This past week, I've been listening to business coaches...looking for new ideas for improving the results I get for clients...in the process, I realized I have never taken the time to develop my own "personal story"...I have a concise description for my business services (implementing technology solutions to solve everyday business problems)...I just don't have a personal story that rolls off my tongue as easily...I start rambling...the beginning, middle and end get jumbled into a meaningless stream of dialogue no prospective client would want to hear...which is about when I realize I've lost them...
Have I lost you too? Are you thinking, and "this has to do with photography, how?"...as interested as I may be in creating my personal story, I am now captivated with the idea of telling stories with images...it's not something I ever thought to do until I began creating this website...as soon as I had to select a handful of images for the home page gallery, the desire to tell a story with them became paramount...I wanted to lead you through a series of shots that would ultimately tell an important story about the subject...gee, in much the same way a good personal story does for a person...
I love it when I have these "aha" moments...and then I went to choose photos for the gallery...it became immediately apparent that I have been shooting images mostly randomly, much like I have been telling my personal story...in no particular order that has meaning...tangentially...often without thought or purpose...
I ended up posting photos of a recent road trip because it was the most cohesive series of good images I had...which lead me to read about storytelling in photos...
What I found should not have surprised me...there's a formula for what's called a "photo essay"...Life and National Geographic magazines have honed the process to a near science...and so I'm going to start applying it the next time I shoot...I can feel my images improving already...
