World Photography Day - A Reflection on Why I Shoot
Hey everyone! Welcome to Photog with a Blog, where I talk about all things photography, and happy World Photography Day!
Because today is such a special holiday for photography lovers, I’m going to share a bit about what drives me to take photographs and how I developed a distinct style within my work.
Update
Before I dive in, I’d like to do a brief update. If you recall my last edition of Photog with a Blog, I stated my goal to upload monthly from now on. Well… judging by the gap from the last release to today, you can about imagine how well I stuck to that schedule. Needless to say, I am back!
I had an adventurous and wonderful summer, but for the first part of it, I was dealing with terrible burnout and struggled to find my creativity. My ideas for Instagram Reels and Abandoned Dakota have been on the back burner, and I'm not sure when those projects will be put into motion.
I plan on going more into detail on everything I did this summer in a future post, hopefully soon before I’m off to college for my senior year!
What Drives Me to Create?
To answer this question, I have to start from the beginning:
I first picked up a camera my freshman year of high school to take pictures for our yearbook. Looking back, the photos weren’t great, but as Henri Cartier-Bresson says, “Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.”
I loved holding that camera, and I enjoyed going to basketball games to take pictures of the players. It truly felt like I had purpose.
Fast forward to 2023, I took my first photography class as part of my multimedia studies. At first, I was just shooting to meet project requirements, but soon enough, I started noticing little details I had overlooked before. I remembered reading a book called On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes, where the author re-explored a familiar neighborhood with different experts, discovering something new every time. That stuck with me. The more I walked around downtown Minot, the more I realized there is always something new to see, even in the places you think you know best.
Photography also became my way of holding on to memories. I’ve always been forgetful, and sometimes I worry about moments slipping away too quickly. Journaling and photography together have become my way of preserving the things that matter most. Like the day my boyfriend and I first exchanged “I love you,” for example. Writing it down, and capturing moments with photos, allows me to relive those memories without fear of losing them.
Style & Mediums
I’ve always been drawn to black and white, dark and contrasty images. To me, it’s never just about being “moody,” it’s about representing both sides of life. The shadows remind me of struggle, but the highlights feel like hope. That balance of light and dark is what keeps me inspired.
I began with digital, experimenting with colors and tones, but when I discovered b&w film and collodion, it felt like stepping into something timeless. Recently, I’ve been exploring color film, pushing myself to see how my style grows and changes.
Portraiture especially stands out to me the most in traditional mediums like film or collodion. There’s something special about capturing a person’s essence on a physical surface, not just pixels on a screen. Digital cameras are amazing and have their place (and I love my Nikon Z6iii!), but film feels lasting in a way technology sometimes can’t guarantee.
Self-Portraits
I get asked a lot why I take so many self-portraits. Some people assume it’s out of vanity, but it really started out of necessity: I didn’t have models, so I used myself. Over time, though, it became a way of reflection.
My series The Seven Deadly Sins was one of my first self-portrait projects, combining color, symbolism, and personal reflection. Later, during a tougher season after a horse-riding injury, self-portraits became a way to process and keep creating when I felt stuck.
Looking back, I realize self-portraits often emerge during quieter or more challenging periods in my life, but they’ve also taught me resilience. When no one else is available, I can still create with the one subject I’ll always have access to: myself.
Conclusion
We all have our reasons for why we shoot. Photography can have so many different meanings and interpretations, and to me, it’s creative storytelling.
If you made it this long, check out this special World Photography Day blog post/video by Adobe, and see what other creatives are doing (trust me it’s awesome).
What inspired you to pick up a camera and shoot? Let me know, I’d love to hear about it!
I’m Sadie Lynn and thank you for reading this edition of Photog with a Blog. Happy World Photography Day, and until next time, bye guys!
