What would photography be with out light and shadows. Sculpting, enhancing, revealing, hiding, amazing light. Light and dark run hand in hand in the world of photography. There are many points of view, many ideas, and many, many opinions. Guess what………..

Their all wrong………….and their all right.

Truth is, light is what you make it in photography. Problem is, until you see the light, you can’t use it to create, to define, to inspire, both yourself and others. If I am given the option between an open window of light, and an OFC light, I go for the window….every single time. I think it goes back to my childhood. Living and being raised on a farm, I was surrounded by light. In all the hue’s and colors, in all the brightness, the darkness, the gloom, the breathtaking sunrises and sunsets. I spent hours tracking along the creek, exploring the woods, loving the way the sunlight broke through the branches and brought little parts of the forest floor to life, yet left other parts in a darkened wonder. So when I take an image, I prefer, desire, love, and admire natural light. Because it surprises you. Shocks you. Stuns you. It creates a view that you could never find with a false light source or manipulated situation. That being said, there is always a place for flash, OCF, and external light to help create beautiful images. There are many times these different light sources come in handy at weddings, I just try not to use them unless I really have to.

So what is the big secret to seeing the light that is all around you? It’s simple, it’s easy peasy. I call it “dumbing down”. To truly see light in it’s real form, you have to, in a sense, dumb down your brain. Our brain automatically adjust the light our eyes takes in and decreases what we truly see by between 5 to 10 levels. So everything we see, is actually darker than true reality.

Learning to see light is not an overnight, one time, amazing thing that is easy. It takes practice. Study the light. Study how it falls across your yard, house, street. Study the way it appears on the faces of people you see and meet. Study indoor light and the way it falls, study the way the lights are positioned and think about why the developer put the lights exactly where they are in buildings. Discover what they were trying to illuminate, enhance, bring forth, and display.

Then pick up your camera, and shoot it. All of it. Practice shooting in every natural light situation you can find, in ever indoor lighting situation you can find. Shoot the walls, a chair, a pair of shoes, shoot a head of cabbage with a hat on it…………what ever it is, shoot it, and shoot some more until that plain object becomes art in the light……and when that happens……..shoot some more.

There is no shortcut, no perfect form of light. It’s about personal taste, personal style. I find imagery with no shadows and no contrast to be boring, while others find imagery such as mine, with spots of sun and shadow to be……..well, incorrect, since, in their eyes the light is not even. The thing is, where in nature do you find a spotlight on a tree because the sun shining above made it ugly and it needed more light to make the branches be evenly displayed. No where. It is the sunlight slipping through those leaves, those branches, that enhance the trees size, it’s beauty, and it’s wonder.

In the words of Jerry Ghinos, “Nothing is sexier than shadows sculpting your image.”  He said this as I sat in his class at Imaging 2012 in New Orleans. I heard this at a moment when I was full of doubt. When one to many people had told me that I needed less shadows in my images, and what I had begun to try and produce was making me sad. It was at that moment, when I realized, I needed to do my way. I needed to shoot me, my eye, my style, my life….and I do.

There are negative comments, negative people, people who try to talk about my style, or laugh at me, but through it all, I have kept it real……………..as in real light. Because it’s what I love. I don’t mind sunlight flowing across the field behind a client, or a spot of sun in an image, I am never going to throw away a location that means the world to a client, simple because the light is not perfect. Instead, I see a challenge, and I aim to conquer it……..and if I don’t, believe me, I dust myself off and try again.

Because lets face it……PERFECTION IS HIGHLY OVERRATED.

On another note……….this is how I feel about waking up early in the morning. It is also highly overrated. 😉

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I am a Wedding & Lifestyle photographer, Spider hater, hot tea drinker, sarcasm loving, mom of two boys, and center of my sexy hubby’s world. I truly believe there is no better job than to capture the memories of the most special times in a client’s life. I believe in passion, in love, in forever lasting romance, in hope, in joy, and in laughing until you almost pee yourself, because laughter heals the heart. I believe the glass is half full…and even if it really is half empty, I’d rather not know. I choose a smile over a frown, tears of joy over tears of sorrow, and I believe that brokenness makes your stronger, not weaker, so take the negative life may throw your way, and turn it into the stepping block you need to climb higher in life, always keep yourself at the higher level instead of lowering yourself down to the level of others.

I service all of Louisiana including, Lake Charles, Sulphur, Westlake, Carlyss, Eunice, Alexandria, Shreveport, Lafayette, New Orleans, Monroe, and  Natchitoches. Serving all of Texas including, Beaumont, Dallas, Huston, and Orange Texas. Serving Mississippi and Alabama. Destinations anywhere including, Florida, California, New York, Cancun, and other destinations abroad.  Check out my website here: http://suzygphotography.com

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