Ep. 2 - Emotions in Focus: Seeing Beyond the Image

Feelings leave fingerprints on every frame. We dive into the emotional language of photography, why some images roar with adrenaline while others whisper with stillness, and how context can rewrite meaning long after the shutter closes. From a red-lit stage jump to a quiet lake at sunset, we show how seeing, naming, and directing emotion turns good photos into lasting stories.

We open with concert images that contrast explosive motion with reflective power, then trace how a portrait of Juice WRLD transformed after his passing. That shift leads to a bigger idea: photos stay the same, our understanding evolves. Along the way, we unpack personal lessons about ego and business, why letting go of a beloved studio unlocked smarter decisions, and the craft challenge of balancing consistency with creative feeling so clients know what they’ll get without losing your soul.

You’ll hear the making of two gallery pieces that center on Black identity, an afro as a crown of “Rise” and a silhouette of locs in motion, plus a crystal ball landscape that flips perspective to change the mood. We break down the patience behind lightning captures, the joy of motion blur at a New York skating rink, and the empathy of a black-and-white street scene where struggle and hope share a frame. We also step into commercial thinking: reading client emotions, shaping product lighting for clarity and desire, and guiding portraits that honor who people are. It all rounds out with a celebration image from an OKC championship parade, where preparation met the moment and confidence felt earned.

If you care about creative growth, emotional awareness, and practical techniques you can use on your next shoot, this one’s for you. Subscribe, share with a friend who loves photography, and leave a review telling us which image or idea changed how you’ll shoot next.

Transcript

Welcome & Purpose Of The Show

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What's going on, everybody? This is Brendan Watts, and welcome to the Kids and Cameras Podcast. We are here for our second episode. So hopefully, I do way better than that first episode. I had to switch rooms a little bit, get a little bit more comfortable, a little bit more in my vibe. So I think this might work out just a little bit better. So on today's episode, what we're going to talk about is the emotions that come into photography. And just to let you know, you're new to kids and cameras and don't know what kids and cameras is. We talk about confidence, we talk about identity, we talk about creativity, and most importantly, we talk about emotional awareness because photography isn't just about taking pictures, it's about learning how to see, learning how to feel, and learning how to express what's going on inside of you in a healthy and positive way. If you're a learned creative, an entrepreneur, or someone trying to grow, this is the space

Setting The Theme: Emotion Over Gear

SPEAKER_00 1:08

for you. Today's episode is different. We're not starting with settings, we're not starting with gear, we're starting with emotion. So let's get into it.

Capturing Explosive Energy Onstage

SPEAKER_00 1:17

All right, so just to start off, um, I'm gonna be showing a collection of photographs that I personally took, not to show off my portfolio, but just to show you the emotional depth within different types of photos. So this episode, we're just gonna go through different photos, and I'm just gonna show you the emotion that I see in it because I just felt like for me to talk about emotions and photographs. Sometimes it's easier just for me to show my photographs because I know it and I know the emotions in it. So uh this first photograph that we're gonna start with, um, I believe it's Playboy Cardi. Um, I took this photograph at the Walmart Imp. Um, but as you look at it, you're gonna see the red lighting in the background. It's gonna be intensity, intense, urgency, adrenaline. You see him jumping in the air. If you actually look really deep at it, you can see that his feet is actually off the ground. So I'm using a very fast setter speed because I really want to catch all the emotion. I wanted the frame to just be still. And then you can see the people in the background, his friends, his boys recording, hyping them up. So in this photograph for me, I see just like a lot of loud emotion and it's real emotions. You see his locks flying in the air. So you can just feel the intensity. He's giving up all his energy. So the emotions I see in there is society. I see energy, I see hypedness, I see friends supporting. Um, and then I really just like that I caught him off the ground with the with his feet just elevated right there. So emotion can be explosive. That's one thing. Emotion can be explosive. Um, being present allows you to capture intensity, and you can't hesitate in emotional moments because you know that's a once a one shot. I got one chance to get it. So um, understanding what the artist is trying to bring out, what he's trying to showcase in that moment, and trying to find the best way to photograph that emotion. So for me, the best way to photograph it is him in the air, Mike in hand, and just sawing all this energy. So it's just very exciting. So, but but like it is, um, not all emotion looks like that. So to kind of switch it up and show you another concert picture where emotion is maybe not as hype, a little bit more calm and collective.

