 Unless you have a style in your photography then your images are completely pointless. Of course that's a big nonsense isn't it? Who's told you that? It's so silly to think that unless you have a style in your photography that you are somehow deficient as an image creator. How's it? How's it? So many people get wrapped up in this idea of looking for a style. I can't find my style. I wish I could find, where do I look for my style? How do I develop it? And they're missing the point and it's okay if you think about this because we haven't been educated that. We just people throw around words and say look you know you need a style and I have you and without really explaining what a style is looks are only skin deep but style is to the bone. And that's a saying from an old ad that I used to have up on my wall and I think about this and it reminds me of how we confuse style with looks how something looks you know the processing the subject matter when you shoot color or black and white or you know what have you. And we think that photography should if to have a style should all look the same to have a homogenous kind of feel so that we can look it and go well I recognize that style you know Picasso had a style after fashion and the impressions have a style you know all these sort of things and we think our photography should be the same but if you look at somebody like Urban Pen for example you know one of the greatest photographers of the 20th century of all time sorry he's not just the greatest photographer of the 20th century right you take for example his corner portraits now they have a style people could look at that go well that feels like an Urban Pen portrait but then also you look at his cigarette butts and you go well there's nothing to connect these with his corner portraits so are they in the style of a pen corner portrait no they're not they're in the style of a pen still life of what he was doing later on of looking at objects in a you know in a minute way so that's a great example of how you know the way that he looked at the world is his style the way that he looked at the subject is his style but it wasn't across all of his photography within the various genres that he worked in he tried different things he made his approach to photography different depending on the genre that he worked in and you can do the same here you know if you photograph portraits don't feel you have to sit and photograph people all the time you can have a certain style in your portrait photography you can have a certain style and say your landscape photography you don't need to photograph everything the same way because you can't it's you know to be pointless and be boring so I would encourage you to go and explore different genres see what you can discover within yourself within those genres it's always fun to try out new things to look at the world in a different lens through a different viewfinder you know and and see what resonates with you see what what really inspires you within that specific area that you're photographing so how do you know if you are finding a start a feel a vibe to your images but that's I think that's when you start photographing naturally when you when you stop worrying too much about specific compositions about specific approaches to various things and you go with your gut you go with how it feels right for you all right look at the evolution of the videos on this channel for example it started off I was trying to emulate people's style and looking at the the way that I was approaching the videos and over time it has become more natural for me and I've I have developed my own sort of style I practiced some things I tried some things out some things didn't work some things did work so it's about experimentation and eventually something will click something will just drop into place and you'll go this feels easy this feels natural think about any skill that you have learned over your lifetime you know it started off it was tricky you you stumbled and you you tried things out and it felt like it was difficult and then then all of a sudden you woke up one day and there's like I just I just know it's light has just switched on and you become easy you become relaxed and everything just flows that's when you know that you are finding a style your own voice that you are reacting to the things in your unique way and not through the filter that somebody else has told you you should react to a photograph when I think about my own portrait photography for example you know when I started off my my style if you want to be it was it was aggressive it was noisy because I was a young photographer I was young I was in my 20s and it changed over time it evolved and it morphed and then in the middle I lost my way I thought style was how it looked and so I went oh you're a bit of a dutch talk here and a bit of this and a bit of that that will all be my style and my look and then somebody went oh but I don't like this I don't like dutch talk and I got really worried about I was like oh you know I don't maybe I should stop doing this right and it was at that point that I drifted away from doing something that felt natural to me to doing something that felt unnatural and my portrait photography suffered because I wasn't speaking with my own voice anymore I was talking with somebody else and this is a great it's a great chap you should really be be wary of is following other people's advice who are trying to make you take pictures like they would want you to see you know if I do a critique and a feedback on somebody's work and we do in the private members area do these these monthly feedback sessions I'm not trying to make everybody take pictures like I want them to take they're about trying to tease out and help them speak with their voice so don't be listening to other people who tell you that that you know this is