Finding Your Voice

Finding Your Voice, it’s a term that gets thrown around within creative disciplines a lot isn’t it. And photography is no exception, in fact we have a day workshop called just this. We ran another one this week, and it’s made me think about a few things, as a few recurring conversations happen every time we run them.

You’ve probably heard a lot about finding your why, a buzz term at the moment, but one we keep coming back to. We like a good Ted Talk like the next person, and you may have already seen the Simon Sinek’s Start With Why, if you want to watch it again, here’s the link. I got goosebumps when I first watched this with a marketing mentor a few years ago. And it’s something we share with our retreaters and workshoppers too. “People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it.” He repeats it, and I can often hear his voice saying it.

On our workshops, we’ve had so many conversations about Instagram, curating our feeds, and the mythical beast that is the algorithm. I know I’ve posted photos that I think fit the criteria, seen the little red hearts beating before my eyes, my dopamine fix sated, for now, until I crave that next hit. And then a feeling of hollowness. Because I didn’t really FEEL that photo in the first place. I’m trying to quiet that voice that says, in a bit of a high pitched Yorkshire accent, ‘Ooooo, that’ll look nice on the grid’.

Why are we taking the photos we are taking? Who are they for? Surely, ultimately they’re for us. Only when we feel something in our images, will our viewers feel it too.

If something catches your eye, don’t overthink it. Take it. Show it. If we’re drawn to a pile of toys lit by the sunlight in the corner of the room, or a peg on the washing line glistening with rain, take it, and try and stop that niggle that might start questioning if it’s ‘right’ or not. We felt something just before we pressed the shutter. If it makes you feel something - BINGO! Surely that’s all that matters, and not creating something we think people want to see. People want to see you.

Let’s ditch perfection.

We’ve had a few people messaging us this week saying that they feel in a creative slump. Sometimes it’s a push to pick up your camera, it’s as if all our muscles in our body are conspiring against us to create, due to fear of failure. But these times of resistance are the times I encourage you to pick it up the most, if you feel you can. The camera can sometimes become a conduit to what you want to say with your images, and a rope ladder to bring you out. When I feel most stuck, I look at an object, say a bowl of fruit, and think about how I can take 10 different photos of it. Setting the scene with a wide shot to show it in the environment, and then a close up of a detail, maybe the stalk on an apple. I’lll try different light and perspectives, maybe holding one in my hand, and if I’m feeling energetic enough, maybe set the camera up on a tripod, set it onto a long exposure, and put myself in the frame walking behind the bowl to create motion blur. When I set myself to do something like this, it nearly always shakes me out of a slump, and gets me thinking about all those things I want to do, and maybe spark a few more ideas too.

We wondered if you’d like to do a week long project, making a commitment to pick the camera up at the same time each day for the next 7 days, that hopefully is manageable? As our monthly Stories Of The Everyday theme is HOME, we thought we could base it around that. When you have a theme, or limit yourself in this way to a time or word, (or even a combination of the two), it can lead to stronger images. If you’d like to join in please hashtag your images on Instagram with #storiesoftheeveryday_home if you want to show them. And I guess we’re all trying to bring it back home, to find what is right there inside, the gems that make our work, and our viewpoints unique.

It feels quite pertinent that Instagram are trialling hiding likes on posts in some countries. We’d love to hear from you if you’re in one of those countries, has it influenced what you’re showing or want to show in the future? I think it’d be great to roll it out here too.

So, are you in? Will you join us for the next 7 days? Just pick a time of day when you think it’ll be most convenient to capture a photo that symbolises home (maybe set an alarm on your phone). We hope it’s a gentle way of just picking your camera up each day to create, and if you feel those niggles, we’re here to encourage you to push through it, and take those photos that make you feel something. Let’s get creating!

We’re going to be running another Finding Your Voice retreat day in October. If you’re interested in joining us, please send us an email to express your interest and you’ll be the first to hear about the next date - info@sarahmasonphotography.co.uk.

For now, we hope you have a lovely weekend, and have fun creating!

If you're in the mood for a bit more reading, I wrote a post last year about not being able to please everyone. If you’ve got a cup of tea on the go, and you want to put your feet up for a few more minutes, here’s the link.

Where do you Keep Your Photographs?

