A model I was shooting a few years ago and I were talking about another photographer whom I respect very much, someone in the industry for years longer then me who she had also worked with. I was talking about how he saw light, and how he composed, the consistency of his tones and going on and on about how wonderful he was and how I hoped I could do what he did and she looked at me as if I was daft and said, “yes he is very good, but Melissa no one can make a persons soul shine through the way you do.”

light has a soul all it's own

I think that as photographers and artists, maybe as people even we spend to much time comparing ourselves to others. (Though it is possible there are people out there who have boundless confidence and always think they rock it the best, I don’t think that these salon posts are for them.. if they do exist at all) I’ve read and spoke to artists who do amazing work, award winning, money making, groupie fawning work, who are constantly beating themselves up for not being “good” enough. Who look at others and say, why didn’t I do that, they are so “insert positive adjective here madlibs style”. I’ve done it, you’ve done it.. (if you haven’t please send me the name of whatever you have been taking, I’d love to try it).

I worked through the Artists Way by Julia Cameron last year and enjoyed it immensely. One lesson/quote (of many) that has stayed with me was that it doesn’t have to be one person is amazing to the exclusion of everyone else. What a concept, just because Annie or Fred or whoever else do amazing, beautiful, soul shattering work, that doesn’t mean some quota of inspiration and beauty has been taken and the rest of us our just shit out of luck. If you told me that I could go anywhere in the world, oh I know where I’d pick first but where I might pick would probably not be where you would pick and I could come up with a dozen other places I would love to visit all different then the others but all equally alluring and interesting. I am constantly inspired by art and photography, by places on the web, movies, books and magazines. That is wonderful and part of the process, and striving for more is one of the things that I love about photography, there is always something more to learn to master, to tackle, one more fleeting moment to capture perfectly, that is one of the reasons why I love photography. But instead of looking at other peoples work for what I’m not I try to look at my work for what I am and then allow my inspiration to spur me towards the amazing places I’m still going.