As much as we all love what we do as photographers and creatives, if we’re not careful, our dream jobs can end up feeling a lot like, well, jobs. Today, Jacob Loafman shares how he keeps himself inspired, curious, engaged in his work, and avoiding burnout.
Jacob is a creative wedding photographer based out of St. Louis and a former keynote speaker at last years ARC’s photography conference, The Experience. Jacob is here to discuss his exciting new Instagram project, what it means for him to be able to do personal work, and how he goes from inaction to action right away.
We are discussing everything from the juxtaposition between photography styles and personalities to why Jacob thinks you should always be kind, plus so much more. Listen in as we reminisce over last year's conference (and after party stories), why you shouldn’t care what other photographers think of your work, and how St. Louis public parks are inspiring Jacob’s latest photos.
What do you think about Jacob’s creative approach to photography? How do you keep yourself inspired? Let us know in the comments below!
In This Episode
- Why pushing yourself to try, is important in photography
- The benefit of using yourself as the subject of self-portraits
- How Jacob’s tattoo came to be the best part of his morning routine
- Which speaker Jacob is looking forward to seeing the most at this year’s conference
- The importance of making time to let yourself play
Quotes
“I said, ‘well, I can make a book out of this’, and I can just call it, you know I wanted to focus on the sports that are available to the public in public parks. So it’s free right, so I'm just gonna create a different character and focus on every sport that is offered in the public parks here in St. Louis. And just create an interesting photo series where it's not even about being like active with the sport, it's interesting poses, its unusual poses, very still, but very colourful and just very interesting.” (5:45)
“So I told myself when I jumped full time, you need to push yourself so that you never even approach the burnt out stage. Try everything, use different light, shoot different things, shoot everything you can, so I pushed myself to keep myself on that path. (6:42)
“It sounds like a simple answer but its because it is. You just go do. We always get these little thoughts that hold us back from why you should do this, right. Like our brains are designed to keep us comfortable, so if its something we're not used to doing, our brain is gonna tell us like ‘oh no you usually don’t do this’. But the truth is you have a few seconds to say like ‘okay ya I’m gonna do this’, and then your brain is only on that path of ‘okay we’re doing this.’” (11:18)
“My presentation was just about how lucky I truly do feel to get to do this for a living, one. And two, how important it is to create for yourself. You know I polled the crowd and asked them who they created for and the majority of the people that answer said for their clients. I’m a firm believer of ‘that's great I create for my clients as well’, but what do you actually get out of that? I want to create art for my clients, that's what I want to provide them with because then everybody wins, it's a win-win for everyone. (18:57)
“I have always been like the class clown type. And it's not that I do it for the attention, I want to make sure people are having a good time. So if I can inspire people to like let loose a little bit, ill do it.” (26:13)
Links
Jacob Loafman Website
Follow Jacob on Facebook | Instagram
RGG EDU
Maria Svarbova
__loafy__ Instagram Page
Hamish Purdy CreativeMornings Talk
Check out the full show notes page here
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