Growing up with family members who are artists, said three BYUH students, influenced them to become photographers sharing with the world their artistic and unique perspectives.
“We all artists in our own way,” shared Emarie Majors, a senior from Montana who is majoring in political science. “Photography is my way of being an artist in my family,” of which many of them do creative work for a living.
The beginning and inspiration
Learning to be a photographer starts with having a mother who is an artist, said Majors, whose her mother taught her to be creative and see the world through an artist perspective. Majors explained both of her parents, including her other family members, are artists and musicians. Since her dad was also a photographer, Majors said she would always go through and play with her dad’s old films and photographs when she was young.
In middle school, Majors said she liked to do photoshoots with her friends and her sister using a digital camera until she became more serious about doing photography when she was 20 years old. She said, “When I came home from my mission, I saved up all the tips I got at a café I was working at, and I brought a camera.”
After she got her own camera, Majors continued, she began to learn, practice and took photography classes. She said she also learned about photography from reading books and doing online research.
Aiyarat Buachaiya, a junior from Thailand studying communication, said his journey as a photographer also started with his mother who studied photography in college. “She took the class. She had photobooks. One day, I just went through her photobooks, and I [thought] this is really cool,” Buachaiya explained.
During middle school, Buachaiya said he got his first digital camera and began to use it by taking pictures for school events and sport activities. He said his mother gave him a film camera and encouraged him to take pictures using the camera.
“[My mom] had been taking a lot of photos. She is really good,” he added. His mother has been a great supporter, he continued, and she taught him techniques of how to use and adjust the camera.
Family can be a huge source of support as well as, said BYUH student Zane Saenz, whose mother who is a photographer. He said she has influenced and supported him and his interest in photography. “[My mom] is always a photographer, and we always have a camera to take picture. So, she is definitely a big influence,” said Saenz, a junior from Hawaii majoring in interdisciplinary studies in art and film.
Saenz said he began his journey as a photographer by doing water photography and using the water camera his mother gave to him as a birthday gift when he was 14 years old.
“I always try to support all my kids in anything they are interested in. I feel that [Zane] has a great eye for photography, he has talent, and he is good at learning new things… he grew up around cameras his entire life,” said Monique Saenz, a BYUH alumni who works as the BYUH university photographer and an art instructor.
By seeing her son’s creativity and love for the ocean, Monique Saenz shared, “I gave him a water camera when he was very young, and he would be shooting pictures of the waves in the water for hours. He would get so excited when he captured a good shot. I knew then he would become a great photographer.”
She said she has been taking pictures since she was in high school. “I was in art technical high school and started learning photography on black and white manual film cameras. We had to learn how to develop our own film and make our photo prints in the dark room, so I got hooked with photography and was always taking photos around of people, buildings and scenic,” she explained.
Discovering of their photography styles
“I have my own style, and I feel like my style is just shooting random things. It can be an object, plant, building, architecture, a person [or] nature. Mainly, it’s just street photography,” said Bauchaiya. He explained photography is his comfort zone and the way he can expose and convey himself to others.
Buachaiya said, “I love to take a walk and just taking photos. I want people to see what I see when I take a walk.” He said, “You just need to spend time with [your camera], and you will find out what type or style [of photography] you will be fit.”
He added his photography style also falls into travel and documentary photography. He said, “[I want to] travel around the world and take pictures of life, animals and everything.”
Majors shared, “Fine art photography is my favorite. So, when I’m thinking about that and creating it, it definitely comes from a very deep emotional and religious place. I think it’s just inspired by spiritual experiences [and] interpretation of scriptures.” She said fine art photography is more about creating an art piece than just taking a picture.
According to adobe.com, “Fine art photography is the intentional use of photography as your artistic medium of choice, used to further your conceptual idea.”
Beside doing the fine art photography, Majors said she also likes to do the fine art still life photography. “It’s the way I can express different emotions I feel that I don’t have words for,” she added.
According to pixpa.com, “Still life is a type of fine art photography, more akin to a painting than to what most people think of as taking a photograph.”
Along with doing fine art photography, Majors said food and travel are other forms of photography she is passionate about.
Starting from shooting ocean waves with a GoPro camera, Zane Saenz shared his favorite type of photography began with water photography. For now, as he grows up and starts working as a photographer, he said his photography style has changed to taking pictures of the moment people interact with nature and cultural events. He added he can feel the energy and powerful moment through capturing people performing their cultural dancing or events.
“I like capturing action and real moments. Shooting in the studio is fun. I like it, but I feel like it’s not my favorite as much as shooting actual [and] real moments,” Zane Saenz explained.
Monique Saenz also shared her passion for photography style. “After high school, I started working for an airline and traveling the world and experiencing different cultures, photographing portraiture as I travelled to these new places became my passion,” she said.
Then as a student at BYUH, she said she started doing photoshoots and taking pictures everywhere on campus.
Tips and techniques
“My main thing is being at the right place and at the right time and then all the camera setting stuff is after that,” said Zane Saenz. He explained he makes sure he waits and is ready to capture the objects he finds interesting.
To capture the ocean waves and action shots, Zane Saenz shared while everyone runs away from the wave hitting them, he will stand and stay there until the wave comes so he can capture the good shot. “You will always have to just watch because you never know what’s going to happen….Be ready to be at the right place if something crazy happen that you don’t expect, you have to be ready for it,” he explained.
Buachaiya said one of the techniques to create good photographs is to keep practicing. “I will suggest that just keep shooting. Keep taking photos.” He said he started by not thinking too much about being right or wrong, but he just keeping taking pictures wherever he goes until he learns good techniques and found his styles.
Besides learning photography skills through using digital camera, Bauchaiya shared he developed his photography skills and techniques through using a film camera and asking for suggestions from his mother.
“Every time you want to shoot or snap, you really need to pay attention to what you see through the view finder and think about every detail and also the technical things too. If anyone have interest in photography, you can start with [learning from doing] film photography. It’s a good start,” Buachaiya said.
For those who want to do general photography or fine art photography, Majors shared the techniques she uses to produce a great photo. She said, “You need a tripod, and you need a remote clicker so that you can hit the shutter.” Majors added she also relies on a wire to connect her computer screen to the camera to see the camera screen in bigger size.
She said to develop a person’s own unique photography styles, it’s good to begin by finding inspiration from the internet or an artist to mimic their works, learn their techniques and compositions.
She added the term taking a photo was translated as making or creating a photo in the Dutch language, which inspired her to realize the true meaning of taking pictures. Majors served a mission for the Church in Holland and learned the language then. “As a photographer, you’re not just like taking shots. It’s like you’re making like a crystallization of a moment. It’s like you were part of making [the photo],” Majors said.