OrionsByte
No longer a newbie, moving up!
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2010
- Messages
- 1,500
- Reaction score
- 261
- Location
- N. California
- Can others edit my Photos
- Photos OK to edit
I'm mostly just rambling here so there's a TLDR version at the end if you want to skip the babble...
I've been working on my photography for a while now and though I still have a long ways to go (choose your own metric), I feel like I've lacked direction recently. I've been trying to figure out how to get myself excited about photography again and maybe even find a way to make a tiny bit of money from it.
Often what happens when I get in this mood is I end up taking some sort of self-portrait just to test a lighting concept or something, just for fun. After goofing off a bit yesterday (current avatar) I decided I wanted something that showed more of my professional side, and did a little brainstorming. I've taken plenty of portraits and self-portraits that are studio-esque but that gets boring; I wanted something with more context.
So I finally came up with an idea, though I won't be able to shoot it for a couple days (and I'll share it when I'm done so y'all can berate it
), but the overall process got me wondering if this may be a direction worth staying on for a while. Generally speaking when I start thinking through a shot (whether it's me, or my kids, or whoever), I spend a lot of time trying to figure out the background... mostly how to get rid of it or make sure it's not distracting. I think that's why I kind of hit a wall with my photography; it was frustrating to want to shoot something but felt like I was constrained by where I could shoot it. Environmental portraits would take that thought process in a different direction: incorporate the background, make it a part of the portrait, use it to give context, instead of trying to figure out how to get around or avoid it.
I think that environmental portraits also play to some of my other personal strengths and weaknesses:
TLDR; What is your opinion of environmental portraits as an art form, as a business model, and what would you say are the biggest challenges to overcome?
I've been working on my photography for a while now and though I still have a long ways to go (choose your own metric), I feel like I've lacked direction recently. I've been trying to figure out how to get myself excited about photography again and maybe even find a way to make a tiny bit of money from it.
Often what happens when I get in this mood is I end up taking some sort of self-portrait just to test a lighting concept or something, just for fun. After goofing off a bit yesterday (current avatar) I decided I wanted something that showed more of my professional side, and did a little brainstorming. I've taken plenty of portraits and self-portraits that are studio-esque but that gets boring; I wanted something with more context.
So I finally came up with an idea, though I won't be able to shoot it for a couple days (and I'll share it when I'm done so y'all can berate it

I think that environmental portraits also play to some of my other personal strengths and weaknesses:
- I'm a good listener (important for learning about the subject and what context you want to place them in)
- I prefer thinking creatively rather to "sticking to a script"
- I hate location scouting. Hate hate hate it. I'd much rather meet someone at a location that they've scouted, especially if it's a place that's important to them, but using my previous thought process (minimize the background) that was really difficult to work with (so I never really tried).
- I dislike artificially posing people, especially groups (i.e. the shot of the family walking hand-in-hand through an orchard in autumn - it's pretty, but feels so fake). I much prefer a more candid feel, which doesn't always lend itself to studio portraits, but can be incorporated in to environmental portraits, especially if they're in a location they're comfortable in.
- From a business model perspective, I've never even come close to trying to get paid for my photography, and generally speaking never really felt that I had reached a point where I could. However, this feels like a niche that could maybe be monetized if I worked on it for a while first.
TLDR; What is your opinion of environmental portraits as an art form, as a business model, and what would you say are the biggest challenges to overcome?