Friday Feature with Mel Karlberg Photography!

Melissa Karlberg of Mel Karlberg Photography was the winner of last week's 'art' challenge.  Now you can learn a bit more about what makes her tick!

1. Please tell us about yourself...

I’m a 41-year-old military wife married to my high school sweetheart and mom to the two most photogenic children in the universe.  I’m a former high school English, journalism, & marketing teacher. 

2. Can you describe your style in 3 words? Why those words?

I can’t. 

I’ve tried to do this many times and I realize it’s just not me.  Just like my crazy house, scattered with mismatched furniture in some rooms and matchy-match in others, my photography is a bit scattered as well.  Sometimes I want to shoot symmetrical, colorful scenes, all about the composition, other times I want to just spin & shoot funky fantasy shots and sometimes I want to get all artsy with a dramatic black and white. 

I do try to create photos that tell a story and spark an emotion (which is exactly what I try to do with my decorating, so I suppose this makes sense). 

3. What sparked your passion for photography?

The spark was always there.  I was born with a passion for desperately trying to capture and hold onto memories.  As a child, I couldn’t get enough of my parents’ yearbooks or my grandparents’ shoeboxes of photographs.  My teen room was covered floor to ceiling with my snapshots stapled to the wall.  After my son was born, I upgraded my camera and the sticker shot led me to learn as much about it as I could to justify the purchase price.  The payoff is technically better photos of those captured memories.

4. What's in your camera bag right now?

We just adopted a 2-year-old girl, so I am currently trying to transition my Kelly Moore 2 Sues from a camera bag to a diaper/camera bag.  Thank goodness this question doesn’t have a photo requirement because I have not been successful with the transition.  Along with diapers, coupons, and lip-gloss, I have minimal photography items in there – my 5D Markiii, 40 pancake, 50 1.4 and my Olloclip.  And my iPhone – I panic if I don’t have this on me at all times.  I have a more substantial camera bag in the closet with my other lenses that I grab when needed.

5. What is your dream shoot or project?

Too many to list, but I’ll highlight the top 3.

I would love to do a grandparent series, to sit down with the subjects and talk about their life and loves and hobbies and then try to capture their life passion in one photo.

I would also love to do a series of shoots inspired by my favorite movies - The Princess Bride, Big Fish, Epic, and Life of Pi to start.  I love the fantasy created by the cinematography in these movies and want to try and recreate this in photos. 

Finally, I want to do a fog project.  Either a fog machine or a visit to Ireland ;-).  I just love the effect of fog on photography.

6. What are some of the misconceptions you had about photography and photographers at the beginning of your photography journey? Have they changed, and how?

Once I got serious about the technical side a few year’s ago, I thought that I would figure this all out at some point and it would become easier.  What I didn’t realize is that the more I mastered, the more new challenges I would find and the more I learned, the more I knew what to critique in my images.  It’s a never-ending journey of experimenting, critiquing and studying – that’s what makes photography so frustrating but also makes me love it. 

7. What advice would you give to newbie photographers? What advice do you wish you'd been given at the very beginning?

Don’t be so hard on yourself.  Photography is hard.  Even the masters take several shots to get the one they want.  It takes practice and dedication, and you still can’t expect to get it right every time.  And when you do, you’ll just want to move onto a new challenge.

Don’t be too easy on yourself.  Join photography forums, study the tutorial threads, join the monthly challenges, and put your work out there for critique, especially at the beginning.  Experienced photographers will immediately find small details that can drastically improve your photography.  If you are willing to drop your guard and ask for non-sugar coated critique, you can improve your photography dramatically.

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