VANESSA; TULUM
Lately, I've been working to better understand my creativity and how to harness it as best as possible. I've been looking through more photo books, watching videos from some of my favorite photographers like Alec Soth, I read Chase Jarvis's new book Creative Calling– which has been great for building structure around how I create, and I've been more active in my community here in Denver (come see Pattern). It's interesting, and I feel like I'm growing a lot, but with growth comes pain – usually, you feel like you're struggling – it's normal and it comes with the territory. I've been chewing on this stuff for a while now, sorting out where I want my portfolio/career to go, and editing some shots from a lifestyle test I did in Tulum earlier this year.
We photographers shoot tests because they're just that, ways to formulate ideas and see what works. This shoot was true to that idea, and I had very little clue what I wanted to produce at the time. All I knew was that I wanted to push myself to make images that were different from what was in my current book while staying true to my photographic voice.
This shoot was early on in this creative growth spurt and when I first went through the edit, I hated EVERYTHING. Seriously. Time has a funny way of smoothing things out, though. I often start by hating the work I end up loving most, and many of the "gems" that I first pull out rarely stand up to the test of time. That was, of course, the case here. I needed time and space to see how everything fit together and I'm pumped to integrate these into my current portfolio. Credit where credit is due: I worked with an awesome model on this shoot, Vanessa Ferreira, who helped me pull this off through my broken Spanish. Thanks, V.
Take a look: