The way that you take photographs, the lenses you use and the subject you choose, make up your personal artistic language. Very often, through lack of confidence, beginners will photograph the way they think they should rather than follow their own creative instincts.
Even the greatest photographers had to begin somewhere, and it took them years of practice to develop their own personal style.
"All that stuff can be learned. What you're doing now, that's instinct. And it counts for a lot."-- Jennifer E. Smith
There are several ways to develop your own artistic language.
Practise.
Photograph often to improve your skills and sharpen your eye. If you feel that you never have enough time to photograph choose "little and often" as your strategy, rather than spending a whole day on a photo-shoot, with long gaps of time in between. But, you don't have to spend all your working hours thinking about or creating photographs. What counts is not the time you spend, but the thought you put into it. You should devote some of your free time to thinking about what you've produced photographically, what you may want to do in the future, and how you can improve on the things you've done in the past.
Have a camera with you all the time.
Doing so, you can explore and experiment all the time without worrying about making mistakes, as there are no mistakes - just opportunities for learning.
Stop and reflect.
To help you assess your images to see what is working and what needs an adjustment, look at them upside down. This useful trick stops you seeing what you know, and gives you a more objective view.
Explore the same subject.
Explore the same subject using different coloured backgrounds, different angles, and different light to create different effects. This is a useful way to build a relationship with a subject and develop your own artistic language in response to it.
Experiment with different techniques.
This gives you an opportunity to explore different kinds of effects you can achieve. Photograph the same subject with different technique to find out which one best captures the essence of the subject.
Nourish your artist's imagination.
Study the work of other photographers for ideas and inspiration that might trigger ideas of your own.
The whole point of being a creative photographer and artist is to find your unique voice. Remember that you will never please everyone or appeal to the whole world with your preferences and your artistic vision. So be true to yourself. Photograph from your heart, photograph what you want to photograph and how you want to photograph. Believe in yourself, and above all have fun!
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