: Develop a deliberate approach to your photography. Instead of aimlessly capturing scenes, set parameters for your shoots and measure success based on meeting those goals.

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Raymond Hatfield:

Hey, welcome to the Beginner Photography Podcast brought to you by CloudSpot, the easiest and all in one solution to deliver and even sell your photos online. I'm your host, Raymond Hatfield, and each week here on the podcast, you're going to learn tips and tricks from me and some of the world's best photographers on how you can use your camera to capture more compelling moments. Today, we have an episode from the BBB vault where we revisit our treasure trove of interviews, to offer both new and longtime listeners, the chance to uncover these powerful insights and practical tips to enhance your photography skills. So whether you're listening with fresh ears or a new perspective, remember, there's always something new to learn. What's that phrase? We never step into the same Creek twice. In today's BPP Rewind, we are talking about how to cultivate your creativity and define your voice. Finding your voice, or your style in photography is both, it's both way easier, than you think, and it's also infinitely harder than it sounds. Like all things, It's simple, but it's still hard. but in this episode, I'm going to introduce you to how to systematically start to figure out what your style is and how to achieve it and be sure to stick around until the end of the episode, where I'm going to give you a recap along with, your, three points for your photography action plan. So let's go ahead and get on into this episode. I have found that. kind of when talking to many of you, that your idea of creativity, or of what creativity is, it can be easily skewed, I think, by many factors, yet, whatever you think that it is, we all want it, right? You may think that what creativity is, is different than, than me. But despite thinking that they may be two different things, we still all want it. Creativity. Now, recently I was reading Chris Orwig's book, The Creative Fight, right? And in it, Chris Orwig says, when we witness creativity, it gives us the courage to be creative ourselves. Ooh. Oh, I got goosebumps. Creativity, it feels like a super power. When you're in it, you often don't realize it. It just feels like you're kind of putting in the work. But once you recognize that you're in that state of creativity, it vanishes. So I know that for me, I personally really need to define my creativity. What do I consider being creative? And unfortunately, defining creativity can be pretty difficult. You could say that it is coming up with a unique solution to a problem. Well, okay. So, okay. So maybe actually that was pretty easy. Wow. Okay. What am I trying to say here? So in, in practice, I like rules. I like knowing what needs to be done and I like knowing when it needs to be done by. But as creativity is kind of like a, like a horse, like what's the phrase? You can lead a horse to water, but you can't force it to drink. Just because you put on your favorite lo fi playlist on Spotify doesn't mean that your horse called creativity actually going to drink. Now today I want to talk about creativity and kind of the misconceptions that I had as a new photographer in the hopes that by the end of this podcast you're going to realize that, what kind of creativity, what kind of creative, I guess, you are so that you can set yourself up to better get into the zone, right? I think that self awareness is really important when it comes to creativity. Now I started off this podcast with a quote by Chris Orwig and now I have another one here by Ira Glass. Ira Glass says that we pursue our creative endeavors because we have good taste. Then we quickly give up on our creative pursuits because our good taste says that what we have, create is bad. So think about that, right? We get into photography because we like looking at photos. We can tell the difference between a good photo and a bad photo. But yet, when we pick up the camera and we start taking those photos, our good taste that says what photos are good and what photos are bad says, Oh, our photos are bad. So we give up, we give up on those creative pursuits. And I know that in my life, my quote unquote, good taste has stopped me from a million things. It has stopped me from pursuing pottery, pursuing painting, skating, playing the bass, sketching. It's so many other things, so many other things for you, it could be cooking. It could be botany, botany. right? Is it horticulture? Like, when you like plants, right? You like spending time with plants, you like putting plants together, I don't know. But maybe for you, you know, your good taste is stopping you from photography. Again, like I said, you know a good photo from a bad photo when you see it, but have a hard time capturing that good photo versus a bad photo. And if your taste is telling you why can't you take photos like what you see online? Well, I want you to know that your taste is it's only trying to help you. Now, if your love language is words of affirmation, then trust me, I completely understand how hard it is to keep going when you hear that voice in your own head telling you that everybody else is better. But, that being said, I am here to help you get to the point to where when you hear that voice in your head questioning what you're doing, you will be able to say, okay, hold on, bro. Hold on. I know what I'm doing here. And I believe that that all starts with defining your taste. It's