Juice WRLD: Meaning That Shifted With Time

SPEAKER_00 4:02

Um, that same day, um, I got Juice World. So Juice World was performing, and I got this photograph of him just looking down. I thought he was looking directly into the camera. I'm getting into that later. But he's this hype. It just looked like the ore um being larger, larger than life, just caught in the moment um as he's performing. So what I felt in that moment was like he's on top of the world. The ore was strong, boss energy, uh confident, felt like momentum, you know, a superstar at its peak. And uh, as you know who Juice World is, um, I took this photograph October 5th, 2019. So a couple of months later, Juice World actually passed away. So then with this photograph that I took and the emotion that I saw in it, um, it kind of changed. Like the photograph didn't change, just the way I viewed it changed. So now when I look at this photo, it feels heavier, uh fragile, um lost in its own space. Um it's just a moment frozen in time. So as I more examined the photos after his passing, I realized that oh, his eyes are not really open, they're closed. It's now I'm looking at it like a reflective tight energy, um, stillness inside of power. So the thing you got to realize is that when you're photographing and you're photographing emotions, at one time you may take a picture and it may identify something else to you. But because photographs are frozen in times and we don't know what the future holds, uh, that photograph would change.

How Photos Change As Context Changes

SPEAKER_00 6:02

It's kind of like uh when I met Annie Liebovich and she was talking about her John Lennon photo. John Lennon was a um a musician, uh singer, super famous. But uh she took one of his last photos when um he was holding his wife. And uh I think later that day he um is when he passed away as well. And that photo to her at first meant all these different things, like oh, a love and kiss, because he was kissing the wife on the cheek, and it's like, oh, a love and kiss and all of that stuff. And then it became was that the last kiss goodbye, or something like that. So it's photographs can change, emotions can change with photographs even after you take them. But um, yeah, I really just felt like with the juice world photo at the time, it felt like dominance. Now it feels kind of like delicate. The photo didn't change, the contest did. So success on the outside doesn't mean peace on the inside, is what I see with this photo. It just has a lot of emotion. I think just the way the emotion had changed within this photo just two months later, um makes a big difference. So I'm real, I'm a real big person. Like I like documenting events, I like documenting moments

Decisions Driven By Hidden Emotions

SPEAKER_00 7:38

and stuff like that because it's it's a part of history. Like once when you take a photo, it's history made right there. So depending on what emotion you want to showcase through that photo, it can last forever. But also that photo emotional appeal can change. So uh I guess on that photo, I kind of leave you with this the image stayed the same, my understanding of it changed. So, moving on. Um earlier in my career, I didn't realize how much emotions were influenced for my decisions. I thought I was being logical, I thought I was being strategic, but I was really being emotional. I just didn't know it. When I was excited, I said yes to everything, every opportunity, every collaboration, every idea. And maybe y'all feel that way. Like, you know, you kind of run off that adrenaline, like, oh, you're having fun, you're excited, uh, so you're making decisions off of that feeling that you're chasing. Excitement for me felt like progress. It felt like growth. But sometimes it was just adrenaline. And then when I felt insecure, I fit uh I overworked. I thought if I stayed busy, if I worked harder than everyone else, it would prove something. It would prove my value, it would prove that I belonged. I didn't even realize I was trying to outrun Dell. When I was afraid, I hesitated. I took me longer to make decisions. If I worked harder than everyone else, it would prove something. I mean, um, if if I overthought decisions, I delayed uh moves. I told myself I was just being careful, but really I was scared of making the wrong choice. And when

Letting Go Of The Studio And Ego

SPEAKER_00 9:33

my pride was hurt, I held on too long. Oh, so uh example of that is when I opened my studio. Um I loved my studio, I loved the space that I had. Uh but I don't know if it was really just the smartest business decision for me to open the studio. It was more of uh emotional. When I opened the studio, I felt like that's proof that I made it, proof that I was successful, proof that I had reached a certain level. So when things got hard, when the numbers weren't lining up, when the pressure increased, I didn't want to let it go. Um, but honestly, one of the best decisions that I ever made was make letting go of the studio. And um, but it took me around to do that. I probably hesitated for a year when I knew I should have let the studio go, all because um of ego. Honestly, my ego, my emotions. I was making decisions based off my emotions. I wasn't holding on to a building, I was holding on to what it represented. And that's when I had asked myself that hard question. Uh, am I making this decision out of wisdom or out of emotion? And I feel like when you don't truly understand yourself and you're not truly making all the right decisions, we will make decisions off emotions. Um, and we do, and we do that a lot. So earlier in my life, I bottled up my emotions inside instead of processing them. It led to mistakes, avoidable hardships, not because I wasn't capable, but because I wasn't emotionally aware. When I learned to recognize what I was feeling instead of suppressing it, everything shipped it. So when I got rid of my studio, um, got rid of a big overhead cost of how much it cost just to have a studio because I was hardly ever in there, I actually had the best year of my business. All because I finally shipped it and made the smarter decisions and not just making decisions based off emotions. And for photography is the same way. I had um a photographer that I look up to, his name is Miles Whitboard. I'm missing him a lot. Um I don't know if he really realized the impact that he had just because I kind of looked up to him as a photographer. He's a local photographer here in Northwest Arkansas,

