Learning Photography by Painting with Light

Wow! My first blog post. I’ve put off getting a blog for so long. Just one more hat to wear, right? As a photographer and small business owner, I already wear so many. I guess I should tell you about myself! 

Hi, I’m taylor. If you’ve skimmed any of my site, you’ll know I don’t like to capitalize my name. Just a personal preference. I’ve been interested in digital photography since I was a sophomore in high school. I worked two jobs that summer to afford my very own DSLR – a Nikon D5000. I took it everywhere I thought had potential for cool images. On vacations, to soccer games (where I met my now-husband), and in my back yard…shooting “models” aka my twin brothers. 

My senior year of HS I enrolled in an IB art program. The IB part is not important – just know it’s an advanced class. Our art teacher gave us the freedom to study whatever we wanted that semester. I dabbled in acrylics to mimic Wassily Kandinsky, tried my “hand” at watercolor hand paintings and eventually landed on the study of light painting. If you’re unsure what light painting is, it’s exactly what it sounds like: a photography-based medium where you’re painting with a light source in minimal light, or most often, complete darkness. I tried all sorts of lighting techniques and tools, painting on objects and in the air, painting in my front yard, painting on glass suspended from the ceiling…you name it. 

That was really the moment where I learned to pick apart all of the settings on my camera and learn manual mode. It is a must for light painting, as you need to underexpose, but also expose for long periods of time.

I would say this semester alone convinced me I wanted to be a photographer. I started looking for photography programs at universities across the state and settled on University of Central Missouri.

I took one semester of photography classes as a freshman in college and decided it wasn’t for me. My professors were looking for metaphors in my work. At that time, I wanted to be a commercial photographer. Sorry sir, but there’s nothing metaphorical in this bottle of perfume I just shot…though it does look like it could be on the cover of a magazine. With the frustration I was encountering, I was falling out of love with photography. And yes, it might have been 18-year-old, not-fully-matured me, but I didn’t want to fall out of love. So I switched majors. I knew I had to exercise my creativity daily, so I chose graphic design.

Design is another story for another time.

xo,
taylor