When I lived in London, I probably didn’t visit home as much as I should have done, but when I did, there were a few things I could always rely on. The temperature dropping by a few degrees whilst travelling up the M1, my sister moving more stuff into my old room (the slow take over), and a roast dinner on the Sunday before I set off back down south. And then another routine started on one of these visits.  After the plates were cleared, washed and dried, Mum would open the dresser and out came the old family photos. Kept in a 70’s Quality Street tin, I still love the sound of the lid being lifted, and the rustle of the photo packets inside, like a lucky dip, which era were we going to pick out first? Will it be the 80’s Franki Says T-Shirts phase, holidays on windy Scottish beaches, building dens in the woods, or would we go further back to when Mum and Dad were growing up?

Over the years, the photos have been even more mixed up, which adds to the surprise element of this little ritual. All the ‘best’ photos have made it into frames on the walls, or displayed on bookshelves and the mantlepiece. But it’s the snap shots in the tin I love the most. Not technically perfect in anyway, but just shots of us on location in places we visited, and almost always looking straight at the camera. Mum had a terrible habit of cutting Dad’s head off in the frame when she was the designated photographer, and there are a collection of these shots too, like little gems amongst the muddle of photos. Mum always has the tin on her knee and passes us the photos. I can always tell when she’s picked up one of the ‘where’s Dad’s head?!’ shots, as her face scrunches up and she lets out a laugh! It’s not even about the photos maybe, it’s about these predictable, yet cosy moments that bring us together as a family.

I know so many of us say how much we should print our photos, and it sometimes takes a bit of effort to do this. We have just had some photos printed and we’re going to be going to our framers soon to get the first images of me Suze and Olive on our walls. And for all the other shots we’ve taken over the past 7 months, we’re going to create albums and print out a bunch of 6x4s. We’re just going to print them so we have something tangible. The thought of Olive sitting there with an old tin on her knee passing them around to her family is such a strange thought right now, but this is why we want to do it. For us to enjoy them now, but to provide those moments in the future where she can just stop for a while and take a look at them with her loved ones.

On one of our visits a couple of years ago, me and Suzi wondered if we could make our own photos wallet, so our families can take away this tangible product from their shoot. We launched our photo wallet last year, we love it so much. It’s a trip down nostalgic lane, for those of us who grew up on taking our films in to be developed, but also provides that tactile product for a family to hold. Maybe some of them will make it into frames, or maybe they’ll stay in their wallet to be looked at over the years.

Do you have a place where you keep your printed photos? Are there any more Quality Street tins out there stuffed with photos? We’d love to hear where you keep them, and how you display them.

Not wanting to be outdone, Dad showed Suzi a few of his favourite photos he’s taken of trees over the years.

As it’s Sunday, hows about getting those photos out and taking a look together after lunch, or maybe making a promise to yourselves to print a few in the next few weeks?

Here’s a blog post you might like, Don’t Let Your Images Grow Up To Be Jegs, written by Jonas Peterson

We’ve created a Pinterest board with a few ideas on ways to display your photos in your home.

And if you’d like to see more about our portrait packages and our photo wallet, here’s a link to that page.

Projects

Have you ever rolled your eyes when somebody’s said to you, ‘oh you must see this Ted Talk about xxxx?’ Well try and keep those eyes still a minute!

‘We need to first be limited, in order to become limitless’. This has really stuck with me since I saw the Ted Talk from Phil Hansen all about his creative journey. You can see the talk here (it really is good), but an abridged version is that he used to do very fine pointillism art work, until he developed a shake in his hand. He thought his artistic path was closed, and then a doctor told him to embrace the shake. From this, he started experimenting with art work he’d never thought about before, but found it most exciting when he limited himself within these projects. We talk about this on our retreats. It’s good to have those restrictions when you’re doing a series of shots, it makes it stronger. As we know from our own experience, personal projects feed into your work. We’ve realised that actually we should be giving these SO much more time and emphasis. If we ever come to a crossroads, or hit a bit of a slump, it’s good to have a few project ideas to kickstart your creativity and inspiration.

So next time you hit overwhelm with the possibilities of all the images you could or should take,  these 5 project ideas might help you, or maybe spark an idea for you.

1. A Year Of Mornings. My friend Hannah bought me this gem of a book for my birthday a few years ago. It’s a beautiful collection of shots taken by friends Maria Alexandra Vettesse and Stephanie Congdon Barnes over the course of a year. 3191 miles separate them, in 2006 they started a visual conversation and took a photo a day to document their mornings, and did this for a year. There’s such a simplicity to the shots, and in this, so much beauty. So many of the images have such striking resemblances, a bond that defies the miles between them. Their blog and subsequent book were so popular, they have completed another 2 books since this one. If you feel you can’t commit to a year, maybe just do it for a week or a month and team up with one of your friends, or maybe some of your Instagram connections. Maybe take a photo at the same time every morning, with the same lens, or even with your phone. We set this at the end of our retreats for 7 days, and I love seeing themes cropping up or similar tones that a group of people are drawn to on the same day.

