Sometimes you have an off day. It just doesn't feel right, little things set you off. Nothing I seemed to do that day seemed like it was enough.

I needed to get out of that headspace any way that I could.

When I met up with Jasmine for a photoshoot, in my mind I wanted to do a couple of things; try out lifestyle portraits, play around with lighting and shadows, and draw deeper emotion from the art. Mostly though, I wanted to find a way to draw that moody, uncomfortable day into something meaningful.

It worked out better than I could have imagined.

Finding Emotion in a Moment

After discussing the plans for the afternoon, and shooting a number of photographs from the back of my car (classic car camping Instagram vibes), we walked across the road to an abandoned house for some photos.

It was cold that day, and Jasmine was dressed ready for a chic zombie apocalypse. All she needed to complete the look was a baseball bat covered in spikes.

The goal was to keep it creepy and dark, I wanted to draw from the scene something that unsettled you. Jasmine has this signature smolder, and vacant stare that will turn your knees to mush, so it worked out well.

I heard somewhere recently, that social media has turned everyone into a photographer, creating a culture of creators that feed on trends and what's popular. Everyone want's that photo edited in the way that gets them likes on the gram.

Some days I scroll past photos that have no soul to them, especially on big feature accounts. Other times I am thrown by the beauty and depth of an image that an artist puts out. Accounts like Christopher James, Chris Burkhard, jacquelinecsiga, Mike Hurn, Olivia Fischer, Ryan Wilson, Katt Wilkins, Ben Ono, blow me away.

It's so hard to find space to think, to create what makes you feel, in a world that teaches you that instant gratification is what you need. Sometimes it makes me set down my camera, my pen, and go for long walks alone in the dark, trying to wrap my head around what I am doing.

I wanted to capture that raw emotion that those other creators put out, and add in that unnerving feeling that had bothered me that day. Trying to have Jasmine capture that feeling seemed harder than it was. She fed off my mood, and my growing excitement the more we captured, turning the abandoned lot into something darker, deeper.

Really my main direction to Jasmine was "pretend you're an evil marionette", but you get the picture.

The difficult thing about being an artist is that your best work comes from when you put a little bit of yourself into it. A smidgen of curiosity, a whale of anxiety, a dollop of wonder, a bucket load of passion, loss, love, heartbreak, your drive to create, throw it all in the mix.

That's what drives you farther into your work, that's what makes the image more than just for Instagram. 

Pick the vibes that you want your work to emanate and follow that feeling all the way through to the end, until you edit that last photo. The emotion is only half the battle in the digital age. The editing process for this is just as important as taking the photos. Portraying those feelings through the image, requires much more than a single shutter click sometimes.

Using that much emotion can be exhausting, especially for those like myself who have difficulty finding it in the first place. I hate sharing what's going on in my head with others, which is why it took me so long to share my work with people, but the more I do, the more I want to create art that shows that same emotion.

Don't Be Anxious

If you feel that showing the clamor inside of your brain is too much, don't worry. I feel that same way at times. Some days, when I summit a mountain at 5 AM for a sunrise, and I am so filled with excitement and a drive to take photos, I find I am more exhausted than if I had just climbed the mountain without my gear. It's draining.

The same can be said of writing out a poem or a story that hits close to home. It reverberates in your bones and leaves you empty, yet so full of life.

Sharing that art work that comes from that emotion is even harder, it's like baring a piece of your own soul. This isn't just for photographs of course, this is for all aspects of art. I find it is most true with my writing.

I grow so nervous sharing with people the words that flow from my head to my hand. I feel like I am sharing parts of myself no one wants to hear.

Don't worry about that, no one wants to view art that doesn't have soul.

Let it out.