kind of a three step process. But I believe that it starts with defining your taste. rationally, okay, if we're, if we're being honest with ourselves, we can't expect to be fantastic at something like photography in which people dedicate their lives to. We can't expect to be fantastic at that our first go or our first hundred goes, goes. But emotionally, we do expect that. We all want that. We all want to be able to pick up that thing and just be a rock star at it, out of the gate. Because, I mean, that feels like you're skipping so many steps, like you just got it and it's a natural talent. But, again, rationally, we know that that's not how things work. So, to prevent your taste from crushing your dreams, we need to tell it what it can and cannot critique. But to do that, you have to practice your photography, but you need to practice your photography with intention. Now, I know that you've heard me talk about intention before, as I believe that is one of the main pillars of creativity and artistry, is being able to create with intention. But most new photographers, tell me if I'm wrong here, or if this sounds familiar, love photography, you buy yourself a camera, what do you shoot? Well, you go out to your local park, your local trail, And you hope to capture just whatever you see, just happens to be in front of your camera. Whoa, a bird. Whoa, look at that beautiful flower. That's a terrible shutter sound, but whatever. And then we expect that we come home with just like diamonds, right? Just amazing photos. Just fantastic that we are going to want to immediately print out and hang on our walls. But, again, rationally, let's break this down. Rationally, professionals, I mean like working professional photographers, shooting massive gigs like corporate campaigns, very experienced photographers, need to know what it is that they're shooting before they shoot. They need to have an idea, or a concept before they pick up their camera. Otherwise, how do you really know if you did a good job, right? If a, I don't know, an energy company comes to you and says, Hey, will you take some photos for us? your next question? Yeah, of what? Like, what do you want photos of? You know, what are you trying to, what are you going to do with these photos? What do you want to portray with these photos. So why do you think you can just, or at least for me, I guess I'm asking myself this, why, like, why, because I know that I did this as a new photographer, why, why did I think that I could just show up at a park or a trail and just snap a few photos and they were going to be magnificent? I don't know why we think that we can bypass this step, but when you, when you, Maybe it's an ego thing, again, because everybody feels like they have good taste, right? So, Maybe it's that, ego thing, that if we feel like we have to have instructions, how important is taste? Like, what is it actually doing for us? We feel like we should be able to come up with these things in our taste. should, help us to capture these things. Just on a whim. But, again, rationally, that doesn't make any sense. Like, you wouldn't expect, a doctor. Now, again, I know that photography is very different than medicine, okay, but you wouldn't expect a doctor to be like, Man, I just love, I love medicine, I just really want to get into this field, and I think that I'm going to be able to figure it out as I go. No, you, like, you want them to kind of follow some sort of proven path. You want them to be able to follow a decision tree, so that they don't screw something up big time. Now, if you've seen any of my Fuji Photo Walk videos that I have posted on YouTube, then you know that this is where I go out and I shoot without knowing what I'm going to encounter. But I always give myself parameters of what I will shoot so that I can know if I am successful. Now still, again, if you've seen any of the videos, you know that I come back with photos so that I'm not going to be hanging on my walls, I'm not going to be printing them out. But, if they fit the theme and goal for my photo walk, that's all I care about. And then I can tell my taste, that these photos don't suck. Because they were exactly what I wanted to capture. So step one, define your taste. Step two, take a drink of tea. Alright, step three, no just kidding. Step two, now we need to cultivate our taste. Now, cultivating our taste, I believe, is both the easiest and the hardest thing that we can do. Okay? So, we've listened to our taste, we know that it's there, now we kind of have to train it, right? It's kind of like a puppy. Like, we have a puppy, but like, we see that it, it, I mean, it is a dog, but like one day it will be a good dog. One day it won't be pooping all over the house. One day it won't be chewing up shoes. But now how do we get it there? How do we, train this dog to be able to not do that? How do we cultivate our taste? Now to cultivate your taste, you just dive into the things that you love. That's it. Sounds easy. All right. Game over. No. But again, I cannot stress the importance of being intentional with what you surround yourself with because not all things are creative equal and not all things that somebody else finds as inspiration, will you find as inspiration? I know, and I've spoke with many photographers here on the podcast who have said that they draw their inspiration from music. And personally, I can't wrap my head around that. I don't get it. I can't I don't draw inspiration for photos through music, unless it's a very literal sense. Now, several years ago, I was watching, a