Getting in Touch with Our Inner Photographers

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I've been a glamour shooter for a lot of years. I truly love shooting glam, nude, tease, that stuff. Probably, because I love being around beautiful, sexy, women who, more often than not, end up being beautiful, sexy, naked women in front of my camera. What's not to love about that? (Short of being a gay guy or something.) But gay-guy shooters probably love being around handsome, sexy, naked men for the same reasons I love being around their models' female counterparts. What a surprise! Not.

If you've been checking out my blog lately, you may have noticed I've been shooting some decidedly non-glamour stuff. It's personal stuff but it's still my work and I love shooting it. In fact, lately I've been loving shooting those sorts of pics -- editorial like pics -- more so than shooting beautiful, sexy, naked pretty girl pics. Go figure.

And go figure is what I've been trying to do. I've been trying to figure out why that is? (You know, beyond it simply representing a change and being different from what I've mostly been shooting for the last many years.) As you may have already guessed, I've decided on a few possible reasons other than this new stuff is new... to me. And different... for me.

As silly or psycho-babble-ish as it sounds, I think what I've done is gotten in touch with my inner photographer. I think I've done that without realizing that's what I've been trying to do. Until now, that is.

It's easy to ignore your inner photographer while you're shooting stuff, for pay, that may or may not be part of you inner photographer's true-calling photography. That's because, of course, you're getting paid to shoot it. You don't question your motives for shooting it because your primary motive is simply making a living and we all have to make a living, whether it's with cameras in our hands or doing something else.

That's not to say my inner photographer isn't 'into' shooting beautiful, sexy, naked women, it is... but here's what (sorta) makes me think, at least in part, that my inner photographer isn't all that into shooting those sorts of models: I almost never, and I mean nearly never, do anything at all, spend any time at all, arranging or trying to arrange personal shoots with beautiful, sexy, (will be naked during the shoot) models.   Instead, the personal shoots I set up are anything but glamour photography shoots.

That might simply be a product of pretty girl overkill in my photographic life. I've shot a bazillion beautiful, sexy, naked women and it may be that I'm simply over it in some ways. Well, perhaps not over it but that it has lost much of its allure, luster, and appeal in some ways. Or, it simply could be because shooting beautiful, sexy, naked women is work -- as pleasurable as that work may often be -- and shooting other stuff isn't. Isn't work, that is.

So which is it?  Is shooting this new stuff a product of my true inner photographer? Or, is it simply because it represents shooting pics that aren't part of my usual and customary repertoire? Work repertoire at that. I'm leaning towards the inner photographer thing. I'm not sure why, but I am. And I certainly could be wrong. Completely wrong.

Here's my advice to other photographers, not just those who are at the "just starting out" points with their photography, but many more of you: Shoot what you love shooting. That's not to say you shouldn't shoot other things but shoot what something inside you, your inner photographer for lack of a better name, is trying to tell you to shoot.  Don't feel obliged to follow the herd. You don't need to prove you can shoot a pretty model as well as others can shoot them simply because you have some some gear or learned a few techniques to help you do that.  That gear and those techniques can likely be applied to shooting plenty of other things and many other genres besides pretty models, naked or otherwise.

I may never be a professional editorial photographer even if I'm currently thinking that's who my inner photographer might actually be. Or, maybe my inner photographer is some other sort of other photographer? I'm not 100% sure about it, one way or another. Not yet. Perhaps never. But I think I'm going to try to find out even if, in the end, I don't truly find out. Who knows? Ultimately, I may find that my inner photographer actually is a pretty girl shooter. One never knows, do one? (But I'm going to try and find out anyway.)

My inner photographer told my inner blogger to still post a pretty girl pic at the top of this update in spite of my ramblings today so...

The pretty girl at the top is Ally. I know it's merely a head shot but she is beautiful, sexy, and naked! (Even if her nakedness isn't revealed in the photo.)