We were lucky to catch up with Joshua Miller recently and have shared our conversation below.

Joshua, appreciate you joining us 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 have always been artistically disposed; I just find art in all forms to be so captivating. I have mostly been doing photography work as well as graphic design work the last handful of years. I started learning about Photography from school, and really got into the craft at university. Although, I went to university for architecture instead of photography, but in architecture school you have to do a surprising amount of photography work. Taking pictures of models, sites, buildings, that sort of thing. But I kinda feel in love with the art form during those university years and have been pursing it since.

What could I have done differently to speed up my learning process? I am not sure if there is an answer to a question like this for me. In my opinion, you never stop learning, you just always change the way and subject of your learning. For what I do, being in a creative realm of society, I am always learning photography. Each day, each job, each customer is a different challenge, and I am adventurous, I want to tackle any and all photography challenges. I think some important basic skills needed to capture beautiful and dynamic images and craft wonderful experiences for clients, include basic customer service experience, and some fine art background knowledge. The customer service experience I think is evident enough, photography work largely requires you to engage with people, so a certain level of friendliness is required. The fine art background knowledge might not be as self-evident however, but if you think about it, it makes sense. You are crafting images much in the same way a painter crafts a painting. A basic knowledge of color theory, the rule of thirds, the golden ratio, etc are just important guidelines, especially if you do not know where to start.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

As I mentioned earlier, I really started my journey whilst in architecture school, but that was just a springboard for me. Within my career I have done all types of photography work, I have done and continue to photograph weddings, portraits, families, graduations, seniors, events, real estate, landscapes, nature, pretty much anything and everything that I could take pictures of. Personally, I feel that most people are super nervous about photography work, they either do not know what they want which causes them to stress out, or they do not enjoy their appearance and think that they will look bad. To feel these things is to be human, I completely understand why people feel these things, hell often times I as the photographer are a complete stranger coming to capture some very personal experiences, so I get it. I always stress that I am there for them, I will be whatever they need me to be in that moment, because I am just the medium for them to express their art, their emotions, their experiences. If for an event, I am needed to capture candid, once in a lifetime moments, then I will be as unseen as possible, guiding around like a shadow as to not interrupt anything, after all it is my client’s event, not mine, they are the center of attention, not me, all I am needed for is to document the event in a beautiful and artful way. However, if I am needed to capture personality, then I will put forth my best charm to connect with my client. I want to become their friend, I want us to have fun together, photography should be fun for all involved, I want my clients to feel comfortable with me capturing their true selves and create lasting memories. What I am trying to say is that I believe myself to be the artistic medium for my clients to create their own works of art through. There is something so personal and unique about photography, whilst I am the photographer, the “artist”, I consider myself to be similar to the simple paint brush that a painter would use. The painter uses the brush to craft their masterpiece in much the same way that my clients use me to craft their masterpieces.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Realistically speaking, a particular goal is to one day have my own brick and mortar studio. But, in a grandeur sense, part of my mission is to convince the population of the importance of photography, to get more people comfortable with professionally documenting their emotions, their experiences, their humanity. In a day and age where everyone has a camera in their pocket at all times, most people do not see a need for a professional photographer because they can just whip out their phones and take as many photos as they want, whenever they want. Plus with the rise in AI photo technology, anyone can create whatever they want, slap any background onto any photo, change how they look, add or subtract whatever they want. Most people now can craft their own reality and document it to their hearts content. So, one of my main missions driving my creative journey is humbly just to empress on people how important realness is, how important it can be to hire a professional to capture real expressions of emotions, to document real soulful moments. I know that convincing people will be difficult but I think I can change some minds at least.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Watching the joy that my art brings people. Witnessing, embracing, and capturing beautiful moments for my clients. It is such a joy to be able to document emotions and experiences in such a beautiful and meaningful way. Afterall there isn’t there a saying “a picture is worth a thousand words”? To be able to say so much without saying a single word is just powerful. I think that the most rewarding aspect of being a creative is that my work can mean so much and say so much for those who I work for. It is always such an honor to be chosen to bear witness to and capture the rawness of the human soul in my line of work.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://aesthetics-photography-services.square.site
• Instagram: aestheticsphotographyservice
• Facebook: Aesthetics Photography Services
• Other: aesthetics.photography.services@gmail.com

Image Credits
I took all the photos but I would like to shout out MyFlight Tours who helped me take the helicopter photo.