Photography is a strange art form in that instead of creating from a blank canvas with your own ideas and materials, you start with reality and take it from there. So how do you approach the art of photography? Do you aim to represent reality or to interpret it?

I was asked recently by a well-respected photographer, whether I considered myself ‘a photographer’ or ‘an artist’. It made me stop and think. I thought about my journey in Photography, the highs, the disappointments, what I’ve achieved and learnt, my direction/style, where I want to go with my photography.

• When I first started photography, I was out and about at every opportunity with the camera. Now I’m not so driven to get out with the camera, just a bit more selective. I know what I like and don’t like. If I broke down my style the elements I look for are a strong focal point, simplistic in composition, colour and tones.

• Along the way I started to look at other photographers, artists for inspiration. I looked at many images on Instagram, Pinterest. I started a collection of images that I liked and I found I was often looking at the image asking myself how did they get those colours and more.

• I love the post processing phase, its relaxing but can also be frustrating when you can’t get something the way you have it in your mind. I am always searching for ways to push the boundaries with different techniques to create a different style with my images. As my skills grew, I experimented more.

• My “photography eye” now looks and thinks what can I capture and how I can process what I see and capture. What I call “shoot the elements”, I found I was capturing not just the big landscapes, but elements of the landscape - skys, clouds, tree(s), buildings, old cars to use later on, if I wanted to create a composite landscape. For example when I photograph the Lavender Fields in Tasmania I am thinking what can I create with the Lavender as a foreground, or a Milk Way sky where can I use it in one of my images. DId I choose this deliberately? It came about about by the different landscapes and elements I was seeing, some were new locations and others were - been there so many times, what can I do differently?

• Having entered photo competitions for the past few years I have also noticed the style of image I enter has changed. When I first entered competitions my results were ok, feedback was useful and gave me some direction. I had to work on a few things, and one was processing techniques. I set myself a goal to learn as much as I could about Photoshop and Lightroom. I watched a lot of YouTube videos and went to workshops.
  
  I have been fortunate to achieve Gold, Silver and Bronze in various competitions, there have also been disappointments where images I felt were of a high standard didn’t score well. That’s part of putting yourself out there. I think the main lesson is to be consistent, learn from the results, but most importantly, be proud of your images—entering competitions is subjective.

• Game changer in my processing style - A trip to Tuscany in 2018 changed my post processing techniques (completely?????)! How? To capture Tuscany with the camera was challenging and amazing at the same time. I had never experienced light and colour like this before, the soft colour yet at times strong colour palette was breathtaking. When I came home, I found I didn’t know how to process the images, nothing I tried captured the essence of what I felt. I did some quick edits, as you do when you come back from a photography tour, but I was still not happy with the images I created. It challenged my post processing skills and I started to explore and experiment with different techniques.

• I did some mentoring sessions with a professional photographer well known for his fine art photography. He looked at my images and said I had a “romanticism feel” in my processing techniques. I had a chuckle to myself, but now I find my processing style is leaning towards those soft muted colours and tones. My signature style!

Back to the question – do I consider myself a photographer or an artist? For me the camera is the tool I use to capture a scene or the elements I want for a composite image, but it’s the creative process I connect with the most to build an image, I still use my landscapes as the base but now it is more the creative side I gravitate to. I don’t set up a processing plan, it just seems to come naturally, though if I look back, I always loved colouring, drawing and working with colour palettes when decorating interior spaces.

After thinking and looking at my photography journey, I consider myself an artist who uses the camera as a medium as one tool and I interpret what I see and feel in my mind. I’m an interpreter.

As artists/photographers, we are so fortunate that we see the world in a different way – we look for light, colour, textures and so much more in everyday life and the world around us.

How lucky we are!