show called, uh, No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain. And if you haven't seen the show, Chef Anthony Bourdain travels the world to experience local culture and local cuisine, right? And he goes to a new place every time. And in this particular episode that I was watching, Anthony met up with his friend and fellow accomplished chef, Sean Brock. And if you don't know who Sean Brock is, well, in 2010, Sean Brock won the James Beard Award for Best Chef. He is a four time finalist for Outstanding Chef of the Year, as well as a three time finalist for Rising Star Chef. Sean Bragg has hosted season two of the Emmy award winning television show Mind of a Chef and has started a lifelong project entitled Before It's Too Late, in which he is dedicated to recording and sharing the cultural and culinary wisdom of the American South. Whew! That was a lot right there. Okay, so all of that to say that Sean Brock, Chef Sean Brock, Chef Sean Brock, gotta be able to enunciate well for that one, he knows his food, right? His understanding of food is an understatement. So where do you think Sean Brock and Chef Anthony Bourdain went to go dine? The Waffle House. And surprising to me, it wasn't to make fun of it. Now, I think that we can all agree here, okay, we're all adults, that the Waffle House is not a contender to be the next Michelin star rated restaurant, okay? But. Sean looks at, not only the food, but the experience as a whole. And in this clip, you can actually find it on YouTube of him going to this, waffle house with Anthony Bourdain, the exact clip that I'm talking about. He says that as a kid, the waffle house was fascinating. He says, this place was fascinating to me. I can actually see people cooking and they were cooking for people who were out of control and still they were able to provide hospitality. And then he went on talking about the pecan waffles. He says, you have to just crush it with homogenized oil from the butter and it has to be swimming in syrup. You don't come here expecting the French Laundry. Now the French Laundry it's a restaurant. It's a world renowned restaurant just right outside of Napa's wine country, but that statement, you don't come here expecting the French laundry. I think that that is his way of cultivating his own taste, right? He's reining it in. He's like, look, you're not going to take over this one for me. Now. I think that when you can accept something for what it is, when you can accept something for as, as simple as it is, and not simply the sum of the ingredients that go into it. Then you can open up the door to something really special. And I believe that that right there is the key to really creative thinking. Think of how hard and how brave it must be to be trained chef to go on national TV and express your love for a chain restaurant who cares about you. Far more about its profits than it does its own ingredients. Now, I don't think that Chef Sean Brock is claiming that the pecan waffle at the Waffle House is the world's best waffle. But when you take it all in, and you accept it for what it is, that's a pretty amazing thing. As a photographer, we can all do the same. Find the people who speak to you the most, right? Who is doing something? Who's doing, types of photos that you just feel drawn to, and for whatever reason, whatever reason, if you can take a list of ten people, and then you just dig through their work. Then list out the things that you love most about what it is that they're doing, right? Why do you love their work? do you think they stand for? And then if you really want to take it to the next level, come up with five or so rules. Five or so rules for you to follow when developing your own creativity. When you're out shooting. Based on, those ten other photographers whose work you just absolutely love. Now for Sean, right, one of his rules for cooking might be that cooking has to be fun, or it has to be immersive. Not the world's best. It has to be fun and it has to be immersive. Now if you're struggling with this, I want to help you out and I want to give you my free ebook with 46 creative photography ideas for you to try out, which you can download. It is on the resources page over at beginner photography, podcast. com, or you can find the link in the show notes of this episode right here. Again, 46 creative photography ideas for you to try out. Free. Go ahead and download it now. Now step three here is, actually step three, we're going to do another sip of tea here. Go ahead and enjoy yourself some tea. Earl Grey, lemon ginger, ooh, ooh, sing to me. All right, so step three here is to evolve your taste. Now I got a question for you. I love questions. I love questions that make us think, that make us ponder, make us wonder about things because oftentimes we see something for what it is, and that's it. Now, could you imagine if, after Henry Ford developed the car, the Model T, if, the Dodge Brothers doubled down on horse drawn carriages? What do you think Dodge would be today? It wouldn't be in business. Now, could you imagine if I don't know. Kodak doubled down on film when Canon started manufacturing, digital camera. Wait, that is exactly what happened. Do you want to live in a world that resists change? I mean, Canon was on top. They were on top. Nobody could beat Canon. They were like the Coke to Pepsi. Nobody could beat them. But they resisted change. And now, well, I mean, they filed for bankruptcy, they've changed, CEO's leadership many times just trying to get it back on track. But when you embrace change, I mean, change is a really powerful thing when you embrace it. And just like, your skill set that continues to strengthen as you continue to practice, so should your taste. You're not going to be the same photographer that you were on day one than you are on day a thousand and one, right? So why do you expect everything else to be the same? Don't try to fit it into a box, evolve with it. Now, I remember when I was in film school, a buddy and I had this joke that whenever anything, this is gonna sound so stupid, you'd be like, that was a joke? Wow, that's super lame. Whenever anything looked bad, whether it be in a scene in a movie or just like everyday life, we'd make this joke, be like, you know what this needs? 