Consistency Versus Shooting By Feel

SPEAKER_00 12:12

and he always is he was nice to me and he gave me advice. So one time I asked him, I was like, hey, when you look at my portfolio, what do you think about it? And he's giving me all these great compliments. I said, no, he's like your worst answer. I said, no. Like, I need you to critique it. What do you see that you feel like is bad? And the critique he gave stuck with, he said, another photographer that's kind of famous, can't think of her name. But um she told him that you shoot based off your emotions. When I look at your portfolio, it's all over the place. So he she was like, What that tells me is that you can't control your emotions, you shoot based off how you feel, and that's not a bad thing. Like, don't get that wrong, that's definitely not a bad thing, but in a photography career, you kind of want to show people what you're good at and you want to show consistency. The reason a person's gonna pit this wedding photographer over here is because every time they photograph, it all looks the same. Um, the reason somebody's gonna pit this fine art portrait photographer because all their work looks the same. So when that client goes to them, they know exactly what they're getting compared to every time I look at your portfolio, all the work is good, but I see this and I see that. And when I book you, I'm not sure what I'm gonna get. So that was really helpful for me. And the way he related it to um the way it was told to him that he relate that he told it to me is just that like it's about controlling your emotions. So even when you know I might be feeling down or depressed, or maybe I'm excited or happy, or whatever my emotions might be, um, being able to control those emotions so I can deliver the same type of content, an overall look, and I'm not just going based off emotions. Um that that meant a lot because one of the hardest things that I found is the consistency, uh, no matter what type of environment you're in, trying to have that same consistency and that same look when it came to photos. Now, if I'm out doing my own separate projects, my own fun stuff, then that's where I like I will go shoot off my emotions because maybe I'm feeling angry one day and I'm like, I need something angry. I need something that shows um just how I feel on the inside. Or maybe I'm calm and relaxed, and my mood is just wanting to show that um that's real helpful. So I'm not saying that you don't suit your emotions, but when you can understand your emotions and learn how to control your emotions, where no matter how I'm shooting, um, I can get what I'm actually looking for instead of just going based off my emotions, if that makes sense. I hope that makes sense. It made sense in my heat. But uh, but yeah, so me having that going back to the studio, me having the studio was me keeping it based off of emotions. And my wife was a big help letting me know, like, hey, Brandon, like you're doing the right business move. You just don't want to let it go because of ego. You like just having it, but as a business, it's a smarter move for me to get rid of it. And it was. So even now, um being a 30, I'm 39. So being 39, I still work on controlling my emotions and photography really helps me do that. So I really hope that when you're photographing, when you're taking pictures, you're considering your emotions. If you want to photograph what you're feeling, or if you just want to photograph something that may not even dictate how you feel in the moment, you just have this idea, and that's the emotion that you're trying to show. So being self-aware of your own emotions can really help out your photography, and it can also help express the emotion in the photography that you want to showcase as well. Um, so we now move on to the next

The Black Woman’s Crown: Rise

SPEAKER_00 16:48

photo. This next photo is actually my first gallery sewing. Um, it's a limited series called The Black Woman's Crown. This photo right here is called Rise. Um, it's based off the afro. Um, I pretty much made this series um because when slavery happened, um black people straightened their hair to try to fit into society with the hopes of getting better jobs. Um later on, civil rights movement, the Afro comes back as a side of pride, strength, and basically say, hey, we won't be molded, but we should be a selfie for who we are. Um so the Afro just stood for that pride in the in the culture or whatever. So, and then the reason I use black women, because I felt like black women held together the black culture. So in this photo, um, what I'm trying to show is rise, ascending, um, being a shelf and of who you are, having your head up high. Um, I think a lot of times, uh just in general with people, it's hard for people just to accept who they are or what makes them unique. So I wanted to show that perspective and so uh uh show her having her head raised high, not in DC, not looking down, not worried about everything else that's looking very strong. And then I like black and white because what black and white do for me, in my personal opinion, black and white makes it timeless. Like it

Black Man’s Strength: Motion Without Faces

SPEAKER_00 18:35

might seem older, it can be new, but it's something about when you just strip away all the color in a photo, it's just something about it where it's just it becomes a timeless photo, aspirational. And then I like the symbolism that I put in there with the hair. So it just gives the narrative of rise, and that's why I named it that. So I just feel like um naming your work sometimes can also help put together that emotion that you're trying to showcase in it. You don't always have to name the work. Sometimes you might just want your work out there so everybody else can get their own feeling from it or whatever emotion they're gonna get from it. But when you want them to actually look at the photo and understand why this photo is significant to you, sometimes naming it just adds power to it. So um photography can sometimes declare identity. So whatever your identity is, you can use photography to help express that or just how you see the world. All right, and then we're gonna move on to my other one called This Was in the series The Black Man's Strength. And this one added more pop of color, and it's this uh guy's um locks flying in the air, uh, because um different cultures uh have lots, but uh inside the black culture, it's just like a sign of strength that you know uh just showcasing it in a beautiful way, um, then while some people might not see it. So I think the silhouette removes distressing, because that's what I wanted for this emotional picture. I wanted to remove the distress, and I wanted people who had lots to maybe feel like that could be there in the photograph, so it's not directly focused on who the person is. Um I think um the strength, the strength of it is kind of just embody all within every different pose, every flick of the hair. You know,

