You gotta have Vision!

I often remind myself (and my students) that to be a good photographer/artist you have to have vision. Sure we are drawn to works of art for many different reasons – the color is beautiful, the composition is interesting, and the subject matter is unique – but really all those things are encompassed in a little something called VISION. We all know artists and photographers copy each other. I have definitely done it. They see something cool and they want to learn how to do it themselves. It is actually a great way to learn. That’s the way they did it back in the day…the whole apprentice-master model. But, I think often we get caught up in the “cool” aspect of certain styles and our vision of our own work gets lost. I read a blurb on Dave DuChemin’s blog about this very topic. I liked the way he discussed this dilemma (if you want to call it a dilemma). His link is below if you want to read about it. To sum up…I think it is great to educate yourself about how different artists accomplishe their styles/way of creating…but don’t forget YOUR own vision. It can be a struggle…one that I definitely have to work on. I just have to ask myself….what do I really want to accomplish out of this image and what tools/techniques can get me there. Dave DuChemin’s blog is HERE if you read all about what I just discussed…read the Feb. 09th post!