Niches and Strengths

Find your niche. Play to your strengths. I'm sure we've all heard those lines, or something close.

In photography terms, good principles -

but do they allow you to grow creatively?

I read a Q&A post from a photography blog this morning where the questioner is anxious about trying to find their niche, perceiving it - and I'm guessing here - a place to become expert in that field. Maybe even well known. The answer from a prominent pro-photographer was to the effect that niching down (is that even a word?!) can help to find a visual style, but that if your eye is strong enough, then you can photograph anything and still have it feel "you".

Broadly speaking, I'd go along with that. Niche in business terms is sensible. You're known for your product, your service and you can specialise in that. When I was in Morocco running a mountaineering company, I found my niche in guiding winter ascents of the highest peaks - and was known for it.

But in terms of photography, whilst you can become an expert in that field (mountain landscape photography), it can become a boundary fence over which you don't often (ever?) climb over to explore new areas, new contexts, new expressions of your visual style.

In October I found myself in three completely different photographic contexts.

The Scottish highlands.

Rural (low income) villages in Zambia.

Searching for elusive leopards in a national park close to the Zambian / Malawi border.

In terms of playing to my strengths, the trip in Scotland was up there. Mountains, landscapes and wild coasts. To make it interesting however, I decided to take most of my photos using a colour profile on my Fujifilm camera that I hadn't used previously. To see how the images would look and to challenge myself in terms of colour photography - Black & White being my usual "go-to". Contending with Storm Amy made the physical challenge of actually taking any photographs all the more exciting! Out of a meagre 30 or so photos I took over 4 days, I managed to come away with 2 images I was happy with.

A week later I was in Zambia travelling with a local NGO I've helped with on their website. Before I went I had in my mind's eye, black and white portraits similar to ones I had taken in Mosul, Iraq a couple of years prior. Whilst I really enjoy this type of photography, it's not a context I am in often. Neither had I any idea of how Zambians would react to requests of their photos being taken. As it turned out they were as amenable and engaging as Moslawis which is a high bar! I came away with a number of images that I felt protrayed the dignity, the often hard-won life experience and openness of some amazing people. When it comes to talking about niches, this is one area I would love to explore more.

Whilst in Zambia, I extended by a few days to go on safari in an area that leopards can be sighted. Now I'm far from a leopard specialist, but I do know of their reputation for being elusive and shy. I'm also far away from any wildlife photography experience and was definitely stepping onto foreign soil there so to speak. The few days there showed me that with patience, and a long lens(!), you can return home with some nice images. Certainly not gallery quality but ones that reinforced to me the benefits of digital photography where a couple of thousand images generated 10 or so photos I was happy to print. Not a niche for sure, but one that I returned knowing it had shown me an area that while I wasn't playing to my strengths, I still felt my prints and style were "me".

Whatever season we find ourselves in - work or creativity - let’s climb over the fence and experiment!