Perspective: Flipping A Crystal Ball

SPEAKER_00 21:05

not one every time I take a photo, I can never make this photo again. Like one piece of hair is going this way while the other ones are going that way. So it's not something that I can just easily repeat. It shows motion, it shows in accent. So with this one, I just feel like you don't need facial expression to show emotion. And I think that's a real big thing. Sometimes you might look at photography and feel like the only way you can show emotion is if you showcase a person and they gotta have their face in it. But emotions, you don't have to actually show a person's face. A person doesn't even have to be in the site for you to be able to showcase that emotion. So just think about those things as you're photographing, as you're trying to express yourself, as you're just Going out there. You don't always need a person in your site to showcase emotion. So that brings me to my next photo. Um, this one was called Perspective. Um, the reason I called it perspective because it's hold up, before I say anything, can you can you tell what this is? Can you figure out the photo? Get a little bit, let me analyze it. If you need more time, pause the video. But uh it's a crystal ball. And the crystal ball, the thing I like about a crystal ball is that when you suit through it, it flips everything upside down. But what I did with this photo is the crystal ball is actually sitting on a pier. I took it at Lake Fairville, and instead of having the wood part of the pier and then the crystal ball sitting on top of it, I took I took it that way, but then I flipped it upside down to swiss up the perspective. So then when you look inside of the crystal ball, the landscape is actually the right side up. So, and then the crystal ball is hanging almost like it could be like a water droplet. So I really just like the side and I liked it before, but when I just turned it upside down, it just did a little bit more for me. Is it just gave it like, oh, like I captured this perfect rain job hanging from a piece of wood when it's actually a crystal ball sitting on sitting on the pier. So perspective can also change the motion. And you can see the sunset falling um in the background as well. So same scene, different interpretation. You can also look at that is you know, composition as a frame inside of a frame, using the spear to showcase a frame and sewing landscape inside of it. So frame within a frame. But yeah, I just really, I just really love that photo. Um and it's kind of it's kind of just peaceful for me. Like what I get out of it is peace, the sunset, and end of

Storm Discipline: Lightning And Patience

SPEAKER_00 24:27

the day, kind of calming. Um, water for me is a good way that when I have a lot going on, I love going to the water, running water, waterfalls, the river, just hearing it runs, like helps calm me. So I feel like when I'm around water, I take a lot of calming um type photos that just helps me express myself and me being at peace. And I blow I blew this picture up big too. And every time I look at it, it's just like it relaxes me. So I think that's just one of them things that actually helps me that I actually express myself on when I feel calm and what makes me feel calm. But I guess also with that photo, I like one of the life lessons of that photo. Also, what I look at sometimes your situation doesn't change, your perspective does. So sometimes you switch up your perspectives on certain things that just makes you see it in a different light. Maybe it brings more understanding, more clarity. So I yeah, I just really love that photo. So now we done talked about a calm photo. I kind of want to switch to the opposite of that. So the opposite of a calm photo, I mean, let's say just angry or powerful or just destructive. So my next photo is um a photo that I took at Mount Sequoia Um in Fairville, Arkansas. Lightning coming down over the city. It's a big storm coming in, and you had all these lightning strikes. And it's before any rain was falling. The the lightning was happening farther away, so I was in a safe location because that's number one. You want to be in a safe location. Uh, don't want to get struck by lightning, don't want to mess up your camera, don't want to, you know, protect yourself. So uh this photo, lightning over Fairfield, there's multiple lightning strikes. And when you think of when somebody takes a lightning photo, do you feel like they're taking in a super fast sort of speed? Like they see the lightning, then they gotta be like, click and get it, or is it a slow sort of speed? Think about that for a second. Because if you want to think somebody trying to catch a lightning, you know lightning happens really fast. So for me to sit here and have a lightning strike and then be like, ooh, I try to take the picture, more than likely, I probably I uh I probably already missed it. It's our it's already past the moment's gone. But if you do a long Sutter speed, um like I think when I took this lightning photo, I had my camera open for 30 seconds. So it's like took the photo, camera opens, and it's still going one, two, all the way up 30 seconds, and then once we make it 30 seconds, it closes. So that whole time it was taking a photo. I always explain long sudden speed, like somebody's inscribing on a tablet with a um with a pick, a hammering the pick that's subscribing. So every time they hit it, and harder they hit it, deeper of a of a scribe or dent that it makes and whatever they're doing it in. So that's how light works within the camera. Every time a light hits the camera, it's just uh chiseling at it, or whatever it's just a bit light, it's

