Be an original – not a copy

I recently was able to spend some time with a photographer friend of mine for several days and we had many philosophical discussions.  During one of those discussions I said “that would be a great blog post” so here we go…

We were talking about how easy it is to research the internet today and find all those beautiful creative newborn baby poses where the baby is propped on their little hands.  Don’t we all just love those?  I know I do. 

The internet is an awesome tool and many of us use it to learn many things or simply to get ideas from.  The problem for us (creative, talented photographers) is that it can be very frustrating for a client to bring in several pictures that were “borrowed” from another photographer’s website of images like this and say to us “can you do this for me?”

Of course we can.  But we also would love for you to come to us for our own perspective and vision of what your child’s images should be.  It is our job as professionals to discover the uniqueness in every subject that we photograph and to be “original” rather than copying what someone else has done.

Too many times people want only what they have seen and they miss out on a wonderful opportunity to see something original of their special little one. 

This challenge isn’t all that new.  Over the years I have run into brides that did the same thing.  They would bring us a list of poses they wanted – usually very ordinary, expected poses from a wedding and they would completely forget that it is our job as “professional visionaries” to see what is unique about their dream day.  When a client would hire me to cover their wedding and say “Cathy, I just want you to do what it is that you do – be creative and find my one of a kind story” – that client always received some of my most creative and beautiful  images – something truly original, not a copy of what someone else thought was right.

To me, photography is not a one size fits all.  It is a reflection of you – no one else.

Here is a perfect example of what 2 different photographers visions are when approaching a newborn baby.  One is by my photographer friend, Lisa Carter and the other is mine.  They are both beautiful.  They are both originals – NOT copies.  What do you think?

 

 

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