by Columbus, Ohio Photographer Shannon Williams
Early winter months like January/February tend to be the time when most wedding photographers re-tool their websites and re-structure their business approach for the coming wedding season. This has certainly been the case for me so far in 2009, along with editing late 2008 weddings and booking new 2009/2010 clients, of course. But in the midst of all this busy-ness, I’ve found my creative discipline lacking. Like any other creative-pursuit-turned-business, the business of photography can sometimes crowd-out the creative interests that first sparked the idea of even pursuing it as business. That being the case, I’ve decided one of my daily disciplines for the new year will be a 15-minute shoot-out. Just me and my camera for 15 minutes, shooting for the mere pleasure of it, and crafting images that interest me artistically. My goal everyday is to shoot subject matter that is immediately accessible – around the house or studio. Since this narrows the field of available subjects, it forces me to see mundane, common objects from a different point of view. This is a great artistic challenge for a wedding photographer, because some of the best moments that happen on a given wedding day are unscripted – and can be missed entirely if you’re not “seeing” them more than one-dimensionally.
So far, this has proven to be more difficult than I imagined – primarily because it can be tough to turn off the commercial-mindedness that drives and builds a photography business. Regardless, I do find my creative batteries being re-charged by taking time to shoot some of the simple things you see here. I love detail when it comes to photography, so even shooting a bent bottle cap or a textured, dried flower can be fun. I’m sure as the weeks and months progress, I’ll shoot more than just macro images – but for now it’s a good place to start. I’ll be posting some of my favorites here, for you to enjoy as well. And I hope that whatever your creative interest may be, you might find some inspiration here to push the boundaries of what you do artistically.
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