The search for style

Photography is one of those things that everyone loves and cherishes. You don`t have to be a photographer to appreciate it. Good scenery, posters with colours that give the picture different moods or a particular type of lighting that stirs an emotion. The vast majority of people and in fact a vast majority of photographers, can`t tell exactly how such an emotion is brought out from them. I don`t want to sound like a snob and say that I do. In fact I don`t! Rarely do I find myself in situations that give me enough time to think about all these variables. Its only when we give each photo individual attention in the processing stage when we actually think about these things, and we take back what we have learnt into the field. This is why experience is such a crucial factor.

It was the National geographic that started me off on photography. I`d spend hours looking through pictures and wondering what an amazing job it would be to go to all these places and capture them for everyone to appreciate their beauty. To me, photography was an art that opened my eyes to a world. Calm get aways and fierce mountains, culture, people, no place was unfamiliarlu distant. Soothing rivers and green trees or white snow on the peaks of mountains. It was magical and sometimes, painful when I thought of how near they seemed and how far away they really are.

My camera was the first purchase I made on both my ebay account, and my credit card and its been almost two years into photography. The question now is where to now. I`ve gone through these stages and each time you go out and take photos, you learn a little more. About the physics in photography (albeit subconsciously) or about yourself. All the time you spent editing photos and reworking old ones or simply spending your time looking through flickr for photos that are absolutely stunning, each photo taking you through the stages of becoming who you are as a photographer.

And then there is also the other side to the coin. The photography that you absolutely dislike, a certain style or emotion that you hate to evoke, something is off with the photo. Despite its immense appreciation by others, you find that it is not to your liking. There's nothing wrong with that. Those are the bold photographers who went beyond the cliche stage and there are people that will criticize it for its non-mainstream perspective and then others that will marvel at its beauty. Its really a style and taste thing. And the more you immerse yourself into the world of photography, the more you realise what your style is. For example, take a look at my favourites on flickr here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/arveyunni/favorites/. You`ll notice that most of them are very low in saturation (with the exception of my favourite colours blue and green to some extent) or are scenic shots of mountains and rivers. These are the photos that inspire me and I try to imitate a lot of the styles found among these photographs.

With time, we develop our own style that consists of a backbone structure of all those amazing images that inspired me and bring me back to view them again and again... But that is the beauty behind learning. Soon, you realise that through those photos and through the search for yourself in those photographs, you have imitated not just a style but also a bit of the persons personality. Such is the power of inspiration.




I`ve always felt that photography or any other art for that matter is simply a matter of practice and learning. I think like most things, talent is developed through constant effort by the individual. We see it as talent because to that person, everything just clicked and its usually the case that the more we learn to appreciate our own work, the better we get at it. It is experience that makes us better at what we do though. The power of the subconscious knowledge can only be developed through this and more than often, we need that knowledge to capture certain kinds of moments.

One day I will look back at this post and really wonder whether or not I really went through these stages. For the rest of you that are reading this, perhaps it is your turn to tell me how close I actually am to getting a consistent style.