I suppose this is a symptom of having read too much, but over the years I’ve read thousands of posts, hundreds (well, over one hundred to be sure) of books, and attended dozens of lectures. Paid out of my own pocket for a few one-day lessons/seminars, even.

A subject that keeps coming up is “know your style”. This is similar, in my mind, to the phrase “find your voice” that I heard so often in writing classes.

And just like in writing classes, I think it’s utter hogwash.

Yeah, you’re probably not convinced – there isn’t a wide range of photographic styles really shown on this site. Mostly environmental landscapes with a few abstracts.  Well, that’s what I show here. I’m not interested (right now, at least) in showing my portaits, or my experiments, or my higher-end photos.  This blog is mostly about my experiments.

Look , my “style” depends completely on my mood.  Wintertime?  I’m in a dark mood.  Lots of dark photos, heavy on the shadows.  On vacation in a warm place in the cold, Alaskan winter?  You’ll see bright, almost overly-saturated photos.  I’m loving the respite from daily grayscale (and that’s really what Anchorage is like in the winter!), and I focus on that.  In-between?  Anything goes.  Alaskan summers I can get into strange grains, or lose myself in odd effects.  Having a bad day?  You’ll see textures creeping in to my images.  Strong emotions of any sort?  I start getting into abstracts.  Around family?  Suddenly I go all photojournalist on you.

“Know your style” indeed.  Photographic style is deeply personal, and depends deeply on the person.