Back in 2020, I jumped in and started The Creative Frame Podcast. I knew I wanted to build connections, not just with myself and other photographers but also with the photography community in general. It turns out that 2020 was a great time to start this kind of project because so many of us were looking for connection, looking for ways to find the beauty in our every day lives as we were stuck in one place, and looking for ways to fill all this newly discovered time.

In the beginning I leaned on my friendships with photographers so that there was some comfort in all the unknowns of the overall process. But I also spent a ton of time researching topics for each and every person so that all the episodes felt like there was something new to hear, new to learn.

It got easier over time to move straight into these conversations even with people that I had little to no interaction with prior to our chats. I tried to stay mindful of staying true to conversations that would hopefully leave people feeling inspired and wanting to grab their cameras and go make some art.

do things your own way

Because I titled this post over a year ago, I am not really sure what I was thinking I would say this podcast changed for me. Now, I’ll start by saying this podcast really helped me grow my own confidence as a photographer. Every person I had the honor of talking with shared insights into their process and while there were some similarities, it was mostly differences. This really helped me see that there is no “right” way to do things. The most important piece is to figure out what works best for you and then dive into that process with your whole heart. Try things out. See how it feels to you and then don’t be afraid of making a change when needed. This applies to both photography as a hobby and photography as a business. There may be some similarities to how people set things up but mostly, I found differences. I also found that people are incredibly generous with sharing what works for them. Things like morning pages every day to help with creativity, making sure you do a client interview before a session, ideas for projects, activities that inspire them from music to napping. I believe the key is finding what works for you and leaning all the way into that and then if/when things feel stale, just change them up.

your location & circumstances matters

This may be slightly controversial and maybe I’ll change my mind at some point. While I always suspected that location and even circumstances had a lot to do with photographic style and voice development, talking to 45 photographers all over the world really drove this point home for me. I guess the outlier to this statement may be travel photographers but I think I could argue that it holds true for them as well. Travel photographers wouldn’t be able to have the breadth of work if they weren’t shooting in new places all the time. Back to the original point though, when it comes to the daily (or weekly or monthly) practice of picking up your camera and taking pictures for the majority of us, we are all limited to our current lives. I’ve mentioned a few times on the podcast that I would absolutely love to really dive into street photography but living in a beach community really limits those opportunities for me. Sure, I can go for a visit to NYC and try out that genre for a weekend but then I am back home with the ocean and the palm trees. Over the years, I’ve noticed how my style and voice has developed based on where I live because these are the easiest areas for me to access. I can run down to the beach after work and spend 30 minutes practicing a new technique or trying a “new” film camera but I cannot run into a nearby city to practice street photography,. I don’t have any children at home so being a lifestyle documentary photographer of my own life, which many photographers have built a whole name for themselves doing, isn’t an option for me. This podcast really helped increase my already strong appreciation for the different kinds of photography that people can do and at the same time confirmed my idea that a lot of what and who you photograph can be dependent to your own personal life.

people are unique and different and beautiful

I already held this belief but talking to so many photographers