It’s hard to believe it’s been over a year since the St. Simons Island photography workshop!

As I was editing my photos from that excursion the other day, I started to notice something interesting.

During the day, the group of us 5 photographers were shooting the same exact things, sometimes literally shoulder to shoulder.

And yet, look how different our photos are!

Samuel and I went to photograph this boat together. I remember we were intentionally trying to frame it up in the same way. Yes, they are very similar photographs, but think about how different they are too! The focal length choice. The size of the subject. The amount of foreground included. The exposure choice. The difference in how they were edited. It’s amazing how unique each image is, even though we were both trying to photograph the same thing!

Here’s another example.

We’re off fulfilling some composition assignments. Of course these ruins at Fort Frederica National Monument are something we all photographed at some point. But what does one photographer see? A dynamic, wide-angle shot that transports you hundreds of years into the past. And what do I see? A hole in the wall juxtaposed to a hole in the clouds. I don’t think either of us came even close to previsualizing what the other photographer photographed.

We all sat in a row on the ground photographing a painted bunting togther.

And I really think this is the exact same spider web. I opted for light against dark. Someone else opted for dark against light (a much better choice, in my opinion).

You would think that because we were photographing together, our photos would be almost the same. Originality can’t exist where photographers gathered in a group, right?

Wrong! The photos we took were so vastly different from each other. We were all photographing the same subjects, but the angles, the composition, the subject placement, the editing choices . . . were all so different. Our brains work in different ways. Not to mention that we have different equipment! The choice of lens, and the focal length we decided to use, so many different elements influenced how we decided to photograph the exact same thing that our neighbor did.

And why does this matter? What does photographing in a group reveal to us, and how does it help us grow in our photography? There are 4 things I can think of right now:

1. It reveals that photographers truly are different from each other

I’m not normally in the position of hiring a photographer to take pictures for me, but if I were, knowing that different photographers are going to produce different results even when photographing the exact same thing (or event), I will be paying a whole lot more attention to what a photographer is like and what is in their portfolio. On the flip side, as a photographer, it motivates me to be more intentional in my photography and portfolio.

2. It reveals the limitations of my own creativity

“Why didn’t I previsualize the same photo that my fellow photographer did!” “Why didn’t I think of such-and-such an angle!” If all I ever see is my perspective on things, then it might be easy to conclude that my perspective is the only perspective worth shooting. Or, I might more hastily imagine that certain places or things are simply unphotographable. When I see the work of others, it motivates me to keep learning and looking!

3. It emboldens me to take photos of the same things the group is photographing

A lot of us photographers are more introverted in personality. And as artists, we’re looking for originality. If I see someone photographing something, my natural inclination is to think, “if they’re photographing it, why should I?” Well, because what they walk away with is very likely going to be much different than what I would walk away with! Even if we’re photographing the exact same thing. This happens to me in event photography a lot. “Oh, so-and-so already covered that, so I don’t need to”, only to discover that what they got wasn’t at all what I was expecting.

4. It helps us remember not to look down on others

I was reading in Luke the other day, “…but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve” (Luke 22:26).

Jesus understood relationships and personalities perfectly. He knew that just because you are an older brother, it doesn’t mean you are smarter than all of your other siblings. He knew that just because I’m the teacher at the photography workshop, it doesn’t mean I have the most creative perspective of anyone else on the team. Seeing the incredible variety of photographs that can come from multiple photographers at the same location, should keep us in our place and remind us not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought.

I thoroughly enjoyed photographing with everyone that day. We had a lot of fun, from sunup to sundown, photographing all sorts of things! Here are a few more of my favorite photos from that day.

Garden Chapel
Epworth By The Sea Conference & Retreat Center, St. Simons Island, Georgia
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If you would like to see all the photos we took on that workshop, click here to view the St. Simons Island Photography Field Day photo album.

And if you would like to join us for another workshop, I’ll be exploring the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania next year in June. I’ve already started my online scouting, and I’ve been surprised at how many unique things there are going to be to photograph! You can click here to view the details of that workshop.

And more workshops will be coming soon! Keep an eye on things as I continue to work on my 2025 photography workshop schedule at www.lenspiration.com/workshops.