Next Steps
A question that someone asked me recently that’s really got me thinking is…”What’s the next step?” A simple enough question yet not so easy to answer. There’s a part of me that just says to keep on doing what I’m doing and another part of me that knows that I need to take my photography to the next level. But how do you do that? and what does the “next level” mean in terms of photography? Is it a shift in style? Or perhaps a step up in quality?
So this weekend I’ve setup a shoot in order to figure that out. I’ve told the model that I’ll be playing with a lot of different things in an attempt to try to figure out just what that “next level” means. And more importantly what it’s going to look like. One thing I do know is that it isn’t a style change. I think it’s going to have something to do with better manipulation of the camera and learning better techniques for light management. As opposed to changing my artistic style.
As I know more I’ll be able to write more about it.
I’ve faced the same thing myself multiple times… people like your work, but inside you know you can do much better. For me at least the next step was learning studio lighting.. I started with one strobe that was given to me by a studio I did some work for… and I landed up getting a ringflash on my own shortly after. In the end though, its not the tools that make the photo… it’s the photographer and your ability to compose and direct the model…. so just experimenting is definitely the right approach.