Random thoughts on Style

One of those oft cliched phrases you hear in photography is “You must find your own style”. Its not something I've generally paid attention to. It sounds like something that applies to serious photographers, people who find Art in photography. Personally, I don't pretend to understand Art. Its too obscure, and isn't logical. Guess its the tech-rat in me. How people can look at a canvas that has what looks like the artist just took a few buckets of paint and threw the paint on and make declarations of how artful the work is always puzzles me. Likewise some photographs.

So how does one develop a sense of artistic style without a proper understanding of what artistic style is? I preferred to think of myself as a happy snapper. I take photographs, not develop art. Weirdly, that is a style. Its not my style to set up studios, place lights and try product photography. I don't like tons of post processing. A friend of mine has a style that leaves his pictures with very warm tones. He makes it look good, but its not really for me. Besides, its easy to overdo and leave your pictures looking very yellow. I rarely make my photographs sepia, or black and white. Rarely use the vignette effect for art.

But out of these don't, I realized, I was developing my own style. I look through my pictures and realize, my favorites involve movement. I tend to spend more time and and effort on pictures of movement. Fixed poses, group shots, profiles... these are things I don't spend a lot of time or care on. To capture movement, I often spend long moments peering through the viewfinder, trying to find the perfect moment to click to capture a picture that will either freeze the movement, but still convey the sense of movement, so go with a slower shutter speed and try motion blur, like water cascading over rocks. Whatever the technique, its all about the movement. Its also more of a challenge, since you have to grab the right moment, not spend half an hour setting up and capturing one frame. From there, my interests start making more sense. Motor-sports photography is about capturing movement. Wildlife, can go many ways, but my favorites involve animals in motion. Events, I'm not much into people posing. Which becomes apparent when half my pictures from a wedding turn out to be pictures of people on the dance floor. Parties, sports, catwalk fashion, performances, in general, things in motion. Explains my boredom with landscapes and arty wide angles, I guess. Why I like to be in close covering the event, rather than far back taking details or abstracts.


Limitation? Possibly. Its also a good explanation of why I like working with guys like Charli and Chamil. But then, by definition, style is a limitation. Its a boundary by which you define yourself. This is my style.