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Benjamin's Style

Lesson 22 from: The Photographic Style & Aesthetic Workshop

Benjamin Hardman

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Lesson Info

22. Benjamin's Style

Style is like a fingerprint - it’s the personal aspect that makes your work uniquely you. The importance of finding and continuing to develop style is not only for personal taste, but for making yourself stand out against others in the highly competitive photography world.

Lesson Info

Benjamin's Style

(wind blowing) What is my style? Very tough question. Think about it a lot on those long solo drives around Iceland. I'm trying to work out, how far does this go back in my life? And I think it comes from the fact that, where I live now and what I've discovered, is so different to what I was brought up in, and the environment that I was surrounded by, when I was young. And coming here to Iceland for the first time, I saw things I'd never seen before, even just snow falling. Like that was a foreign thing to me. And I became really passionate about that, the rugged sublime landscapes, and the extreme kind of weather. This is kind of a reflection and kind of diversion too, of my old life. I used to be in a punk band, or a hardcore band for anyone who knows that genre. And I think it's quite a similar outlet for me. Iceland. Yeah. Giving me these extremes and that is just, it's turned into a passion, just being out there, and seeking those moments in nature. This has translated into a st...

yle of photography that's focusing on the dark, the cool, the blue tones, the winter tones. And of course this can apply to any place in the world. Even in Australia, I've been home and tried to implement the same color schemes that I do here. And it's possible, you can do this. And I think a lot of it stems from the way that you compose an image. And if we look at the the concept of composition, I'm thinking about negative space a lot, and bringing a minimalistic edge to my images. And that has really has played a huge part, in me naturally finding this progression of bringing my photos together and realizing, "Hey a lot of my photos do have this negative space." It stems from isolating a subject, I think. Finding ways to use wide apertures, just to blur in the foreground, and remove a lot of the distractions from images. In a place like Iceland, we have so many distractions. In some places there's just so many things going on. These landscapes are firing with all different colors, and textures and massive mountains in the background. And there's always one little thing that stands out to me. And my goal is to always go out there, and focus in on that specific thing. And that may be in the landscape. It may be with a person in the photo. Maybe it's, even with a macro, like our macro photo, there's always something that I'm focusing in on. Over time that's developed into working with, finding more of a a niche thing that I'm interested in. And in turn, I've realized these things have the same color schemes. And I really like the winter when we have so much snow. I think it's still weird to kind of bracket it as a style. But, when you put all the images together you do see this, this progression and this kind of this cohesion across the images. There's something that is in my brain, that is always kind of similar in my shots. And it's given this some may say a unique identity. Some people can tell if it's my photo, when they look at it straight away.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Workshop
Iceland Road Guide

Ratings and Reviews

Matt Grandbois
 

Very Informative & Awe Inspiring Both Benjamin and Alex have played huge roles in my photographic style development over the years and it is great to hear first hand exactly what inspires and drives Ben to keep pushing his creative boundaries. Personally, I love his minimalist approach and it was super insightful to watch him explain how he developed that style and how he actively produces photographs in a cohesive manner. 10/10 recommend this workshop to anyone looking for a very unique and profound perspective with the intent of expanding your creative horizons.

Alec Brown
 

First Workshop The first workshop I have ever purchased. I've always been hesitant to invest in a workshop, however this went above and beyond my expectations. Fluid in progression, great insight and a super relaxed learning curve full of information. I feel this has prepared me to take my own personal photographic journey to the next level. Executed to perfection. Nice work guys! 10/10 recommended.

Janelle Dransfield
 

Moving to Iceland now...? Loved this workshop! I really liked the way the modules are split up, and the way you watch Benjamin go out on location for a shot, then immediately sit down and watch his editing process for that specific shot. So much editing to learn too, since he doesn't use presets! The workbook is also super thorough, so printing it out allowed me to pay close attention and just add little notes here and there. The Iceland road guide is also SO helpful and in depth. Can't wait to use it. Also loved that Ben talked about printing your own work. Would be cool to maybe see something from Wildist in the future that goes even more into depth on that (calibrating your own printer, working with a print shop, dropship sites, etc.) Awesome course. Thanks, Hardman.

Student Work

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