Finding Where You Fit With Photography and Styling

The other day, I watched a photographer I admire pack her gear for an on-site commercial shoot. There was so much stuff. All I could think was - no thanks.

Yes, all of that stuff was necessary for her. But do I want to photograph for billboards? It turns out that I’m pretty happy photographing for trade show displays, websites, food media, and the occasional supermarket promotion. 

On the flip side of this, someone commented on a past YouTube video of mine where my props were visible behind me - Oh, wow. You have so much stuff! Do I have to have that many props to create food photos? I don’t want that many props!

Not at all. High-quality print campaign photos can be created with a number of different professional cameras and lenses that you know how to use well. Beautiful food photos can be created with only a handful of props. 

The point is that viewing my process from the first photographer - I use way too little. 

Viewing from the perspective of the commenter on my video - I use way too much.

What’s important is that I’m super happy where I am. I know where I fit. 

Finding this spot took a lot of time, a lot of moments of feeling inferior. 

You don’t have to go through that. Do what I didn’t have the knowledge to do when I first started out, and give some thought to where you want to be. Where do you fit? Grow your skills there and the confidence in your work will follow. 

These are a few things I know about myself and my work as a photographer and stylist:

I don’t use a lot of gear.

I’ve encountered plenty of outstanding photographers who use minimal gear for many different reasons. They want to travel light. They can create what they what to create with what they have, there’s no reason to use more stuff. On the other hand, there are plenty of markets and types of photography that require advanced gear. 

The beauty of it is that you get to choose what category you fit into and how you want to pursue your own work. No one else. 

I prefer natural light and use it 95% of the time. 

This is a hot topic, specifically in food photography. I’ve read comments on photography message boards saying you’re not a professional food photographer if you don’t use artificial light. I’ve seen Instagram ads promising me that using artificial light will make my life so much easier. 

Can I use artificial light? Yes, in a minimal way. Do I want to? No. Not unless it’s absolutely necessary. I like the patience, challenge, and truly unique style natural light gives to my photos. I also get to work in a brightly lit, mood-boosting studio all day instead of a dark room. 

You can do either or both. Lots of types of photography that use natural light - on-farm, outdoor events, landscape, travel, weddings, branding, some interiors, street, architecture… 

Whatever you choose to use and excel at does not make you any less of a photographer. Don’t let anyone make you feel that way.

I am a stylist and photographer.

Many photographers are not stylists. You don’t have to be both. Most commercial and advertising shoots have teams of professionals all with a very specific role. 

I love styling and I prefer to style my own shoots. I love working alone at my own pace. At the same time, it can also be fun to work with others. All my client work requires some type of team effort, whether it’s art direction, campaign playbooks, color schemes, mood boards, or final photo decisions being made via phone calls, emails, or Zoom video calls. But personally, I do my very best work when I have the freedom to create alone based on what my client needs. 

Not everyone is like this. Others prefer to be around a team at all times. Again, the best part is you can choose how you work. 

I know my limits.

I like working alone and that means I have to know my limits. Intricately decorated cakes and pastry art are not my strengths. I’ve taken them on before and it led to more frustration than it was worth. I usually turn them down. If it’s a shoot I don’t want to pass up, I’d hire someone to help create or style the cake. Same with ice cream. It’s a tough subject alone (speaking from experience) so now I usually avoid it. 

Limits are something you can only learn with time. You have to step out of your comfort zone and even fail from time to time to find what is right for you. I feel like when I turned that point where I could say this is what I can do, and no, I don’t do that, my confidence in my work grew even more. 

Your turn. What are four things you can say about your photography and how you work? Say them with confidence and pursue them. Also, be flexible. They may change over time.

Learning outside your photography niche

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Sometimes we put blinders on. We focus on exactly what we want to do, learn exactly how to do it, and nothing is going to distract us. 

While there are so many situations in life where this is advantageous when it comes to photography and styling it can cause us to miss out on loads of helpful information. 

