I’ve been doing quite a bit with photography lately. Actually I’ve been doing quite a bit with other things like earning an actual income lately, but I’ve been thinking about photography a lot lately. Ultimately I think it’s getting to a point where I’m interested in exploring my particular niche and style versus exploring any and everything.

Macro photography is cool — but it’s really not my thing. I really don’t appreciate photographs of flowers… or birds. I enjoy photos of wild animals, especially the type that are difficult/expensive to get close to in real life, but I have no interest in photographing them. Alternative film types (Holga, Lomo, etc) are, well, film. I think people who work with film are awesome — I greatly disliked it and have no intentions on returning to it. Sports photography is a job, not an art (so is the vast majority of photojournalism). Finally, I enjoy looking at landscapes (and have several framed on my wall), but landscape photography is (to me) about getting the technical bits down and then just being there to click the shutter — I want to make more conscious decisions about what I’m representing — as Wikipedia defines art, “deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions.”

That said, my style and subjects are starting to trend more toward the type of photographic subjects and themes that may be similar to commercial — chiefly advertising — subjects. You still see landscapes (and similar) in my portfolio, but they are getting less and less. This theme is bound to continue.

I just placed an order for some flash triggers that would fall under the “advanced amateur” or possibly even “budget-conscious pro” category. The reliability of these triggers is very high which means my attention during a shoot will be slightly less technical and slightly more artistic. In case you’re wondering, my old cactus triggers will be going to a skilled photographer out of Eugene, OR that is looking to experiment with artificial light in her already beautifully posed portraits.

I’ve been doing a photoshoot or two on my weekends for the last few weeks (the results of which are generally up on my awesome flickr photostream or in my more formal photography portfolio) however, this weekend will likely be devoted to other, paying, web development projects. If these triggers get here before then (possible), that may change. We shall see.