 How's it? How's it? At some point you have been told that the secret, the key to being a more successful creative person, is to simply be yourself. That so long as you are yourself, your own unique voice, then everything else will fall into place. And that's so easy to say, isn't it? Just be yourself. There you go. But how? How do you actually be your own true, authentic self as a creative person? This is what you're going to discover today, is how to actually throw off some of the shackles that are holding you down and unleash your own creative voice inside you, because it doesn't come from looking and minutely dissecting other photographers or other artists and trying to emulate their style completely. It doesn't come from looking at tutorials or, you know, reading books about how to achieve a certain style. You ultimately want your photography to be so much like you, that you are the biggest and best possible version of yourself that you can possibly be. So we can shoehorn the word you into that anymore, but that's the point. That is the whole essence of this, is that you need to not be afraid of being you. You need to unleash you. And I'm going to show you five simple ways that we can do that. And I've now just said five simple ways, which is an emulation of somebody else, which is exactly the point. And see how easy it is that it sneaks into our language and into our vocabulary and the way that we present ourselves to the world without us even knowing about it. So the first thing to being the most you that you can possibly be is to stop comparing yourself to other people, anybody who you look up to as a mentor. Do not compare your work to them. There's no point in doing it because everybody is marching to the beat of their own drum. Everybody is at different points on their journeys creatively. If you've picked up a camera last week, don't compare yourself to somebody who's been taking photographs their entire life to have 60 years worth of experience. Their view of photography and their place in the journey is so different. And I appreciate that. That's probably a piece of advice that you've heard before. But it is so important to remember that you cannot compare your beginning with somebody else's middle or somebody else's end. One of the major issues with doing this is that when you start comparing yourself to somebody else without seeing the full picture of their journey is that you yourself start to become discouraged. That you look at your photography and go, oh, it's not as good. It's suffering. It's lacking in something. And I wish I could take photographs like so and so because they are so much better than me. And that is just it is this heartening thing that you really don't want to be allowing into your creative process. By all means, pay attention to the work that other people are doing. Let them inspire you. But please, please stop comparing yourself to any other person with a camera or a paintbrush or a pencil or a pen or whatever. Just be in your own moment. Follow your own journey. The second point is to be absolutely authentic. It is very easy to fall into the trap of parroting out things that are said or produced to please other people. You know, you would echo their opinions or create photographs that you know that people will kind of like because it stays within the norm. And that's fine because it's human nature. It's human nature to want to be liked and there's nothing wrong with that. But if you want to start being your own person, to having this own voice, you need to be not afraid. Don't be afraid of speaking out your own opinions of creating work that you like. And if it doesn't chime for other people, if what you say doesn't resonate with other people, that's okay. You can be at a camera club and disagree with some of the judges. You can be in a forum and say, do you know what? Actually, I don't like this photography. There are many photographers who I like their work. I like the way that they look. But equally, there are many photographers who are famous, who are well highly regarded within the photographic world. Whose work I don't like? I really just don't like it. Now, you know, if I have to say I don't like so and so and such and such, then that's an opinion. And some people go, you know, I like Alex because he voices the opinions that don't go the same way that everybody else does. And so within your work, whatever you do, whenever you're talking, try and be your own self. Don't be afraid to say, I don't like this or I don't like such as this or I like the other thing. The more that you do that, the more that you are going back to how you are in the real world, where you have opinions, where you have, you know, distinct views on things. So allow that distinct view, allow those opinions to come into the way that you conduct yourself with your art form, within your photography, whichever sort of branch of visual arts that you are doing. Just have an opinion about something. There's a line from a film from a few years ago, which I think sums up this fantastically, which is when you stand for nothing, you will fall for anything. So have an opinion and be brave about it. So that rather neatly segues into my third point, which is to not worry about what other people think about you. There is going to be or there are going to be people who do not like your art, who when you show them your work are going to go, this is not for me. And that's okay, because we all have in our own worlds things that we like and things that we don't like. I cannot stand watermelon, right? So there's number one thing you didn't know about Alex, right? He does not like watermelon, but other people think watermelon is great. That doesn't mean that I hate everybody who likes watermelon. It's just what they like and I like. And art is the same. You are going to create things that you enjoy, that you love, and other people are going to go, no, do not like it. All you need to remember when that happens is to say to yourself, fine, this is not made for them. This is made for me. It seems such a simple thing to say. But so many of us lose sight of who we are creating our art for, and ultimately we are creating it for ourselves and the way that we see the world. So remember that. Remember being