We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Shawn Robles a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Shawn, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

Learning how to be a better photographer took a lot of time, trials, and errors. It took me messing up more photoshoots than I care to admit in order to identify my weaknesses and try to grow from them. Shooting more often and with the purpose of finding flaws in your technique would help someone develop quickly. Being patient and kind to one’s self in this process is challenging and it can lead to self-doubt. If you shift your mindset, you can slowly learn to grow from failure instead of being afraid to fail again.

Shawn, 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 first picked up a camera in high school for my yearbook class and essentially, I’ve been holding one ever since. In the beginning, I took pictures of anything and anyone who was willing- mostly family and friends at first. As I got out of college, I began to hone in on portrait and dance photography. Im proud of my dance photography because it’s exploring a deeply artistic and expressive medium within my own creative medium of photography. I feel like with dance, photos can feel too commercial at times and I like to think my work can be different.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I think finding like-minded creative and positive people can be a valuable resource for your own personal growth. Not only to you get contrasting and different ideas, there are times when others might simply know more than you- it just takes humility to admit it. When I first started learning to use a camera, I wanted to do it all on my own because I felt like asking for help or advice was essentially admitting defeat. But once you overcome that pride, others can help you grow faster than you thought possible.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My goal in photography isn’t necessarily money and fame (although it wouldn’t be bad if it did come with those). My goal is to push myself in order to achieve things I never thought I could do- to create things that I never thought I could create.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Shawnjrobles.com
• Instagram: @shawnjrobles