Keep your blade sharp

Sunday, August 29, 2010 4:57 PM Posted by Hikari Studio 1 comments



It has been an interesting summer. While I have enjoyed a lot of success and positive feedback in my work I have also come to the realization I've started to take a lazy approach to continuing this momentum, instead choosing to ride upon the success of past work instead of continually setting sights on new projects, study and improvements.

The positive attention only lasts for so long, especially when you stop putting out new work and being involved in the community. Ironically I've always known that as a photographer you need to get out there and find opportunities, not just sit on your ass and wait for them to come to you. Certainly, that's not much of an option with the active community photography has gained over the past few years.Being stubborn, or ignorant, your pick, it's something I lost a bit of awareness of.

You can't improve if you do not go out there and practice. You need to continually shoot, even on days you don't feel particularly compelled to. We all get creative block but it's important to go out and try new things, meet new people and test your skills. You fail some days and succeed others but in the end, whatever the result you come away with an experience that helps shape your photography and moves it one step forward. Little by little, there are no big leaps forward but small steps that take a lot of work and dedication.

It's important to take those baby steps even if you don't feel you have much to gain. Eventually it catches up with you and you'll realized every missed shoot is a missed opportunity.

This is the part I like


It's been a while hasn't it. Summer will do that. Life takes off after spring. Shoots, BBQs, patios and friends. I suppose it can't all be work, especially when were all locked away in a blizzard almost 6 months of the year.

I have a number of ongoing projects this summer but sadly have stayed away from the computer whenever I could, due in part to the weather and in part to the heat. Because of that, updates have been a little slow. I'll be back in full force come September though.

As for late, it's been a drive to work on my wedding photography. Everything from lighting to composition to post processing needs a lot of work as far as I'm concerned. It's never ending and sometimes we get too caught up in it.

I ended up creating a slideshow of a recent wedding I did, fired it up on the big screen and immediately noticed that my TV is no where near calibrated, especially when compared to my monitors. The pictures were way over saturated, blown out and over sharpened on the TV. Regardless, I kept on watching. I found, it gave me a chance to look past the cosmetics and enjoy the core aspects.

We tend to be our own worst critics. It's nice when we get a chance to take a step back and silence that part of us, if even for a little while.