Shoot What You Love, Love What You Shoot

Photography Quotes

This month quote is true on so many levels. It’s not only about photography but about life and my love affair with photography. 

Photography and life are so intertwined I can’t help myself from falling in love once I’ve put a frame around it.

Mementos and Journeys

Of course on the surface photography is about life. It’s a medium that creates slices of life unfolding in front of us. And so it is always about life in some form or other.

There’s no other medium that’s so intricate and detailed in showing us the wonder of being human and alive on this planet. At its best, photography touches and connects us on a deeply human level.

Photography leaves mementos of loved and lost ones, of places we’ve never been, and of times we’ve not lived. It takes us on journeys from growing life inside us to planets we can’t even see.

We’re left breathless when it shares love, passion, devotion, and connection.

And shocked to our core when it shows us the horrible things humans can do to each other and our planet.

A Photo is a Photo

It’s the essence of what I love about photography. The dance with life and the effort to somehow translate the experience of what it means to be alive. And that’s another level. Photography translates or should translate what it means to be alive. To be here on this planet. Today at this moment.

It’s a wide misconception that photography is about registering reality.

Or worse, that the photo is the reality. It never ever is. To put it simply, a photo is a photo. It’s not reality. And as such it’s a new reality. On its own.

The moment you pick up your camera and see through the viewfinder you leave stuff in and out deliberately. That act alone whether you’re a pro photographer or a selfie addict creates a new reality. At best it creates your reality.

Shoot with Intent

We’re filtering. The same thing happens when we pick up a camera. We’re seeing what attracts us and we’re leaving out the things we’re not attracted to.

It’s one of the first things I teach my students.

Find out what you love, what delights you, what attracts you, what grabs you, what excites you.

Once you know that it’s easier to take a picture that tells a story.

You have to discover what makes you tick before you click the shutter.

This is important from a meta perspective as in what makes you tick in general.

But also from a micro perspective. Every time you pick up your camera you need to ask yourself what is it in this scene that makes me tick. Why do I want to make this photo? Once you’ve discovered that you see through your filter, your rose-colored glasses.

And yes, it’s supposed to be that subjective. Photography is YOUR love affair with YOUR life.

Ultimately you need to shoot what you love and love what you shoot. Always. Because when you shoot with love and intent your soul will shine through.