I’ve been an advocate for learning outside of your niche since I began styling and photographing food over 11 years ago.

I call it the Apply It Back method. It’s when you learn about something else and then you apply what you learned back to your own photography and photography niche. It’s a way to grow your skill and more importantly evolve your individual style. 

Here’s how it works for me:

• Landscape photography helps me see my horizon on food sets and keep the scene aligned.

• Learning about freezing motion in sports and nature photography helps me with food and drink action like pours and sprinkles. 

• Reading interior design books gives me ideas for color coordination and scenes. 

• Studying color psychology helps me with propping. 

• Floral design helps with color coordination and styling table scenes.

• People and portrait photography helps me with photographing my own hands in shots.

• Learning about natural light patterns and how to control them helps to improve even my phone photos and videos.

• Travel gives me ideas for how to reflect real life in my photos.

There are so many things to absorb outside of simply how to do food photography. All of our experiences and studies regardless of the focus and topic can be applied back to our art. 

Learning about other things isn’t time wasted. In fact, it can serve as an enjoyable creative break when you are feeling stuck or burned out. 

Why Transition to CreatingYOU.® Quick Courses?

Honestly, I’ve always been a teacher. It’s something that I’ve been reminded of again in recent months. 

It began with teaching group exercise in college and then evolved into more one-on-one encounters with personal training. I moved on to a career in academia developing curriculum to help people move more and eat well. That was followed by using the train-the-trainer model across the state of Kentucky to teach others how to teach others the curricula I’d developed. 

I think in explaining that you’ll see that there is no surprise things have come full circle for me. To a point where what I enjoy most is finding creative ways to teach others how to build skills and confidence in creating their own photos. 

When it came to teaching food and product styling and photography, the way I got into it was all wrong, though.

I jumped into the online teaching world powered by the ideas that I needed a big course that covered everything I could offer with a higher price tag to match. 

And I created that course - Confused to Confident (CtoC). And many of you have taken it. And many of you have let me know how much it helped you - with creating your photography style, understanding natural light, using your camera in manual mode, developing a step-by-step process from stove to set... 

Each time I re-watch it, I’m not going to lie, I’m a little impressed with myself that I put in all the work to create it. I’m extremely proud of it. It is a really great course. 

But having one big course misses the mark in many ways. 

• We all have different goals and one big course may not be focused enough to move you forward in the very specific area that you have your sights set on. 
  
  

• So much content at once can be way too much to take in. Yes, you get lifetime access, but life offers many distractions and there are many people who have not fully completed the course. This honestly makes me sad. I want you to finish the course and move forward.
  
  

• It is out of budget for some. CtoC really is moderately priced when it comes to courses of its size (it’s only $297), but I realize that this can be a lot to pay when you aren’t quite sure if each piece of it is what you need to learn. 
  
  

• Having that course is in some ways holding me back from diving deeper into some subjects and types of photography that I’d really like to teach about. 

So while CtoC will still exist, my focus over the coming months will go to CreatingYOU.® Quick Courses which has really been an idea on the back burner since the day I launched my single course.

I’ve just felt like I wasn’t allowed to create a suite of courses because of the distracting noise of others telling me - that’s not how you do it.

But my goal is to be approachable, accessible, and to teach things or a way of doing and looking at them that you likely haven’t experienced yet. CreatingYOU.® Quick Courses will allow me to do this. 

These workshop-style will be designed to finish in a day or less. Some may be a 60-minute workshops, while others may have a few modules and projects for you to complete as you work your way through. They will range from $29 to $79 each based on the topic and content within. 

Have some thoughts or needs? Reach out to me and let me know. I have an ongoing list of topics to teach about and I’d love to know what you would like to learn. 

The first to launch this summer will be Surface School. You’ll learn to break out of boredom with your photography surfaces in a way that will allow you to create photos that are specific to your style and brand.
More soon!

