Here are a few images of my wife Jill taken during our beach outing this past Saturday.. Stay tuned for a another post on inspiration and find out who the photographers are that inspire me! Also feel free to let me know who inspires you!
As artists and creative professionals inspiration and immersing yourself in what you love are key to success and happiness. Since moving to Tampa, Florida from Kansas City a few months back I have really struggled with inspiration. While living in downtown Kansas City and attending the Kansas City Urban Design Center I found myself very inspired not only by my surroundings but also by the people I was spending my time with. As you will notice from many of my photos I was inspired by the urban landscape of Kansas City and it was what I loved to shoot. In addition it was during this year in KC when I took up photography, prior to last September I had never shot anything other than a 3 megapixel Canon point and shoot. However because I was so inspired in KC I was still able to make great photographs despite my lack of experience.
Since moving to Tampa, Florida this past May I have really struggled with inspiration. I don’t know if it was because I was a little reluctant to move here, the incredibly hot summers, or the fact that I started working full time after graduation. What it boils down to is I was out of my comfort zone, I did not know the area well and was not sure what I wanted to shoot anymore. Within the last couple of weeks I finally got my inspiration back and now I am in love with the beautiful beaches here in Florida and the beach lifestyle. Therefore my goal now is too focus more on creating beach lifestyle images that really capture the essence of beach life in the South. My first shoot took place with my wife last night at a local beach where we went about an hour before sunset to enjoy some wine. While there I was able to capture a few images of my wife.
Now that I have realized what inspires me down here and what I love to shoot my goal is to save my pennies for new gear, which my wife and I have been doing for a few months now, get in touch with photographers whos work I look up to, and to just keep shooting what I love. What I have to remember is the results will start poring in as long as I am patient and stay true to what it is I love to shoot, and new gear would not hurt a bit, a 5 year old Olympus DSLR has its limits :).
Remember these things next time you find yourself in a rut, stay positive and shoot what you love.
Today my wife and I took a trip to the Buddhist Temple and market near downtown Tampa. I had heard this was the best place to get Thai food in the area so I thought we would try it out. The market itself is pretty small with about 6 different food stands serving a variety of Thai food. We ended up getting noodles with beef and pork. This was a fairly short trip as we my wife ended up getting sick, she has had a long week :(. Below are a couple of pictures of the Buddhist temple wich sits on the same ground as the market.
As you may have noticed I have been remarkably inactive with this blog over the past few months. However now that my wife and I have settled in to our current situation in the Tampa Bay area things are starting to pick up. I am slowly getting acclimated to the the city and all it has to offer.
That being said, I currently have two ideas for upcoming projects I would like to share with you. The first will be a project centered on the emerging fixed gear bike culture here in the Tampa bay area. There is a pretty active underground scene here and great opportunities for an intriguing project. Stay tuned for upcoming photos from this project as soon as next week!
The second project I have planned centers on a small Tai village here in Tampa. From what I have discovered is that the village and its residents conduct a market each Sunday whereby they set up several food stands open to the public. I plan on taking the trip to this market Sunday, a few photos should be up by Sunday night.
Thanks for reading everyone and stay tuned for an updated design of clarkgriffithsphotography!
Over the past year or so I have become increasingly active on the web, this is mainly due to my work with G2 Web Media and my passion for photography. What I have noticed during my countless hours on the web is the world of photography has been drastically effected. Photographers around the country are using blogs and social media to further their businesses. In addition, a number of photographers are taking it upon themselves to change the way in which photographers interact with one another. Historically photography has been a very competitive industry with little cooperation among photographers.
The goal of this post is to point you towards those photographers who are changing the medium. Each of the photographers included in this post operate blogs were they hand out tips and tricks to anyone willing to read. If you are an up and coming photographer who actually knows how to use a camera and takes the industry seriously these links will be invaluable!
the [b] school blog, operated by Becker who is a wedding photographer from southern California, is a blog i recently discovered but fell in love with. Becker opitimizes the changes that are taking place in the photography industry. The idea behind the [b] school was spawned while Becker was just getting into the wedding photography industry, he became very discouraged by the unwillingness of established professional to share any advice to those starting out. Thus, Becker has devoted a substantial amount of time to the [b] school.
The [b] school is full of advice on photoshop techniques, marketing, and many other things vital to being successful in the photography business. There is so much offered that I am going to limit what I say here and just tell you to visit the [b] school blog. You won’t be disappointed, unless you happen to be a Nikon user who dislikes former Nikon users who now swear by Canon!
Another photographer out there who loves shelling out advice is Zack Arias, an Atlanta based photographer who specializes in band promo work, head shots, and weddings. Zack is widely known in the photography world for his One Light workshop series where he holds a one-day workshop in any city where there are photographers willing to pay and listen to what he has to say. Check out the onelight webpage here.
In addition Zack also administers www.zarias.com where he gives out photography advice and lets us know what he is working on at the moment. One last thing on Zack, if you are interested in the onelight workshop but don’t have the money to attend one of the workshops you can always check out the onelight DVD which will be published very soon.
I hope you enjoy the resources these two blog provide. Stay tuned for a continued discussion on social media and photography.