Get Off the Garden Path!
As a professional photographer it's important to grow professionally and artistically everyday, every month, every year. That's why in the past two years I've spent five solid weeks in weeklong seminars learning from some of the more creative portrait photographers in our business. I've spent a week each with Arthur Rainville & Jennifer Hudson, Tony Korbel, Joseph & Louise Simone, Trevon Baker and Carl Caylor, all disciples of Don Blair (you'll notice, I'm vicariously learning his styles through others, since he's no longer with us.)
A Quick Look At My Art Take on the Week
Spending a week with Arthur Rainville and Jennifer Hudson was meant to push my orbit out of place just a little bit. In fact, I wanted them to push my orbit out far enough that I wouldn't drift back to the same orbit I followed at the beginning of June.
To some this may seem mystic and overly artistic. To some of us who go through these weeks, we are born anew.
It's not that I don't like my work, I do. I cherish the portraits and make for Eagle Scouts, university graduates, law school graduates and their families. It's important work creating portraits of America's future leaders.
"I want you to get off the garden path you are traveling, I want you to go to the side of the trail amongst the leaves, the logs, the fogs, the rocks and stub your toe, and grow as an artist." Arthur Rainville
My goal was to let them push me further down the creative road to create better portraits, more passionate portraits, more interesting portrait studies. This way I can make better images about these future leaders, and, have the opportunity of creating portraits of them as they achieve their goals.
Over the five days much was discussed of posing, lighting, reality, creativity and the business side of portraiture and the pictures we provide. The one thing that sticks out in my mind as I write this is Rainville's message about following the creative ruts on which we sometimes travel.
He defined what he calls, "Garden Pathing." It's the thought that all of us continue to follow the first successful path we take with our careers. We forget that there are other directions we can take to success, and we should not stop on the first and only path were we find successful. It's corrallary is, "taking the path of least resistance."
To nudge us off the path, he said, "I want you to get off the garden path you are traveling, I want you to go to the side of the trail amongst the leaves, the logs, the fogs, the rocks and stub your toe, and grow as an artist. You'll fail occasionally, but you'll grow as an artisit. Get off the damn trail!"
It's a simple thought putting words to the constant growth we all go through as portrait photographers. We take chances to try something new, oftentimes, creativity that might fail, or, might create a better portrait.
This brings another Rainville thought to the forefront, "How do you carry this forward after our week?"
Keep in tune with these pages and you'll see.