Composing is one of my favorite parts of photography. Whether it’s with products in a studio setting or working on location with an environment I can’t control, setting up the composition is when my designer brain kicks in. By intentionally framing my images, I’m able to control how the viewer experiences the moment. At the same time I’m considering how the photos might eventually live within a brand.
While I plan my shoots beforehand, I’m constantly looking beyond my plan. It’s exciting when I turn around from my intended shot and notice unique shadows and light illuminating certain textures and colors. This is what happened during my recent portrait shoot in Taos, New Mexico, where unexpected shadows, adobe architecture, and contrasting oranges and blues challenged the heat of the hanging chiles.
While moving between locations I stopped on a teeny tiny sidewalk alongside a side street to let some cars pass. When I looked up I saw harsh shadows cutting across the warm stucco of a building at a 45 degree angle. My jaw might as well have dropped then and there. This is the kind of thing I love to discover. I called my models over and had them sit on the short wall alongside the sidewalk. Behind them were the harsh shadows on the wall complemented by wispy shadows cast by the surrounding trees. I decided to shoot it straight on, my favorite, with the couple seated in the middle. The sharp, graphic shadows against the organic adobe architecture made the otherwise simple composition much more interesting. I love finding those contrasts, hard against soft, geometric against organic, and using them to create visual interest. None of this shot was planned, but being able to notice all the intersecting elements created my favorite photo of the session.
Often design and photography are seen as two separate capabilities, but they have the power to influence each other more than most might realize. It’s after shoots like this one in Taos that I realize just how much design thinking impacts my photography style and vice versa. With every image I take, I consider how it can be used in a brand campaign. How it tells a story or conveys a mood.
Choosing between the models holding eye contact with the lens or looking off into the distance conveys very different feelings, even if nothing else in the composition changes. Where the subject is placed in an image creates different design possibilities when using it in a branding campaign. Looking back on this set of images made me realize just how much each of my specialties influence the other. The more I work across both design and photography, the harder it is to separate them. Photography changes the way I design and design changes the way I shoot, allowing me to create a visual system that feels whole.
