I've been researching different photographers since I was in college. I like to know whats out there, I like to know whats new, I like to know whats different. I use the works of others to build on the things that I can improve in myself as a photographer. It's simply called the creative process. Take someone's good idea and make it better. How do you think we got flat screen t.v.'s? Anyway, so lately I've been doing a lot more research. I need to know the competition in Amarillo, but I need to draw from more experienced photographers elsewhere. I stumbled across a photographer (who shall remain nameless) that does a lot of work with celebrities. His skills are incredible and he definitely has an eye for what is different...maybe a little too different. On the surface his shots might seem simple, but when you dig down deep you see that they are anything but simple. His photographs bring about a feeling in the viewer, an emotion. From looking at his gallery these shots mostly brought about the feeling of sadness or depression, but nonetheless, an emotion. And as a gazed upon these pictures I realized that his work, although it is great and he has achieved way more in the field of photography than I can imagine, it's complicated. I'm sure he spent hours upon hours editing and fixing the photos to look a certain way. There is nothing wrong with that, but in my opinion if you take it right the first time you don't need to spend hours editing. God made things beautiful the way they are, who are we to fix that? I think my motto as a photographer is this, God created something beautiful I'm merely here to document it.
Now I'm not saying that advanced editing of photos is a bad thing, in fact it can be incredibly beautiful and sometimes necessary because of our own human error, but my goal as a photographer is to get it right the first time. I want my photos to induce some sort of emotion in the viewer, preferably something positive, but I also want my photos to give praise to the creator of the subject, not the creator of the photo. Thats the whole reason for the name of my business. I want to give kudos or praise to the one that created my photo subjects. I want to make them look as beautiful in the photo as He made them in real life. Does any of this make sense?
Well I thought I would ramble on and on for two paragraphs in order to explain the reason why I named my business Kudos By Stephanie. To put it simply - it's all for Him.