immune, and it's easier said than done, to the criticism of other people. You are your own person and the more that you are your own person. And this is, you know, you can see where this is going. We are building up your own unique voice. The more that you aren't going to get people who go, I don't particularly like that. But that's great. That means that you are on the right track. So number four, look at that. That's not number four. That's number three. Number four, I'm going to do three fingers. Number four is all about not being too hard on yourself, not being a negative Nelly and being so anti your own work. I've seen so many people who do this, who look at something they create and are picking it apart. I did it myself. I used to sit and show people my photography and tell them everything that was wrong with it. Please, please do not do that. Don't be the person who just says, Well, this is my photograph and this is my interview. I could have done this. I could have done that. You're already beating yourself up about the very thing that you're creating. Don't be that person. Right? It ruined so much of my joy from photography for ages because all I would do is talk about my photography in a negative fashion. And please, please fill the love of God. Don't let me hear that you are talking about your work negatively because it shouldn't be negative. You can look at it and you can go, Okay, fine. I get it. There's things I could have done differently. There are pieces I'm not entirely happy with. But don't be hard on yourself for doing that, for making those mistakes. It's okay. Everybody makes mistakes. And somebody who doesn't tell you that they make a mistake and they're happy 100% with all the art they create is a liar because all of us at some point go, I'm not quite happy with that. I can change it. And that's why we grow. That's how we develop as artists, as people speaking with our own voices because we look at our mistakes, our missteps and we learn from them. We take them for what they're supposed to be which is a learning curve and we go forward with them and become better photographers, better artists for it. So number five, and I got that right this time, didn't I? That's one, two, three, four, five. I get gold star. Wait, right. So this is about having fun. This is about remembering why you picked up the camera, why you picked up the paintbrush, why you decided to express yourself creatively in the first place. And that's because you enjoyed it. There was something about the process or there is something about the process that keeps you going, right? It is fine to work at a process. It's fine to work on your creativity and to push yourself but it should also be fun. Every time you should be doing it, it should be great fun. I look at these games that I used to play online and there were days where it felt like, why am I doing this? This just feels like, it feels like work and it shouldn't feel like work. What you do now is an outlet for yourself. It is a way of expressing yourself through your photography and it becomes a chore. It becomes hard. It becomes work when you are trying to be like somebody else. When you are trying on different styles and approaches and processing and following all these tutorials because you are taking all of the coats other people are wearing and you're trying them on. One by one, one by one and some of them just don't fit and some of them feel a little bit if you kind of roll up the sleeves a bit and you pretend that it fits but ultimately you don't feel comfortable with it. When you're not comfortable with whatever you're doing then that's when you become mired in this idea that it is work because you're having to work at keeping that coat around you in a way that feels comfortable. But when you have a coat that is made specifically for you and your voice, he says, I'm sure that's a mixed metaphor but who knows, right? Then you don't need to worry. It fits like a glove. It feels natural on you and this is what we're looking at with your photography and with your art is work that just feels comfortable for you. If you catch yourself feeling that you are trying to do something and you're finding a hard work and that hard graft continues over weeks and months and you don't feel that you make progress but you just feel that everything is something something is quite summer off then that's probably a good clue that whatever you're trying to do isn't necessarily for you. It doesn't feel natural for you. So listen to those voices that come up from your soul and tell you this isn't quite right. So there's a number six little tip which I'm going to share with you because I'm nice like that because you spent time watching me so this is a little thank you to you and this is when you are out creating that I would like you to be present in the moment. So I appreciate that creativity can be an escape from the pressures of the day it can be your release and it needs to be that trying before you pick up a camera before you want to express yourself creatively is to put yourself in the mindset of being creative. Don't think that the process is going to necessarily get that out of your mind. So before you pick up a camera go and do something that just kind of disconnects the photography from the day you've had so it could be listening to some music maybe for driving off somewhere in the car some music that puts you in a nice sort of mood puts you in a certain place I like to listen to dead condense it's not the world's most exciting music but it puts me in a mind frame that works for my photography so find ways of just disconnecting yourself from the real noise that's clutching up your head so that you can quieten your mind a little bit so that the creative process can wash away and just take away the rest of that noise and you can be present in your photography and anything that you're creating because that way then you are more in tune with the situation you're not thinking about the world around you and you're just being with your camera being creative listening to your inner voice. Earlier we looked at learning from our mistakes in photography and I know you're going to find this video about doing just that exceptionally helpful thanks ever so much for being here.