Storytellers

It's been quite some time since my last post...it's not that I didn't have anything to post, it's that I've been wrestling with what to post first. So bear with me...

Someone said to me recently that as a photographer in Dubai, you have to photograph anything, everything and everyone. To succeed you have to be a product photographer, a studio photographer, a lifestyle photographer (babies, families, etc), corporate, business, environmental, fashion, food, the list goes on and on. Take any and every job that comes your way. Get hit down on your pricing structure because here in Dubai negotiation is a way of life. Say yes to a shoot just to get a shoot, even if you're not even covering costs. Say yes to everything......

That was me until a little while back, but I wasn't particularly enjoying what I was doing. That's because I hadn't found the style of photography I was comfortable with. I was chopping and changing all the time to suit everyone else needs and wants. Saying yes to everything.....
It's like being made to drive different cars all the time. You know how to drive a car. You know what the steering wheel, clutch, accelerator, brake, gearshift are all used for. You know how the car works. What make it go and what makes it stop. How to balance clutch and accelerator. Like balancing aperture, shutter, ISO. You know how it all works. Like when using flash - shutter speed determines ambient exposure, aperture determines flash exposure. All of that.
But you're so busy getting out from one car into the next that you actually never get comfortable. Changing seat positions, height, steering wheel reach and rake. The same amount of travel on one accelerator makes a certain car go faster that the next.

What about getting out and walking....? Or actually saying, "No thanks, this is the one I want to drive for the rest of my life. This is the one I choose." Finding what you're comfortable with and sticking with it. Building on it and subtly evolving it. But it's yours. You own it, you know it, you are comfortable with it. Because it speaks of who you are. It tells your story. And because you know it, you can use it to become the storyteller for other people....

That's who we are as photographers, in my opinion. Storytellers. We use our style, our God-given gifts and talents to tell other people's stories. Their lives...their joyous moments, their disappointments, their wishes, hopes and dreams. Who they are. And we owe it to them to give them everything they deserve.

And that becomes difficult when we as photographers, their "moment in life recorders", their storytellers, don't know who we are. Because we're too busy jumping from one assignment to another, changing our styles, not being comfortable with what we're doing. Ringing true for some? Does for me.

Don't get me wrong, there are some photographers out their who have been blessed with so much talent by God that they can photograph ten different things at once while adjusting lighting setups and drinking coffee at the same time. While blogging.......

I aint one of them!

I've had to find the style I'm comfortable with. And yes, I know I've found it. I know who and what I want to photograph. How I want to do it. Why I want to do it. What I want to build on. And the evolution will occur.

So my thanks goes out to God for affording me the opportunity to meet some special people in the last few weeks who made me realize what I needed to do. Particularly one who lives in Mumbai at the moment (yes, you know who that is......). I don't believe in coincidence. It's what I needed.

I want to be a storyteller, not a jack-of-all-trades.

So I said "NO" this morning. I'm not comfortable photographing newborns.........
There are some phenomenal photographers here in Dubai who do just that.


And what's a photography blog without some pictures? Here are a couple, one BTS and one post.

Catherine and Ziqyab

Z!!! You rock!