Nostalgia At The NYC Rink

SPEAKER_00 28:20

chiseling in it harder, and it's just staying inside your photo. So that's kind of what a long set of speed is. So when I took this photo, I had multiple lightning strikes. That wasn't just one that you know was four or five lightning strikes all in one photo. So once when the photo completed and the camera is sitting on the tripod and nothing else was moving, that's how I that's how I made this photo of all the different lightning strikes. But since the buildings and stuff like that wasn't moving and it's on the tripod, everything came out crisp. So for me, this the emotion that I see in here, it can be powerful, you can it can be terrified. Uh it's just so much just with the lightning, just the power of it. But also what I like about doing lightning photos and stuff like this, it actually helps develop patience because you don't know when the lightning is gonna go. You got to do a long shutter speed. So you're hoping that you get this side. And luckily for me, when I did do this, this was probably my third side. And it was my best side. And I was out there for like 30, 45 minutes, maybe not that long, maybe like 20, 30 minutes um taking photographs because the storm was moving towards me, so I had to get out of there, had to go. But 20, 30 minutes of me just sitting out here taking my time trying to take photos, and I actually got it in my third shot, but I didn't even know if I would get a better one. And sometimes you might not even get it that soon. It might be towards the end, or maybe you don't get a good one at all. So it's really patience, it's timing. Um luckily with this one, I was coming back into town. I saw the lightning happen, and I was like, I'm gonna run to the house, grab my tripod, try to hurry up and make it in Mount Secorio. So didn't have a lot of time, but I knew what I was trying to get, so that helps. Um, the skills that I had, knowing how to already set up a camera for a long shot of speed, what I'm looking for, gave me access for um to set up quickly before the story came in. So I think that just comes with a lot of practice. Um sometimes you can know what shutter speed is, ISO, uh aperture, and stuff like that, but how quick can you change all your settings to take a photo? Uh, because some people feel like, oh, I already know how I do this, so it's nothing that can be taught to me while how quick you can get into those settings can make the difference. Because

Street Empathy: Struggle And Hope

SPEAKER_00 31:12

if I was just a little bit slower, uh and this was my second, third sock, I would have missed it. And all the rest of the photos after that wasn't as good as this one. So I really got lucky, but just having that preparation of just knowing how to do it, how I set up. I already knew beforehand that when lightning comes, seeing that the best spot would probably be Mount Sequoia for me. So I already had that in my head. So, in a way, I was kind of prepared for a situation like this. So I think preparation creates powerful results. So just knowing and always being prepared to get aside and move quickly. And then emotion also exists just wherever you are. Like I'm just coming into town, saw opportunity. I was like, oh, let's make this happen. So um, emotions just everywhere in the sky, on the ground, in people's faces, in animals, you can always just create all types of emotions, but not all emotion has to be powerful or heavy either. So moving on to the next photo, I think it's a good one just to show more cases or scenario. And with this photo, it's um the ice skating rink in New York. If you ever seen the original home alone, I know I'm older, I know I'm the old guy, but the original home alone was one of the best. And in there, you had him run by the ice skating rink. Well, I went to New York and I saw the ice skating rink, and I just had to take a picture. So it's nostalgic for me. But when I took the picture, I said the I actually didn't have a tripod, I actually set the camera up on a uh on a pole, and I just tried to like set it up on a pole while holding it and be perfectly still. It's very difficult. Um, but I still feel like I got a great side out shot out of it. So sometimes when you if if I really like zoomed in and looked at the photo, the buildings are kind of blurry because I had a little camera shake. It was also cold. So when I had it on there and I pressed the button, the camera kind of moved, got some camera shake in there, or my hand moved, something moved more than likely my hand. So the building's not as crispy as I would want it to be, but I got it well enough where you can still see the movement of the people skating, and that's just so emotion blur of time passing, there's people out. So um, but like I said, I have that home alone connection, so I just needed that photo. So the emotion for me for this is nostalgia, it's tied to that home alone movie, and it brings like joy to me in a powerful creative force. Um, and just as you can see, that Sutter speed really changed his emotions. Like if this was a fast Sutter Speed and everybody was this still and crisp, you would it wouldn't be the same. Like you would see everybody be like, oh, but this one, it looks like you see the movement, people skating, going in circles, having fun. Um, it just shows a little bit more that you even got some people who really wasn't moving, who were just standing there on the ice, so they don't have that much motion blur. So I think just the midst of the stillness, midst with the motion blur, sewing joy, sewing the ice skating rink in New York with this nice uh cityscape line right there with all the buildings, it's just it's it's just great. I love it. It's joy, it's home alone for me. But uh, and not every and to move on, not every photo feels light, not every photo feels joy. So to move on to another photo

