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What Inspires Me? | A Club Click Course

if we all stood together and looked at the same subject with the same camera and the same lens, we would all see something totally different. to me, that’s the beauty of photography. we are all inspired by something different and our inspiration is the key to our photography style. my photos are typically inspired by imperfection, light + real life.

imperfection: have you ever flipped through your mom + dad’s photo albums? the grainy 4×6 photos that they printed from when they were little or from when you were little? chances are, many of them are out of focus, there’s probably quite a few where people’s eyes are closed and perhaps even some that are so grainy that you can hardly make out what’s in the photo? those photos are my largest inspiration. with the digital age, we push for perfection because we can instantaneously view what we capture. we can take a photo, put it on our computer, edit it, and post it to a social media within 10 minutes. however, with film, like those old 4×6’s, you snapped the photo and then had to wait until you snapped through the roll of film and then you had to wait to get the film developed before you could view what you captured. this led to many prints with imperfections and imperfections are my favorite. below is a photo i captured of my daughter in her room. she was dancing and while i ended up with a ton of cute dancing images, the image that i caught mid blink is my favorite. some may delete it and move on, but i edited it, posted it, and printed it.

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light: light is a huge photography inspiration for me because i am really particular about what light i shoot in. but when i find the light i’m looking for, it’s hard to get me to stop shooting. i’m always looking for the soft, natural light adjacent from the windows. i practically squeal with delight when i find ‘the light’ in my clients homes. in my home, my youngest daughter’s rocking chair is where i can always count on finding dreamy light so i shoot there frequently. now, this isn’t to say that i don’t ever experiment with my light, but you can bet that if i find soft, dreamy light, i’m going to immediately grab my camera.

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real life: as a lifestyle photographer, i’m obviously expected to shoot candidly and embrace real moments. luckily, real moments are also my favorite moments. when photographing my children especially, i prefer to just grab my camera and shoot what’s actually going on vs posing them or setting them up a certain way. i never push a child to ‘look + smile’ or ‘say cheese.’ instead, i’d rather just snap photos of them being them. even if it’s them being a persnickety version of themselves like the photo of my daughter below. a pouting session might be a time when another photographer puts their camera away with the intention to try again later, but for me, i’m inspired by the pout. she won’t always pout the way she does now so i need to document it while i can.

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as a photographer, what inspires you? what is it that drives you to quickly grab your camera and get to snapping? i challenge you to keep your camera close to you so that when the inspiration strikes, you’re ready to shoot and can truly shoot to your inspiration. don’t forget to post your images to social media using the hashtag #ClubClickPic! i can’t wait to see your images.

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