Glass Eyes Chapter 8 Sneak Peek
August 4, 2021
Tiffany Bumgardner
Can you believe another month has gone by! 2021 is just cruising along and being more than half way over the panic for me should be setting in. I keep telling myself I am going to release this book early 2022 even though I am still revising and I have so much left to do!!!!
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As a welcome to August enjoy this months sneak peek into chapter 8.
So as I go against the grain, the masses of photographers who all have believe differently in-regards to what makes someone a professional photographer I will say that niching is more a matter of finding the area of photography that makes you come alive.
Many photographers believe that you can not be considered a professional unless your entire income is derived through photographic earnings, but I believe you are a professional photographer when you believe you are.
I believe you are a photographer when you can identify your strengths and weaknesses, when you make consistent growth, and if you love to work in this field. Part of being a truly successful photographer is seeing what others do, learning from them, and growing and developing your own style and ways.
My own journey consisted of learning new aspects of the field such as posed photography vs natural photographic moments. Which you should know for me means I prefer natural moments to posed moments, part of being a truly successful photographer to me means seeing what others do not and that has always been an area I have personally excelled. I love the fluidity of natural movements a person makes versus the slight stiffness that can be apparent in posed settings.
In fact many of my best images were not posed and the subjects rarely were aware the images were even being made. The natural raw emotion in these photos are more powerful and compelling than those of posed images where emotional instruction was given.
I shoot so many live performances, rodeos, and events that the idea of having time for posed photography boggles my mind and yet I find late a night while scrolling instagram that I compare myself to photographers who only pose their subjects. I also find myself wondering what they would capture if at an event with me, I become curious how they see the same moments playing out and how they would capture them on film, how their work would compare side by side to my own.
And that is one of the most spectacular parts of photography. Two photographers can stand in the same room, capture the same moment and the images can be infinitely different because no two photographers see the same way, no two photographers shoot the same way, and not a single one of us edits our images the same way either.
Chapter 8: Who are you? As a Photographer... Glass Eyes: A Photographers Journey by Tiffany Bumgardner