We were lucky to catch up with Amy Helmick recently and have shared our conversation below.

Amy, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I feel like I’m constantly learning and will be for a lifetime. I jokingly (but maybe not) call myself an education addict. I truly do love all things photography. I spend countless hours learning from multiple sources that includeYou-tube, education subscriptions, purchased classes and  in-person workshops. I believe I could’ve sped up my process if I had done more focused learning. One of the downsides of loving it all is trying to learn multiple areas at once. Picking a topic and sticking with it until proficient would’ve been faster (but possibly not as much fun).

I think the most important skills to learn for the work I do are light/lighting and post-processing. Of course there are many other things that are close behind in importance. You really do have to know something about everything (posing, composition, gear, styling…and so on).
Early on, the obstacle was time. I was working a full time job while beginning to learn photography. Now that I have retired from nursing, being distracted is probably my biggest obstacle.

Amy, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I had a career as a Registered Nurse for just shy of 40 years. At age 37, I decided to take a photography course at our local community college. I had admired good photographs for many years and at this juncture in my life I had some free time and was looking for a fun activity as way to wind down from the stresses of healthcare. The moment I saw that first image begin to form in the developer tray I was hooked. Now that I am retired from nursing, I am so happy to have the opportunity to put all of my focus into photographic art.

In 2016, I went to a workshop to learn off-camera lighting and realized that it was a skill that I wanted to expand. It was around that time that I decided to start a photo business (having absolutely no business experience to that point, mind you). For the past eight years, I have studied and worked to improve my business skills  in addition my craft on a daily basis. There are so many subsets of photography in which to be proficient I expect to continue learning and growing throughout my lifetime.

Over the past year or two my love of the fine art genre’ has grown. Creating pieces that are both beautiful and/or meaningful is what really fulfills me. There’s a mixture of creativity and problem solving that appeals to both my artistic and methodical sides. I love figuring out ways to express a concept.  Learning the actual craft has been the most challenging part for me. I am happy to have stuck with it to the point of rediscovering the joy in the creating.

It takes a while for artists to find a voice in our work as we all know. Whether I’m working on a fine art piece or a portrait the common thread in my work seems to be a sense of melancholy. I am naturally drawn to rich yet subdued colors and dark tones. I strive to find beauty in sadness and to somehow express the sense of calm that can come with exploring the quieter, less celebrated aspects of life. I am always looking for meaning and beauty. I believe that beauty can oftentimes be found the the commonplace and overlooked moments. I am thrilled when I am able to find those gems in my work.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

As mentioned earlier, that common melancholy/pensive thread to my work isn’t for everybody. I’m definitely not the more traditional “flowers and seascape” kind of artist. (I’m not disparaging that work at all, it’s just not me). If a person is not prone to a more contemplative vibe, they are more likely to become confounded by my work.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

There is an inscrutable quality of art that can aid expression of things that are outside the confines of the spoken word. For this reason, I find art can be instructive and healing in ways that are “more than the sum of the parts”. One of my goals is to learn all I can about my personal mysteries and if I can provide that experience for others, all the better. Creating meaningful work is the mission.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.amyhelmick.com
• Instagram: amyhelmickphotography.fineart, amyhelmickphotography.portrait, amyhelmickphotography.street