not the way that you should photograph X subject because they're taking you away from what could possibly be the path for you to be finding your own voice just as much as when I went back to portrait photography photographs in a way that I wanted to then my photographs became a lot stronger again if you do a lot more me and they developed a style within portrait photography that people could get a feel and say that feels like an alex photograph when you seek out inspiration for your images and I would highly suggest that you do that you you know you look at the work of great photographers that you look at the work of a new photographer who you haven't discovered yet then you know think about the things that connect with you think about the ideas that are resonating in your mind because those are the ones that you are drawn to they are connecting with you on some deeper more emotionally internal way and when you start taking those on board when you start thinking about the ways that you are moved as a viewer of images then that starts passing through your own filters and it comes out through your images in a way that just feels natural it feels real it feels you and this is kind of what this all is boiling down to it's about being you oh but what if me what if me inside here is boring dull person it's just you know I have nothing to say why have you then then I think you're putting yourself down you are absolutely putting yourself down because all of us all of me you we have our own unique ways of seeing the world and this is what photography is all about you are expressing the way that you see the world on a personal gut level this is what we are seeking to do without our photography is that we are looking to make the process seamless to make you and the camera one and all the talk about you know you know technique and and using special lenses and various things for various events and stuff that is all building you up to be able to be in in sympathy with the camera for it to be an extension of you this is what style is is when you and the camera become one and that you start flowing your voice through that camera or vice for however you want to look at it and but that's that's what is it is all about this is what style is you have a style right now it's in here it's inside you you can get it out by just you know being open to it listening understanding what is happening when you look at the world with your unique eye and just go I'm going to photograph this in a way that I love in a way that that moves me this is when your style starts coming up this is when your uniqueness is coming up so stop thinking about style as a look as a feel it is not a look in a feel it is a way of letting your voice just lift up and and and rise above the masses of creating photographs for the sake of pleasing other people there's a message chart all this this channel it's about being your own photographer there isn't a set formula to becoming a styled photographer or to having your own style you can't just say well you need to do this and you need to do that and then you have that and that gives you style there's none of that that cannot be the way that you find your style it does not work the key to finding your style the key to discovering what your voice is is to listen is to sit there and look at your photographs see which ones connect with you what which ones do you go it's a bit of a non-starter just never never really went anywhere put it to one side you gave a try didn't work right but be true to yourself it it i know it it's it's hard especially as as someone who is just starting photography that it's hard to think that you know you're never going to get there but you will and it will happen when you're not paying attention to it like so many other things in life if you are stuck for you know you're trying to remember somebody's name and you're thinking your brain just goes no i don't want to know no i don't want to know and then you know a couple hours later oh it was joke right you know that sort of thing these are what you need to start practicing within your photography is to not force it don't go out and say oh do you know what i'm going to go and i'm going to develop my style this weekend this weekend is all about working on my style it's it you're not building a table you are developing your personality and just as much as your own your own personality didn't just pop into you didn't happen overnight it grew over years so will your style of photography and it will change there is no peak style you don't get a style and go all right i'm done look at urban pen right he didn't start taking you know images for half as bizarre and then just stop there his style evolved over time it evolved in his portraits involved in his still life involved in all of his photography as do all photographers look at all of their work look at um you know Edward Steichen for example his photography evolved through pictorialism through oh the whole gambit he was just you know he kept changing he kept evolving and so will your style of photography and this feels like a bit of a pet talk and that's kind of the point sometimes we need to have pet talk we don't need to always talk about you know gear and lighting and and all that sort of stuff we want to have conversations where you know just remind ourselves what is it we do this but we do it because we want to to see the world in our own unique way and that's what style is it's it's you creating images that have your own voice and when you start expressing your photographs with your own voice and not somebody else's then that's your style at work earlier in the video i mentioned Edward Steichen and i would highly recommend that you go and check out his videos here because he is a fantastic photographer who has it evolved over time thank you ever so much for watching and i'll see you again soon