2K for now with some diffusion, right? A 2K is a, it's a light with a 2000 watt bulb inside. It's pretty bright. But it got to the point to where we joked about it so much that I let that influence how I would shoot a scene. I thought that, like, this was going to be my thing. My style. It's going to be my style. To light all talent with a 2K and some diffusion. So, I tried it on a few scenes and it worked. It was pretty cool. But then, I had a scene that was outside. And, well, the 2K just wasn't able to provide the power that I needed. And then, we were working in a small space, and the 2K was just far too powerful. And honestly, it was too big. It, like, in the workspace that we were in, and then we all kind of had to move around it, and it just didn't fit that scene. So, as I was shooting, I gained knowledge. I gained knowledge on what works, I gained knowledge on what doesn't work. My taste, it changed. Suddenly, that idea of the 2K diffusion wasn't everything. So this is that thing in the beginning that I loved, and I no longer loved. And I really think that's often the case for new photographers who, they get their hand, on Photoshop and, you know, they start doing selective coloring. I did this. And this is where the entire image is black and white, but maybe the shoes or the lips are just red. This is something that in the beginning you're like, wow, that's really cool, that's really interesting. And then your tastes change. And that's okay. In fact, I think it's great. Because creativity is simply your brain's ability to link two ideas together in your brain. And if you just simply did the same thing day in, day out, same idea, don't change it. Here we go, let's do this again. Then you are not being your best to be creative. I hope you enjoyed this one, to recap today's episode. I want to give you a photography action plan. That is three steps to help you achieve what it is that you learned here today. So, step number one in the photography action plan is to define your taste. Just brainstorm, sit down with a piece of paper and just think about in your head, what are the elements in a photograph that really resonate with you the most? You don't have to be looking at photos, just sit down and think about them. What are they? Write them down from visual style, themes, subject matter, whatever it is, just start to write them down. That list of qualities and characters is going to help. You, moving forward into step two, which is to cultivate your taste. Try to immerse yourself in works of photographers who inspire you. if you find something interesting online, on Instagram, honestly, take time to go to Flickr. Flickr is still such a huge treasure trove of photos that have been posted. You can find so many different types of photography there, but just, just by searching, you know? So find photographers who inspire you, and then spend time trying to analyze their images a bit, identifying what it is that specifically speaks to you. Then, create a set of guidelines or rules based on those common traits that you admire in other works, and the tastes that you wrote down, in the previous step. And then you can utilize those rules as a framework for your photography to align your style with your artistic preferences when shooting. And that's how it starts to build, which brings us to step three, which is to practice. With intention. So a lot of people say that they don't have enough time to practice. Oh, I don't have an hour every day to go out and shoot. I don't even know if I have an hour a week to practice photography. That's fine. You can get so much done in just 10 minutes, as long as you're practicing with intention. So, try to approach your next either photo shoot or photo walk with a specific objective or theme in mind. So define, what you aim to capture, or the emotions, or the story that you want to convey through your images based on the, this framework, this sheet, framework of, of your taste that you have created in the past two steps to, that you want to put into your images. Because practicing with deliberate intention, not only speeds up the process, but will help you to also better articulate what your visual style is and how to go after it while you are out shooting. Now, I want to invite you to share your biggest lesson from this interview, in the free and private beginner photography podcast community where you can connect with me and others, along with share your ideas and ask questions. So you can join again for free over at beginner photopod. com forward slash group. So come join us, and let us know what you're going to be implementing into your photography and get inspired. Until next week, remember the more that you shoot today, the better of a photographer you will be tomorrow. Talk soon. Thank you for listening to the Beginner Photography Podcast. Keep shooting and we'll see you next week.