The Ones I Like List of 2012 [#7]
©2012 Katya Horner
Shades of Happy, Shades of Calm. I’ve always felt painfully behind in this profession I’ve chosen — Professional Photographer. I think I never quite understood what it meant, that job description. Reading photography forums online or listening to experts in the field, I was led to believe that to be a professional photographer, you need to do a lot of things, and chief among them – you need to specialize.
Newbies, I’m here to tell you, you just need to create photos that you like and that your clients like. It pretty much starts and ends there. You need to approach your profession with shades of happy and shades of calm because…if you build it they will come. The key is to build it. Don’t be paralyzed by doing things wrong, just do. And, of course, learn what you need to learn. That always helps. But remember — photos that you like and that your clients like….that’s it. That’s all there is.
For five years I tried to specialize, always unsuccessfully. My heart isn’t in specialization. It’s in taking photos – of nature, of people, of events. I go by Slight Clutter and chose this thing called “photography” because I love having the camera in my hand and I have a lot of interests, and there’s nothing about specialization that is copacetic when held up against the plans I have for myself. You can do it all if you want to. I do. And I’m just a girl who likes taking photos and who is lucky enough to do it for a living.
I chose Shades of Happy, Shades of Calm because it so perfectly embodies how I feel about photography. It makes me happy and it calms me. For too long I let my worry about being the “right” kind of photographer infringe upon that joy and peace that photography brings me. As I enter 2013, I think that’s pretty much behind me. I’m confident now that I can do a lot of different things for a lot of different clients who have a lot of different needs, and that’s one hell of a good feeling.
I also like the photo for the pretty colors.