Expressing Values Through Commercial Work

SPEAKER_00 35:26

that shows humanity and empathy is also while I was in New York, I took this photo of a homeless man uh with a sign that says uh God is good all the time. And then in the back of it, you see one of the food, uh street food spots where you can go up and buy a hot dog and all of this stuff. So within this photograph, I feel like it's shows a lot of humanity, a lot of empathy. So struggle plus hope in the same frame. Um he's going through a lot, but also he feels like you know, God is good all the time. So and then I think the black and white taking out all the color for it kind of helps you just focus on that moment, on that humanity, on that hope feel, uh just inside of a New York street um passing. And I feel like it kind of tells a story. Um, because you have Tim, but then you also have that um street food truck in the back or whatever. Like you got entrepreneur mixed with homelessness with the sign that this brings forth hope, um, in a way. So I I really just like the photograph, how it feels, how it tells more of a story. So I believe another thing is that when it comes to photography, it brings forth empathy. You can be with photographs, you can sit here and showcase something to see what might be wrong in the world, or things that we might need a focus on, or the people that we walk by that we sometimes don't think about what they're going through. So I feel like photography has this way of making people sit down and focus on that particular emotion or that humanity and that empathy, things that you know you might not realize, or if you see certain things every day, it just becomes you're used to it. So you don't think about it and you just go past it. So I really feel like that's one of those things that um photography has a great job at telling with emotions. So when you're out photographing or doing anything, really think about the impact your photography can have. Uh however you want, however, you see the world, you can showcase that through your photography. If you want to showcase um flowers or whatever, and you want to showcase joy in the moment, or you can showcase a flower where they are tearing down all the flowers in the trees to build buildings, and you have one flower over there, and you can show it in a different way of how beauty can fade with buildings and structure and how things can be destroyed. There's a lot of ways

Objects As Self‑Portrait: Travel Essentials

SPEAKER_00 39:09

you can showcase emotion and your perspective or whatever you believe in as well. So I think as a photographer, you really have a way of expressing yourself and expressing that emotion and just getting it out there and showing your perspective and how you view the world. So I think everybody's perspectives, how they see things matters, and you have a good way of showcasing that. So really think um as you go out through your week, go out through your month, your day, what are ways that you can express yourself and show the world the way you be with? Um, I think that'd be a good uh not homework assignment because we don't want to make this feel like work, but I think it'd be a good assignment that can help improve your photography skills just by showcasing um your perspective. How do you see things? Uh, because how you see things matters. And then let's get into a little commercial side of photography. So I took a photograph of a Nike suit. Um, I wanted, and with this Nike suit, it's a product side. I want a clean lighting, I want a controlled composition, I wanted professional emotions, and I want a confidence through simplicity. So um, yeah, clarity, persistence, and confidence within this photo. And the thing is, when it comes to doing like a product photo, you're really, this is one of them times where my emotions for this product site is not what matters. The emotions for this product site is whatever the client wanted. If the client wanted to showcase this, if they wanted the clean lighting and everything that they wanted is showcase, how did they want to showcase this shoe? And when it comes to like selling something or being a commercial product, the ideal is you want people to see and be like, oh man, that looks cool. Oh, I feel like it can look great on my foot. You want them to want to have it, you want them to be able to picture it in front of them. You want them to be like, oh yeah, I can see myself walking down the street in this suit and everybody looking at me like, oh yeah, I got the best shoes ever, but look how fast I can run in them. But oh, I'm sorry, I'm goofy. But uh yeah, so I think when it comes to showcasing that emotion or whatever, another thing that really helps is how well can you be self-aware of other people's emotions, your clients' emotions, what they're looking for when you photograph. It helps, it really just helps go through life. Like I need to be able to understand, like, oh, this person over here has feelings, this person over here has emotions, and I need to be self-aware of other people's emotions to understand how I made them feel. And I believe when I do product photography, that's exactly what I'm doing. I'm trying to showcase their feelings for this product or what they want to show. I need to be able to understand my clients' emotions, whether that's me shooting a product or even if that's me doing a portrait photo shoot of somebody, what brings them out? What kind of emotions do they show? Because I like when I take photographs, I like really trying to showcase that person's emotions, trying to showcase them as who they are. And the best way for me to do that is for me to have an understanding of who they are, be able to read body language, be able to read their emotions and just being self-aware of how they feel. And that also helps me when I do my portraits, because if I'm trying to get them to do something that's really not them, then uh you might have clients that's just not to go with it, but really it don't feel like them. And it's my job sometimes to be aware of that and be like, you know what, I feel like this is not you. Let's try to focus on what you want. Because also clients are more happy with the photos where it feels like them and it really showcases who they are. Um, when I take kids' photos, the number one compliment that I get from a parent or whoever is saying, like, oh, I feel like you really captured them. That's that's how they are every day. This photo really shows them and Shows their emotion of who they are. So now when I photograph it, they can look at that photo and remember the time that that kid was that age and be able to relate to that. Or the same way as a kid might be able to see it, see their parent or their brothers or sister, a cousin or a friend, and have a photo with them

