You are no longer a beginner, but your not yet a master either. You’re in those in-between years.

There's that space you get to when you know how to shoot technically, but you wonder what you have to say. You've spent years learning the basics, and your voice/intuition/style/creativity has been left sitting on the shelf. It's quiet and unused, so you question it all the time. Is this right/correct/allowed? You are no longer a beginner, but your not yet a master either. It's those in-between years. And when you look around, you see nice work, yet it's not quite what you want to create, so again, doubt.

This space is hard. Well, it was for me; I nearly walked away from photography. I felt goosebumps for blur, and colour, and messy but perfect feeds and techniques reigned. I felt like what I liked didn't fit in, or there wasn't a place for it. However, over the years, this has changed. I see more softness, more emotion, more story, more play. Photographers have started smashing the rules and ripping up the box of labels. And it's freaking beautiful. They create for the love of it rather than being technically correct. They know the rules, and they now chose to break them. And as they do, their creative voice strengthens. It gets louder and wiser.

So, how do you trust your voice/intuition/style/creativity? Start slowly and listen. When ideas for sessions bubble up, don't judge them. Write them down, and ponder on how to make it happen. If you require a specific location, then start taking the long way home to find it. If you need models, then do a model call with precise criteria to fit your idea. Plan out the colours, the light, and the feel of the images. Enjoy the whole process from start to finish, and not just on the day during the session. This is for you and to honour your creativity. You are listening to a creative voice, and the more we practise it, the stronger it gets.

Many of my still-life ideas start with an idea; it feels like an impulse or a bubble of excitement. The set-up in these images began in the baking aisle as the blue and green sprinkles felt like happiness and joy. They matched two plates of the same colours, a tea towel, and some dried eucalyptus leaves. One thought leads to another, which leads to another. These threads are creative intuition, and when we listen rather than judge, they grow stronger.

So, my simple point is to trust your voice/intuition/style/creativity. It's beautiful just as it is, and it will grow stronger when you listen.

These books and videos have helped me to listen to and trust my intuition. They are the ones that I go back to again and again.

Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

The Soul of the Camera by David Du Chemin

For the Love of the Photograph by Chloe Lodge

Ira Glass on Storytelling by David Liu

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