Assignment 2 – Inspiration

[Nardia Buist]

I remember as a small child about 8 years old my mum purchased an Anne Geddes calendar, I remember looking through the calendar and loving the images. One image in particular stood out to me and I think that is where my passion for photography came from. It was the photograph of the infant in a large bed of roses with that ever so cheeky grin, I think this has always made me want to create beautiful images and capture the innocence of young children and infants. I have followed Anne’s work on and off over the years.

When I first picked up my D-SLR it seemed that I was drawn to photographing babies and infants, having 4 infant and 2 newborn photoshoots already under my belt (with another newborn shoot any day now), I know I still have a long way to go. I love the uniqueness of Anne’s images, each image tells a different story, I find that a lot of newborn image trends nowdays have the babies in the same poses with similar wraps, outfits and backdrops. While I don’t like to copy another artists images, I would definitely like to experiment with my own uniqueness once I feel confident as a photographer.

The fact that Anne started her photography career a bit later in life shows that you don’t always have to have previous experience to make it big in the world and I love the quote on her bio which is located on her website http://www.annegeddes.com “Over the next few months I began to discover how passionate I was about photography, and knew I never wanted to do anything else”. I really feel that this quote fits my experience so far, once I picked up my camera and really started to learn how to use it I knew I never wanted to put it down. I also started out a career as a commercial pilot, however the lack of pilot jobs lead me to look into other fields. I also find it very encouraging that Anne started her major photography career in New Zealand where I live, now she is a world renowned photographer.

I have to admit that I gather my inspiration from many photographers and not just Anne Geddes, another photographer I admire is Heather Ellis http://heatherellis-photography.com/ . Heather is actually an old high school friend of mine who started out her photography career with no formal training. She has now moved into the wedding photography field and I remember admiring the vibrancy of her images, as well as the sometimes different lighting effects she uses, well before I had clicked as to who she was. Weddings are not necessarily the area I want to get into but I love the clean feel to her images with the very bright colours really makes her work stand out.

I don’t necessarily wish to limit myself to photographing infants and babies, at this point I am enjoying the discovery photography is leading me into. I love to take portraits of people in general; I have completed a few photoshoots with friends and will be photographing my first engagement photoshoot of some close friends of ours in the near future. I also love taking photos of nature, as well as beautiful landscapes, I feel that there is beauty in everything and I love to capture everything to show that.

[Duncan Rawlinson]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on what inspires you. This is the kind of lesson that is worth revisiting from time to time. It makes you really think about what you’re doing with your photos and why.

I was not familiar with the work of the work of either of the photographers that you mentioned but after a bit of Googling around I was really impressed with them.

One thing I like most about your post here is that not only do you have an area of interest already but you are also open to exploration.

For more inspiration you can always check out Pinterest or your favorite photo sharing sites.

If you’re looking for some fun things to photograph yourself or just need ideas for things to photograph take a look at this exhaustive list of things and themes to photograph.

Do you have a website already? If so please let me know what it is so I can include it in the student directory. Even if it’s just a facebook page or twitter let me know. If not I can help you with that as well if you’d like.

Keeping yourself inspired is a great way to keep it fun and always enjoy your work.

See you on the next assignment.

Great job!

[Duncan Rawlinson]

One more thing I should mention is that you if you want you can always do your assignments over email if you don’t want to post them here.

Many students prefer to correspond over email.

Either way it’s up to you.

Thanks!

[Author]

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