Victory Captured: Parade With Isaiah Joe

SPEAKER_00 44:24

and realize, like, oh yeah, I remember how they needs to be over there always working on the car and stuff, and you have a portrait of that. So I think being self-aware, understanding other people's emotions, and be able to deliver that and showcase that's really big when it comes to photography. Um, no matter what I photograph, I'm always showcasing a certain type of emotion. I'm always trying to understand my emotions better, or I'm trying to understand the client's emotions better, or who is this photograph for? Is it for me to show other people what kind of emotion do I want them to feel when they look at it or see, or what reaction am I trying to get out of it? Um, it's really huge in photography. I feel like no matter what you do, that is gonna be one of the major things. Um still got a little bit more time. So I'm gonna go through a couple more photos and then I'm gonna wrap it up. Hopefully, I haven't bored y'all too much. I still hear, y'all still listening, y'all engaged. I hope that you're enjoying this and really understanding the emotional dealt that goes seeing two photos. Because some people think you just click a photo and that's it, where really you're doing way more than that. So um I guess one of my other things that I really like to do is um I like traveling. I really like to travel. So in this next photograph, I think this kind of taking different products uh that I own um and showcasing who I am. So I took a product site of uh this camera, a passport, a watch, a keys, and a wallet. It's all my stuff. That's my uh Canon program, Canon A1 program camera, that's my passport, that's my watch, that's my keys, that's my wallet, and have it like on a piece of wood, like like a treetop. Um, and I put it with this gray because it kind of just helps it pop out a little bit more. But I feel like with this photo, it really showcases who I am because I'm a photographer, I love taking photographs, I love traveling. So you see the passport, you see the keys. Um, I try to always be on time. Um, and I also feel like time is precious. Uh,

Critique, Growth, And Emotional Mastery

SPEAKER_00 47:18

time is the one thing you can't get more of. So to me, time is one of the most valuable things in this world. And then to travel, I gotta have my wallet because you got to make things happen. You got to have some type of way to pay for it. So I feel like all of this is all connected and all relates with traveling. Because the only thing I know, if I got my passport, I got my keys, I got my camera, I got my watch, and I got my wallet, that's all I really need. Everything else, um, we can figure it out. But as long as I have the stencils of just like, oh, I got this. I can get up, I can go, I can take my pictures, I can see if I'm gonna catch my flight or not. Oh, but yeah, so I really just like that photo. I think it's um it shows readiness for opportunity because I'm just ready to go. It shows intension because I'm being real strategic with the products that are placed out, even when it came to the keys and spreading out the keys so it can kind of look laid there and not just, oh no, I want any feel natural, but it's really like me moving the keys to space amount to show more angles with it. Um I also think it shows like building a life on purpose on purpose, uh, with purpose because it's a it's a strategic site, and it really showcases who I am, how I love to travel, how I love to take photos. And then it also I think it shows creative freedom. Uh, me being a photographer, one of the benefits and pros of being a photographer is a lot of times I can get up and I can just go somewhere and I can have that freedom. Now, the downside of being a photographer, um your months, month to month can look different. One month you can be doing great, the next month it might not be so great. Uh, that's just entrepreneur life. Anytime you're an entrepreneur, you got ups, you got downs. And I think being able to control my emotions in those ups or downs, like how I talked about earlier, that when I'm excited or chasing that feeling of like, oh, I feel good because I'm getting a lot of kids. But then when things slow down, I'm feeling insecure, feeling like I gotta do this, learning how to control those emotions. So I also won't go making irrational decisions based on month-to-month things. Like I don't need a slow month to get me so down that I'm making decisions about, oh, maybe I'ma just quit, maybe I'ma just give up, or um maybe I'ma go just put the

