In my short time at the Algonquin College Photography Program, I’ve noticed my photography style evolve quite a bit. First year was incredibly important and I learned more about photography in one year than I ever thought was possible. The only downside to first year was that we didn’t have a whole ton of creative freedom. For most assignments you could shoot what you want, but it had to fall into a certain criteria. I found that this made it very difficult to express myself at certain times for certain assignments.

That changed completely when I started second year. I basically went from being told exactly what photos to take and when, to having complete creative freedom. It was honestly terrifying and at first I wanted things to go back to how they were last year. I found myself doubting my ideas and struggling to come up with content I thought was good enough. Once I started shooting more frequently things changed, I very quickly realized that I love shooting close up portraits and incorporating colour into images whenever I can. At first I thought doing mainly close up portraits was bad and uncreative and that I should try and expand myself more and work on shooting the subject from a little farther away. Now I always will take a couple not as close up portraits when I do shoots just to give myself a variety, but ultimately in the end I always end up preferring the shots that are more close up of the subject. I’ve come to realize that that’s my style and how I like to shoot and I’ve learned to embrace and improve on it rather than trying to change it into something else.