Style, tell me about yours

[kathyt]

I think there are at least two different words being tossed around here.

Style - the common thing that connects my pictures together (I shoot only slide film, I like wide angle landscapes, etc)
Style - a strong visual theme which most objective viewers would agree makes some group of images look similar

or something like that. These two overlap, but the fact that you shoot film, or like saturated colors isn't generally enough to make a randomly selected viewer say 'aha, yes, those images all look similar'

It's not clear to me what people would even mean when they ask 'what's your style?' It's possible they're just trying to make small talk and it doesn't mean a thing.

Style in the *second* sense is a good part of what sells, both commercially and in the art world. The ability to produce More Work That Looks Like That is critical to a pretty broad class of working photographers (and other artists).

I was thinking about this last night as I was reviewing a gallery. I think, in a sense, we could say, "What would we ultimately want our images to look like?" We all have some sort of vision in our minds of what we like and don't like. Using the word "style" is just an umbrella term. Could we say vision? Either way, it means the same thing to me. We have a great thread going here that is not only respectful, but helpful to one another. Lets keep it up.

 

[jowensphoto]

Flickr: Jessica Owens Photo's Photostream

^thats all my latest "stuff" - graphic design included

 

[The_Traveler]

Lew, if you're up for one more feel free to take a look. It isn't wholly representative of all I do but it's the closest thing at the moment.

Ignore the KISS photos.

Flickr: bentcountershaft's Photostream

To be honest, I get the feeling from your photostream that you don't have a specific direction that you like or are really into. There are pictures of damn near everything but mud wrestling and insects fornicating. You've done a lot of subjects in a pretty standard way; that kind of direct, non-fancy way of looking fits well in certain shots. My absolute favorite is this one which is odds on one pf the sexiest pictures I've seen here.

 

[The_Traveler]

Flickr: Jessica Owens Photo's Photostream

^thats all my latest "stuff" - graphic design included

I know totally nothing about graphic design so I skipped that.
You clearly tend towards the clean uncluttered, slightly over-exposed gauzy look. That can be a visual cliche but in most of them the expressions are so genuine that they are out of the category into nice shots. This is my absolute favorite amongst them. Totally beautiful woman, ageless elegance and very warm contact with the camera.


You go further afield into that kind of gauzy look with the flowers. Although I think that might be a dead end or too constricting to hold either your or the viewers' interest, this is my favorite.

 

[jowensphoto]

Flickr: Jessica Owens Photo's Photostream

^thats all my latest "stuff" - graphic design included

I know totally nothing about graphic design so I skipped that.
You clearly tend towards the clean uncluttered, slightly over-exposed gauzy look. That can be a visual cliche but in most of them the expressions are so genuine that they are out of the category into nice shots. This is my absolute favorite amongst them. Totally beautiful woman, ageless elegance and very warm contact with the camera.


You go further afield into that kind of gauzy look with the flowers. Although I think that might be a dead end or too constricting to hold either your or the viewers' interest, this is my favorite.

Thank you The flower you linked to... I struggled with how I felt about it at first. A combination of DIY filters and reverse macro and freelensing, I believe. I plan on taking this further.

I'll pass your compliments to my friend; she doesn't have the highest self esteem.


Appreciate the input, Lew.

 

[The_Traveler]

I'll pass your compliments to my friend; she doesn't have the highest self esteem.

Tell your friend the only thing wrong with her looks is her judgement of them.
Having had a good many wives, my judgement of looks is perfect (although my judgment of character is not as good.)

 

[bentcountershaft]

I wasn't able to type a response earlier when I saw your reply Lew, but thank you for taking a look. Your assessment is spot on based on what you saw. I've kind of tried a little bit of this and a little bit of that trying to figure out what I like. A lot of what's on flickr is just there so I could post it in the visual echo thread, so that may explain a bit as well.

Regarding the shot you said is your favorite, thank you once again. It's one of my favs too, but I was too worried about technical flaws to really post it. Noisy, busy back ground, a little dark a little soft. Still love it. Maybe I should start a thread on it.

 

[pixmedic]

this is MY style...




you got NO style until you have ridden an invisible horse!

 

[pixmedic]

this is how its done proper...