A Mindset Shift Transformed the Way I Approach Photography
In June of 2025 I held an exhibition of several of my prints at the 60th year celebration of the Nelson Symphony Orchestra. It was a wonderful opportunity to present my work to a wider audience and to connect with people who appreciated visual art alongside music. Printing my photos has always been important to me, and this event made me realise more clearly that I wanted to pursue something deeper and more committed with my photography.
About a month after the exhibition, I began listening to photography podcasts. Since this was my first time exploring podcasts, I saved a few shows that produced regular weekly episodes, and after listening to my first one I felt they would be a good fit for me. Although the podcasts featured many well known photographers, the majority of the guests were people I had never heard of before. I find it really interesting to listen to how they first got into photography and to follow their individual photography journeys. One thing I was learning from listening to the podcasts was the value of having personal projects where you build a coherent body of work, and the guests always shared their Why’s in their photography and what drives them to make the images they do. After I finish an episode I usually visit the guests’ websites to explore their portfolios and see how their ideas translate into finished photographs.
By late spring of 2025 I was getting increasingly bored with posting photos on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. With these platforms you have about 1.2 seconds to grab a viewer’s attention before they decide whether to like your photo or scroll past, and you end up receiving the same repetitive comments over and over again, such as: - “Wow your photography is amazing” “ That should be on a canvas” “Your camera takes amazing photos” “Looks like a Postcard” -just to name a few as there are so many generic comments to list here, and with the addition of anonymous posting and the fact that so many people use nicknames on their profiles, you’ve lost any real connection with the people who like or comment on your post. With this I have reflected on how I now use these platforms: I will still post the occasional photo, but focus more on sharing my blog posts and videos instead. I am currently using LinkedIn and 500px and find these are better suited to my needs. I also appreciate that 500px does not allow uploading AI generated content, which I consider a positive policy.
So I decided it was time to reassess what I wanted to achieve from my own photography, part of the problem was that I had no real structure to how I made my images, so I wrote down my whys and what drives me to take photos. With that clarity I decided it was time to start a focused creative project. From early December to late February my aim was to build a body of closeup and macro work featuring flowers and insects. I spent a great deal of time in Pollard Park, Seymour Square and the gardens at home. I now have close to two hundred images that I will begin curating down to about seventy to eighty strong pieces for the project, and I’m currently working through the format in which I will release this collection at a later date.
By focusing on a project I’ve been really enjoying photography and I’ve been going out to take photos more regularly; I now have a structured plan for the images I want to create, and the photos I take carry greater meaning and a stronger personal connection.
As I have a hybrid camera, it not only serves well for photography but also performs excellently for videography. Last year I completed a Diploma in Video Production and Editing and an additional video editing course, and have since been planning to put together a short video. One evening a few weeks ago I wandered into the vineyard at my place and Pepper the cat followed me, so I took some footage of Pepper in the vineyard and wandering through the gardens. Using Adobe Premiere, I was then able to edit the footage into a short video to tell a simple story. It was also valuable practice to work on achieving smooth transitions between each clip.
A few days ago the vineyard where I live was harvested, and I was able to capture some nice footage of the harvester operating among the rows. As I work in the wine industry, I’m currently doing shift work over the next six weeks, but when I get some spare time I’ll edit the clips into a short video to share.
By changing the way I approach photography, I’ve discovered that I’m beginning to grow as a photographer, and I now genuinely enjoy heading out to create both photos and videos.