And free content certainly won’t be going away. Be sure to check out my 15-minute video training:

I also send loads of helpful tips through words, slides, and videos about 3 times a month to my subscribers. Sign up here:

Using Photography Surfaces as Flooring in Your Photos

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I love flooring. I especially love how it can create a scene for photos when you shoot at a high angle or overhead and catch just the tiniest bit of it in a shot. 

But for years, my floor was brown shag carpet. Not exactly the kind of thing that makes you ooh and ahh over a photo. 

Even now, I would have loved to have some rustic concrete or hardwood in my rental studio, but I had to work with the landlord for the most affordable option. And that happened to be boring office carpet.

The solution? Using my favorite surfaces as stand-ins for flooring. And they don’t have to be that big. It just takes a little creativity and movement to capture some fun images and angles. 

Let me show you some examples.

I love my 2x3 vinyl surfaces from Poppy Bee Surfaces. Last week, I was photographing artichokes and I really wanted to get a shot on the corner of the live edge table my husband and I made a few years ago. But, again, boring office carpet. 

So I set this up:

When shooting overhead I had to adjust myself.

Too high and I catch the edge of the carpet and the rug. Too low and I caught the edge of the surface at the bottom. But zooming in and centering myself with the camera gave me the third and final shot. 

Bigger boards take a bit less work, but you still have to capture the right angle. I shot this scene just last week. Laying my 4 x 4 pallet wall surface on the ground allowed me to capture these sangria shots. 

And this shot you saw just last week in the email about Changing Your Angle. This is a vertical of the same scene. The chair is set on a sheet of black painted canvas. This is what it looked like before I cropped and edited for the final image on the right. 

The cocktail should look familiar, too. This one doesn’t use a surface at all, but a scuffed and worn-out black foam core board. 

I hope this inspires you to incorporate some interesting flooring into your shots soon!

How to stop taking 100s of photos of each set

We’ve all been there. One food, product, or recipe results in 100 + photos on the camera card. 

Question. How many times have you put all or even 50% of those photos to use? 

Right. 

Listen, you don’t need those photos. If you are like me, I suspect what you really need is the time back that you spent taking them all and sorting through them in Lightroom to find one you like best. 

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The urge to take a 100+ photos of one food or product results from two things:

• A lack of confidence that you nailed a good shot. 

• A lack of a clear vision for your photo. 

In a professional photoshoot, the goal is to nail the hero shot. A few extra angles and orientations are only thrown in for good measure and to make sure you have some options. 

Apply this approach to your shoots for your own business. 

Gaining the confidence that you’ve nailed it comes with practice, but there are other things you can do to end the day with a handful of very usable photos versus 100+ you’ll never touch again. 

• Know the number of photos you need. (e.g. 1 for a product website, 3 for your blog, 5 for a client to review). 

• Focus on one hero shot. Style and shoot to that shot only. Nail that one shot. When you see it, it should evoke the words - yep, that’s it! You might even shout YEESSSS! if you are alone. I speak from experience. 

• Take a few variations (e.g. overhead, horizontal, tight, pulled out) based on photo needs and to have some extras for your portfolio in case you find other uses in the future (maybe a cookbook, submitting for a story request in a magazine or ad, even future prints). We’re talking 5 to 10 photos max. 

There is no reason to have a portfolio of 100s of unused photos of a subject. Focusing on a hero shot:

• Saves you time shooting - work more efficiently

• Saves you time editing - more productive

• Saves storage space on your hard drive - more organized

• Focuses on building your skills and creating the shots you envision - become a better photographer for your business

Each time you create a photo the photo speaks to that moment in time. Some people refer to it as the photo telling a story. I prefer to say that the photo captures the moment and serves a purpose. One soup, smoothie, or bowl of berries can’t tell multiple stories and capture multiple moments at once.

Focus on the one thing. 

Nail the hero shot.

~ Lori

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