Progressing in Landscape Photography and Building Creative Confidence
I have made no secret of the immense power that photography holds as a vehicle for transformation and personal growth. Not only does the camera connect us with nature, leading to immense healing and a greater sense of place and purpose, but the resulting photographs stand to serve as a marker that measure our evolution and progress.
The confidence that a person can gain from the practice of photography is truly profound, and I speak from personal experience, having witnessed a significant improvement in the quality of my own creative works since I started out with photography - so much so that I have found the confidence to now offer private photography tuition, lead group workshops, speak in public, and launch myself this year as a creative mentor to help other photographers in their own quests to find deeper meaning and purpose with their art.
Today, I have been inspired to share some of my first ever photographs, taken just under seven years ago, and some photographs from later on in my photography journey to share the progress that I have made - both photographically and personally/ spiritually. Maybe, I thought, they could inspire someone to pick up the camera to start out on their journey or to find motivation to get out and find a new direction for their photography.
2018 - My First ‘Landscape’ Photographs
Here are some of the first photographs that I ever created of the natural world. I find it quite interesting that I was drawn to the trees from the beginning of my creative journey. I could not tell you what my reasons were for pointing my camera at these as my subjects exactly. All I know is that I had a relentless desire to share the journey that I was on; unknowing of exactly where it might lead me, but knowing that, wherever it may be, it would be somewhere very special.
I had, prior to these photographs, been taking photographs of myself for a little while to document my physique transformation on an Instagram account in the hope of inspiring people with my life. The next step for me on my path was to take the physique that I had build out into the natural world to begin pointing the camera outwards at the landscape in which I now walked.
This is a particularly sentimental chapter in my creative journey and it feels very special to look back at it as the version of me that I am today. I walked across the landscape so full of curiosity, looking at the world, quite literally, through new eyes. I had been through a bit of a dark period that year, following a heartbreak after my first relationship had broken down. Walking alone outdoors with my camera in hand on the hunt for light was the greatest therapy that I could have had at a time when I so desperately needed it.
My work has evolved many times since I started out on my journey, and in ways that would have been unimaginable to me back in 2018. The kinds of photographs that I see in my portfolio now are beyond anything that I was looking at back them on websites such as Photocrowd. It has been rewarding to have watched objectively as I have found new muses for my camera and birthed new creative ideas, portfolios and projects. The pursuit of creativity through photography has been a tremendous deep-dive into my own mind and soul. It has been a truly profound period of self-study more than anything, leading to immense changes within myself, and renewed confidence and self-esteem following the heartbreak that was the catalyst for my creative journey.
2021 - A Year that I Found My Vision
2021 was a special year for me. I had bought myself some freedom by saving a small sum of money with my next chapter in mind. The choice that I faced at the time was to either buy my first house, and stay tied to the comfort of my 9-5 (again to reiterate the absurdity of one company’s expectation - more like 7.30-5.30) job, creating photographs on the weekends, or use the money to fund my life for a little while whilst I went outdoors and created with absolute desperation, in an attempt to make a portfolio of work that could stand to represent me as an artist and, hopefully, provide me with an income whilst I get out to work on my next body of photographs. With my first, large scale, solo exhibition due to launch at the prestigious Plas Glyn y Weddw in May this year, coinciding with the release of my debut book, ‘Finding Light’, I think I made the right decision.
The first photograph in this collection stands to mark a significant point in my photographic journey. I had, just a few months before, handed in my notice to leave my soul-sucking 9-5 (although it was more like a 7.30-5.30) corporate job. I was free. I had saved up a little bit of money and decided to give my passion for photography everything that I had in an attempt to build a career as an artist. I talk openly about this photograph, titled ‘Limelight’, in a recent YouTube video, and how it reflects a part of my own story - with the old, dead tree standing on a stage of its’ own, in a similar manner to me now that I had decided to leave safety and security to head into the darkness of artist’s path.
The other three photographs above have also provided me with plenty to reflect upon and given me many stories to tell along my way through my speaking engagements, exhibitions and writings. ‘Silent Waters’, the second photograph, forms the foundations for my creative essay ‘Seeking Stillness’, and, I believe, stands very proudly amongst my best photographs in terms of depth, quality and meaning as well as creative technique and composition.
2022 - 2023 - Increasing Depth, Meaning & Purpose
As my photographs have evolved and deepened, I believe that I have too in so many ways. I started out on my journey with a dream and deep desire to open up to the world and share more of my own story and truth, and now I do just that in interviews and podcast appearances such as the one on Matt Payne’s F-Stop, Collaborate and Listen. The creative journey, for me, as mentioned previously, has been one of personal and spiritual growth. The increasing changes and evolution within my photography, I believe, stands to serve as a marker for that growth and development.
Over the past few years, the number of photographs that I have produced has reduced, but, their depth and meaning, I believe, has continued to increase. ‘A New Dawn’, one of Eryri’s (Snowdonia’s) finest post-apocalyptic views in photograph number one inspired one of my deepest writings yet - an essay of the same title that features in my upcoming photobook ‘Finding Light’. The fourth photograph in this gallery also stands as a part of a collection that inspired another essay, titled, ‘Achieving Catharsis Through Nature Photography’, which ventures into the depths of the healing journey that I have been on over the past seven years with the camera in hand.
I have, at times, over the past year or so, found it to be difficult to find the time, structure, and motivation to get outdoors to create any worthwhile photographs. Much of my creative energy has been focused on building a business - something that can provide me with stability to provide for myself and a family in the future, as well as give me the flexibility (one day) to go out and create with freedom. I have realised recently, after a long period of reflection over winter, and too long spent in the darkness of the world of thought - necessary for growth, but also limiting and stifling to some degree, particularly when out of balance - that I need to get back to basics with photography.
I created the first of these two photographs - the only two with any real significance over the past twelve months or so - back in November. I had, just a few days prior to creating this, learnt of my father’s passing - a man that I hadn’t seen for thirty years. There is something about this square composition that moves me and puts this amongst my favourite photographs. I haven’t yet worked out exactly what that is, but it has provided me with plenty to think about and explore, showing glimpses of a change in the way that I am now seeing the world. The second of these photographs - the most recent in my portfolio - offers further promise of hope and new direction for my photography. In recent weeks, I have been incubating an idea for a portfolio around the theme of ‘stillness’ and this theme gives a glimpse, perhaps, into what my future might hold for me as an artist.
From starting out in nature & landscape photography just under seven years ago, to today, the changes inside of myself, represented in my photographs have been, I believe, significant. My hope for a long, rewarding and stable future as an artist grows ever stronger, and, upon reading some of the comments that I now receive across my various channels, I feel like people just like you are beginning to resonate with the deeper messages surrounding my photography and writing. Reading these comments make me realise that is has been a journey well worth embarking upon. If you made it this far, thank you from the bottom of my heart for showing interest in what I have to say to the world.