The Artist’s Way

Are you wondering if you really can be a better photographer? Do you think a newer camera or a better camera would help? Maybe you should take photography lessons from a pro? Would moving somewhere more photogenic be a good idea?

How about if I said, even if you’re brand new to photography, you’re likely a good enough photographer already!

Now I am not saying you wouldn’t benefit from some lessons and yes there are more picturesque places in the world to shoot and I wouldn’t stop you from buying the camera of your dreams but maybe photography itself and your level of experience has nothing to do with how good a photographer you really are.

Here’s my point: There are a lot of amateur and even some pros creating amazing images with the simplest of equipment. They are taking really interesting images in their own home towns and sometimes right in their own homes (see Sally Mann).

(BTW the difference between an amateur and a pro isn’t experience, skill or equipment. A pro shoots to get paid. An amateur shoots because they love photography. That’s the only difference.)

So I am saying what maybe holding you back has nothing to do with your level of skill (which can always be improved no matter how good you are) or how expensive your equipment is or how long you’ve been shooting.

No I am suggesting the biggest reason you may not be shooting as well as you’d like has nothing to do with photography and everything to do with how you feel as a photographic artist.

A lot of us are more critics than artists. Our own fears and self doubt hold us back from being the photographic artists we so want to become. There’s a small voice in our heads saying things like “who do we think we are?”

Thankfully there is a way to silence the critic in our heads but it’s going to take some hard work and some time to do but tens of thousands of people have done it over the last 30 years.

That’s when Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way book was published. But like all self-help books The Artist’s Way is merely informative and doesn’t become curative until you start doing the work. I am certain that is one of the reasons that Cameron sub-titled her book A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity and the book itself was called A Course In Discovering and Recovering Your Creative Self.

You see photography itself isn’t about taking pictures. It’s really about seeing and unfortunately seeing can’t be taught but it can be learned. We’ll talk about seeing next. Meanwhile getting a copy of The Artist’s Way and a simple paper journal and maybe an inexpensive fountain pen and ink might be a good place to start your own artist’s way.