Are you growing as a photographer or artist?

Are you growing as a photographer or artist? I don’t mean physically I mean is your art becoming more mature and by mature I mean is it more complex, more thoughtfully laid out and executed. Could you have taken the same photograph or created the same piece of art a year ago? How about 5 years ago.

I frequently look back through my library of photographs and visually compare what I was taking last year and the years before to what I am taking today. If I see that I’m going backward rather than moving forward I challenge myself by getting outside my so-called comfort zone. Maybe a change of genres or technique. Maybe learn a new process in Photoshop or Lightroom. Rarely is it that I decide I need a new tool, although I did recently buy a piece of gear to allow me to learn something new.

It is easy to get into the habit of doing the same thing over and again. Sometimes it is good because you can hone that skill and continue to improve and mature as a photographer/artist. Sometimes it is not good because you continue to do the same thing over and over and over, never moving to the next level. When you realize you’re really not moving forward but rather doing the same thing because it is comfortable it is time to force a change.

I’m in that process now. I want to move toward creating more fine art, but in the past, I got caught up in getting into photo sessions just because and then not expressing myself creatively but generating the same old work because that is what others wanted. It didn’t pay well enough to be financially beneficial, hell sometimes it didn’t pay at all but cost me. Then came the request for more than initially agreed upon, so more work. Today, I take what I want and produce it for myself. It may sound selfish and self-centered but to truly be creative I must first satisfy myself.