2. The word game. Team up with somebody else and come up with a series of words. I did this a few years ago with 2 photographer friends (one in Switzerland, the other in Scotland). We called it Three Photographers, Three Countries, Three Weeks. We limited ourselves to just take shots with our phones and gave ourselves a word a day. I loved seeing all our different interpretations, and also some of the similarities that happened too during our individual days. You can see our first week here on my now very old blog (complete with the old branding!). It’s making me want to try something like this again.  Our first week of words were  Light, Wild, Tree, Sky, Lines, Eat & Cosy. If you wanted to do this by yourself, I sometimes pick up a book, randomly pick up a page, and with my eyes closed, point at a word. I then try and take photos based around this word all day, or for the next hour when I go on a walk.

3. Shoot From The Hip. This is more of an exercise than a project, but it could lead to a series of hip shots! I do this if I feel a bit frustrated, and a bit stuck. It’s very freeing! Have your camera resting on your hip, held by the strap over your shoulder. And just press the shutter when you feel there’s something happening in front of you. You don’t look through the viewfinder, and that’s the comfort zone bit stretched. You’re not quite sure of the focus, although you can guess your distance away from the subject you’re taking with the aperture you’ve chosen. You can see a series of shots I did here on market day around Hebden Bridge a couple of years ago. And here’s a collection I took the other day down at The Piece Hall in Halifax. I was really drawn to the shadows and movement.

4. A 365 project, taking a photo a day for a year. This is quite a commitment. I did it a few years ago and some days were really hard! I guess with any project you decide to do, the key is to be gentle with yourself. Or maybe do a 52 project. Commit to take 1 photo a week (maybe at the same time every week) and think about how you might be present this after a year, maybe in a blog or book?

5. Take one object and think of 5 different ways to photograph it. So say it was a cup of tea (I know, I’m obsessed!), maybe take it from different angles. Take it from above, so a different perspective to maybe how you’d normally take it, frame something through the handle, shoot into the light and show the steam, maybe put the camera on self timer and get into the frame holding your cuppa? You could do this once a week over a period of time. You get my drift! Or maybe get in the frame yourself too? A few years ago now, I took a series of self portraits from inside domestic appliances…

At this point, I wanted to mention a few of our Instagram friends who are in the midst of projects at the moment and I’m sure, like us, you’ll find them inspiring too. Zoe Wittering is in the throes of a 365 project that she has hashtagged #before8h48. She’s 7 weeks into the project, taking a photo every day before this time. She’s posting them in her stories if you’d like to follow her journey. I was chatting with Zoe the other day and she told me she ran a course all about personal projects in January, and is hoping to run it again in the future.

Rachel from Little Robin Photography has just started her #adayaweek2019 project. She was craving to take more photos of her own family, so will be turning the camera on documenting her life for one day a week this year. We can’t wait to see the results! You can follow her on Instagram here and read all about her project in her blog post here.

Laura from Baby Picture This has just written about her project #weekofmoments (which turned into 2 weeks!) ‘Let's not look for the big moments or the amazing light or the picture perfect stuff, I said to myself, just pick up the damn camera when you can’. You can see Laura’s blog post about her project here.

Instagram has some great communities that offer weekly/monthly themes. Instagram itself has themes every weekend. One of our favourites is It’s My Week with its weekly themes and shares. Look out also for themes from Tales Of The Moment and Candid Childhood. Or if you’ve been following our Stories of the Everyday hashtag, we’re now doing monthly challenges too. March’s theme is GROWTH, to be interpreted how you’d like. #storiesoftheeveryday_growth.

Having a project or theme to work towards can really help take those icky overwhelm feelings out of the equation. Having a theme can often really help make that shift, get your finger on the shutter, and get you feeling creative.

I’m currently working on 2 projects and I’m excited about both of them, and once I start talking about it, it makes me accountable too. So you may have seen my Tea For Two project on Instagram where I sit down with a friend every week, have a brew and a chat, and take photos. The other project that I’ve been working on is called The Kitchen Table, as I’ve become fascinated how these spaces have become so much more than just a place to eat.

We love working with people to find their core, their essence as a photographer. From this, themes and projects can be developed and your style, and tone will shine. Now then, which project are you going to go for? Ours are just suggestions, we’d love to hear any you’ve done or are in the process of doing.