A number of weeks ago, I participated in my very first photography workshop. Me and about 15+ amazing photographers spent a day and a half gleaning all we could from the, yes, THE Jeremy Cowart. I believe I speak for most of my fellow workshop attendees when I say “inspiring” was the theme of the weekend. Whether Jeremy meant it to be that way or not, a number of us left that January workshop inspired to leave pieces of who we are in every photo we take. It’s taken me this long to actually write a post because I’ve been digesting the weekend and what it means for me. I’ve been trying to figure out how to take that “camp high” and translate it into my every day life. First, I’ll give you a few snippets from the weekend, then I’ll attempt to unpack my thoughts… at least as they are at this point.
Jeremy spent a good deal of time going through his collection of images and giving us the stories behind them. Having previously seen a lot of his work, it was cool to hear a 'behind the scenes' of some of the photos I'd admired from afar.
We followed Jeremy around while he did a mock bank shoot with some models. He went through his thought process as he positioned each model.
We also watched him do some studio stuff.
We broke up into groups of 4-5. Each group had a model and off we went.
After I returned home from the weekend, my head was spinning.
Who am I?
I don’t know.
I guess I have a lot of things to ponder.
Ok, ok. Enough with the Zoolander references. In all seriousness though, I did do kind of feel like that. Weeks later, I’m still working it all out. But I know that it’s time to put on my big girl panties and stop making excuses for myself (ie. I’m self taught, I’m not really that creative, I don’t have all my ducks in a row, etc ).
My time at the workshop inspired me to make my own path, not just try to copy the paths of others – because I’m not like any of the others. My path shouldn’t be either. And that’s ok. Because if two of us are identical, then one of us is irrelevant.
Enjoy your Tuesday!