Contest, Community, And How To Support

SPEAKER_00 50:26

camera to the side, go work, work a full-time job and stuff like that. Like I need to make the decision, not based off the emotions that I'm feeling in that moment. Because just like that, I can have a great month where I'm like, oh yeah, I'm gonna do this forever. Oh, and also I can't be making emotions based off, since this is a great month, let me go buy this and let me go do this because the next month may change. Like I really need to be smart with the decisions I'm making, learning how to put my emotions in check so I don't make erratic decisions and you know these mistakes. And then, okay, we're gonna go to one more photo because I had a lot of just in case we go, one more photo, and I'm gonna end it with this photo because this photo really, really means a lot to me because it shows my nephew. He did it, no, my nephew is Isaiah Joe of the OKC Thunder. He is a champion. They won the championship last year, and he gave me the honor of photographing him in the parade. So I did some photographs. Uh, I did a highlight video from him. He had over a million people out there in the parade. I thought it was just gonna be like the biggest parade I've ever been to, I think it was in Chicago when I said elementary, and it's a Christmas parade. So I didn't understand the type of energy that was gonna be coming from this parade. So I took this side of him when you had all the people in the background. Everybody's cheering, people yelling his name and stuff like this. And I was like, hey, Isaiah, like, turn around, give me a pose. I want to take this picture of you just because he's happy. It's one of the happiest moments of his life in this parade. He worked hard for it, he put in the work. Um I it's very motivating just to see the dedication that somebody put in and then achieved uh one of the biggest goals that's Hall of Famers sometimes don't even have a championship ring. So it's just a big deal and to capture this joy of him with all the people in the background that made it more than just a portrait because you have the element of the people in the background, the fans cheering, celebrating with him. It just becomes it's like a victory. Victory looks different when it's art. So I really just love this site. It also shows confidence just hits differently when the work matches the moment. So I'm gonna say that again. Confidence hits differently when the work matches the moment. So I really just love this site. I love the celebration, I love the community, I love hard work realized, and the confidence backed by results. So the crowd behind him is just the support system, the elevated position is uh earned moment, and the smell is just fulfillment. So, yeah, victory, joy, arrival. He made it. Um, but yeah, I just really love that site. I'm really honored that he gave me the chance to um photograph it and document that moment for him as well. But those are just the different types of emotions that you feel. We went through a lot of photos. We show power, we show um humanity, celebration. We we went through a lot, y'all. We went through a lot. So I really hope this helps you understand the emotions that you can get from photos. I hope it opens your eyes that when you're out photographing, you can see different things and different moments and different ways of showcasing emotion as well. Uh, I think it really just helps you become a better photographer because before you can really just be a great photographer or just come into that however you want to, I feel like you need to understand what emotions are in photography and understand what can make a photograph great or whatever. So I hope you like my photographs that I took. I hope I did a great job explaining. Um, also, I'm gonna open book. If there's a photograph you didn't like, critique it for me. Like, let me know. Maybe I missed something where you're looking at it and you're like, you know what, I love it, but maybe I would do this because I look at critiques for me as a way of developing my skills and getting better. There's been several times somebody's critiqued me and I didn't even realize it because I just like, oh, that's just an awesome sock. I love it. You gotta love it. I had all my emotions invested, and maybe I missed something in. But then sometimes somebody critiqued it, and we just had to agree to disagree. I like it, you did it. That's just how it goes. So um, I think when it comes to putting yourself out there, sawing your photographs, you have some people who love it just like you, and you have some people who might not, but that's not the point. The point is how do you feel about your work? Um, did it satisfy your emotion? Did you do a great job expressing it? And then, you know, if you want to work to get better, accept those critiques. If you don't want to hear people's critiques, you don't have to. But uh don't let don't let other people's critiques also get you down. Like I learned how to accept it. And I know at one time I didn't know how to accept critiques, and it wasn't with photography. By that time, I think I learned how to understand being critiqued and somebody telling me. But I also used to do poetry. I'm just a love of the arts. So any type of art that people do, I just love it. I like connecting with it. But I used to do poetry, and I remember somebody told me you can't write a serious poem. All your poems are goofy or whatever, and that hurt my feelings because I felt like I was super talented. I really felt like poetry was my first talent. So when somebody told me that, oh, my emotions went all over the place, and I had to go home and I had to sit here and write a serious poem. I was like, oh yeah, this one, this gonna be real good. I feel like I did a great job at it. I did a really great job at it. But um, but yeah, so but at that time, I really let that get to me more than it should have, because just because somebody feels that way, that's okay. They have the right to feel the way they have they have to feel. I don't have let the way they feel put me in that place. So um I think as I learned photography, it just helped me learn how to control my emotions and put my emotions out in a positive way as well. So I really hope you enjoyed this episode of the Kids and Cameras podcast. We did we dive deep into a lot of emotions and stay tuned for next month podcast. I believe I will have a special guest. So um, yeah, just stay tuned for that. I hope now I tune in. And yeah, I plan on having a guest on the next episode, uh, somebody who has took some some of my work sauce, took the summer camps, and even won a camera uh for my photo contest. In that photo contest, we will be doing that again this year. We just set dates for the award ceremony towards the end of the year. So I'm gonna start putting out things for the photo contest uh for people here in Northwest Arkansas. So last time we had 70 submissions, had 150 people in attendance, and gave away three mirrorless cameras to help these kids express themselves and just giving them a spotlight to show off their work, to show off their emotions. And I'm really excited to be doing it again because this will be the second year for it. So y'all stay tuned for that. Thank you for your time. Make sure you follow us at Kids and Cameras on Instagram, on Facebook, working on the TikTok, gotta get better at it. But you can follow us on TikTok and definitely check out the real site, kidsandcameras.org. Um, if you would like to sponsor, be a sponsor for an episode, be a sponsor for a season, please reach out. Um it's the community and the dedication to y'all helping support kids and cameras that we are able to do these workshops to be able to make these podcasts so kids can have a positive outlook on being able to express themselves. So thank you for your time. I'm Brandon Watts, founder of Kids and Cameras. Y'all have a blessed day.