Motivation

A lot of people I know like to shoot together. I myself love going out with friends and shooting. Having another person with you can really help you to expand your creativity. Another person may be in the same place as you are and see the same things you see, but the images they come back with may be totally different. Some may be better, some may be worse, but the experience of experimenting with angles and compositions, and seeing what works and what doesn’t is what will make a photographer grow.

However, as awesome it may be to hang out with friends and shoot pictures at the same time, it’s even more important to shoot alone. When you have a job at a newspaper, odds are that you’re not going to go out on assignment with your friends. You alone are going to be responsible for motivating yourself to go out and shoot. I’m not talking about walking downtown and shooting for an hour. Around the photo office and during workshops I hear a lot about people going on crazy adventures in search of pictures, but sometimes I wonder if those people would make the same mile-long drive if they had to do it by themselves.

As I was watching Lexington Herald-Leader photographer Charles Bertram’s 2007 year in review, I couldn’t help but notice how many of his shots were not from Lexington, but from the surrounding (and sometimes not-so-surrounding) counties. This just proves that you have to be self-driven to go searching high and low for features. (Note: I don’t at all know the circumstances in which these photos were shot. He could have been on assignment during every singe one, but if that’s true then it doesn’t prove my point very well, so I’m going to ignore it.)