Photography Style

Steal Like a Student: How Imitating Other Photographers Actually Builds Your Own Style
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Steal Like a Student: How Imitating Other Photographers Actually Builds Your Own Style

Every Sunday morning I do a photo walk around my Seattle neighborhood, and for a long time I’d come home, edit the shots, and feel like something was off. The images were technically fine but they felt borrowed. Like I was wearing someone else’s jacket. I knew I was imitating photographers I admired, but I wasn’t doing it with any real intention. I was just absorbing influences at random and wondering why nothing felt like mine.

What Happens When 3 Photographers Shoot the Same Model — And What It Teaches You About Your Own Style
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What Happens When 3 Photographers Shoot the Same Model — And What It Teaches You About Your Own Style

I’ve been shooting portrait sessions for years, and one of the questions I still get tripped up by is this: how much of a “good photo” is technical skill versus personal vision? I had a client session last month where everything was correct on paper — the light was soft, my settings were dialed in, the location was beautiful — and the images still felt flat to me. Not bad. Just… mine-shaped.

What Happens When Three Photographers Shoot the Same Model (And What It Taught Me About My Own Eye)
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What Happens When Three Photographers Shoot the Same Model (And What It Taught Me About My Own Eye)

I used to think that if two photographers stood in the same spot with the same gear, they’d come back with more or less the same photo. I held onto that assumption for longer than I’d like to admit. It wasn’t until I started shooting with other photographers on my Sunday morning photo walks that I realized how wrong I was. Same light, same street corner, sometimes the same focal length, and we’d come back with images that looked like they were taken on different days by different people.

What Happens When 3 Photographers Shoot the Same Model (And What It Taught Me About My Own Style)
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What Happens When 3 Photographers Shoot the Same Model (And What It Taught Me About My Own Style)

The Uncomfortable Question I Keep Avoiding Last month I was shooting a friend for her brand refresh, and about twenty minutes in I realized I was making the same three choices I always make. Same shooting angle, same light side of the face, same “look slightly off camera” direction. She looked great. The photos were fine. But fine isn’t what either of us was hoping for. That’s the problem no one really talks about: developing a personal style is great, until that style becomes a rut you can’t climb out of mid-shoot.

How to Build a Signature Color Style (And Actually Stick to It)
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How to Build a Signature Color Style (And Actually Stick to It)

Every Sunday morning I do a photo walk around Seattle. Rain, shine, fog off the water — doesn’t matter. And for years, when I’d come home and open Lightroom, I’d edit each session like it was its own little world. Warm and golden one week, cool and moody the next, high contrast the week after that. Individually, the images looked fine. Together, they looked like four different photographers had taken them.