I started a series on my YouTube channel not too long ago about the Philosophy of Photography. It seems like good art requires good thinking, so I started the series as a way of thinking through how I do my own work. And it’s really been helpful to distill my thoughts on my own art. I hope it helps someone else, too!
That Darn Bridge
It all started when Keeley moved back to San Angelo. We wanted to do a quick shoot, and the Lone Wolf Bridge is very close to my studio in San Angelo. If you’ve ever seen pictures from San Angelo, though, you’ve probably seen the Lone Wolf Bridge. EVERYBODY shoots there. As a result, I generally try to avoid it.
As I was complaining about shooting there, Keeley asked me why I didn’t like shooting at the Lone Wolf Bridge. And “everybody in San Angelo shoots here” wasn’t a good enough reason for her. So I had to do some soul searching as I though of ways to shoot her on the bridge in a way that wasn’t just like every other portrait I’d ever seen there. This is the shot everybody get’s on the Lone Wolf Bridge:
The Reason
And while we were doing the shoot, I realized what I didn’t like about shooting things the way everyone else does. A photographer’s job is to present the world from a different perspective than what you’ve already seen. I can already see the world through my perspective, and other photographers have shown me the world through their perspectives. Now I want to see something new. Or, more accurately, I want to see something in a new way. And that’s the photographer’s job. The photographer is successful when you, the viewer of the image, see the world differently than you did before.
Seeing Differently
So I used a lens you probably wouldn’t think to use on a portrait shoot (which I reviewed on my YouTube Channel). I shot from an angle that you maybe wouldn’t think to. And we even shot underneath the bridge instead of on top of it. Here’s some examples.
The Strategy
So after the shoot, I thought I’d boil down how I created more unique images, and I put the best few in a video. Enjoy!
