Meet Chelsea and Ted and their sweet pup, Flora. We explored a lot of Cleveland the evening of their engagement photos, including Town Hall (where Chelsea and Ted met, and ironically my favorite Cleveland restaurant!), Mitchell's Ice Cream and my favorite bridge in The Flats. These two bleed Cleveland and it was so fun to see the city through their eyes. We really live in the coolest place. :)
A couple weeks ago, I was updating my website portfolio and I came to this realization. All my photos went together. They were consistent. They had a similar look and feel. I did a little dance around the room because I knew I had officially found my photography style.
When I wrote "find my photography style" on my 101 in 1001 list, I knew it was a tad ambiguous. I mean, there's just no measurable way to find your style, and I figured if I was lucky then MAYBE I would be happy with where I was at when my 101 list ended.
But over the past few months, I kept hearing myself telling Nathan, "I really like this photographer's work but his style is just so different than mine." Or, "If a bride tells me she wants dramatic lighting, I should send her to this photographer because I'm just not drawn to dramatic lighting." I knew these things all along, of course, but I was finally finding the courage to say out loud, "You know what? My style of photography is not for everyone. And I'm OK with that."
My photography style will continue to evolve as I continue to work in this industry, but the most important thing is to stay true to myself. To know what I like, what I want to create, what types of couples I am drawn to. If I know all of that and am brave enough to say no to the work that just doesn't fit my brand, well, I think I will be on to something.
