Guest Post: Kiss Me Kaitlin

I am so excited to have Kaitlin guest posting for me. She is beautiful and talented, and she is one of my dearest friends and role model. all the photos are her own unique work. enjoy her work and words!

First off I want to thank Hayley for asking me to guest post on her blog! All my friends and roommates are close followers so it’s an honor really… and I know they are all so jealous right now. Hi guys! Hayley and I were friends freshman year at BYU and its been so great getting to know her and following her on her journey. Not to sound too reminiscent but I remember the first time she brought “Chin” (am I allowed to call him that?) around to meet our group of friends, we took one look at them together and knew that he would be around for a lot longer than just a little while. 

Now that I’ve shamlessly bragged, I can start on what Hayley asked me to talk about. Photography. Now I know what you are thinking because I think it too… “Just what we need, another blonde Mormon girl who owns a nice camera and knows how to give everyone unatural alien eyes, calling herself a photographer” Now wouldn’t that be annoying. What I really want to talk about is how to manage to be creative and original in a world full of photographers/bloggers/scrapbookers/cupcakebakers/whatever else you love to do. 

Now adays, we have so many opportunities to do the things we love. Things are accessible to us, if you don’t know how to do something, you can easily hop on youtube and watch a 5 min tutorial and suddenly you are a master. We live in a culture where DIY is no longer cheap and tacky, but cool and inventive. A lot of this applies to the world of photography and blogging. Fancy cameras are a dime a dozen, there are many options in every sort of price range which is great because it allows for anyone to learn and create new talents, but on the other hand it can also depreciate the value of the creative insights of photographers when we have the idea that anyone can do it. 

So how do you set yourself apart, how do you try and break that mold. My new philosiphy is that you don’t try to. Don’t try to be anything but yourself. Do things because you love them. For a while I told my mom that I didn’t want to be a “Photographer” because it was what everyone wanted to do. I put off doing the thing that I loved just because I hated the connotation it had of being unoriginal or overdone. That was so silly of me. Do what you love, despite what others may think, and tell the truth when you do it. 

“Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.” – C.S. Lewis 

 I don’t think I’m an amazing photographer, I am always really critical of myself and my work. I am amazed when someone actually wants to hire me to take pictures of them because I think that they will for sure hate every picture I take of them. I don’t own 6 different lenses, I don’t have lots of lighting equipment, I don’t know a ton about photoshop or html, so what qualifies me to get to do this. I do it just because I love it. Not because I can make a profit, not because “everyone is doing it, and not even because I want to be the hip new photographer on the block. I do it because I love the way that light looks through my lens, because I love the sound of the shutter, because I love how my heart feels when I just captured what was in my mind (and even because I LOVE it when people make it their profile picture on facebook, seriosuly the biggest honor ever). I take pictures because I feel like when I do I am telling the truth and putting a little bit of me into something concrete and constant. 

So even though we may seem to be a dime a dozened amongst photographers, bloggers, cupcake bakers, musicians, painters, writers, reality TV stars ect… you never really are, because no one can ever do anything quite like you can.

“All I know is, if you don't figure out this something, you'll just stay ordinary, and it doesn't matter if its a work of art or a taco, or a pair of socks! Just create something... new, and there it is, and its you, out in the world, out side of you and you can look at it, or hear it, or read it, or feel it... and you know a little more about... you. A little bit more than anyone else does... Does that make any sense at all?” – P.S. I Love You 

Feel free to stalk my here and here

kissmekaitlin.blogspot.com

kaitlinmariephotography.tumblr.com

XOXO
Kaitlin