Today we’d like to introduce you to Robert Burke.
Robert, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I have always been intrigued by beautiful photographs and decided about eight years ago to give it a try. I purchased a starter Sony camera, and like all new photographers; I too was totally confused when it came to the dials and understanding how all the settings worked. It was a fun and frustrating journey trying to get my photographs to look anything close to what I saw from other skilled artists. For a few years, I did what most do and just left the camera in the Auto setting so the camera would do all the work for me. My photographs started looking better as I improved on composition, and my eye got better, however, after a while I reached the point where I just wasn’t seeing improvement anymore, no more growth!, and my photos were still nowhere close to the quality I had versioned and hoped they would be. This was the turning point where I decide to dive in and commit myself to educating myself on how to take the camera off automatic, and start learning how to operate my camera on manual setting, which meant I had to learn to understand ISO, Shutter Speeds, and Aperture just to start. Next came shooting in Raw, and learning how to post-process my images. In between, I took some classes at a photography school and just continued to work on it, as I still am doing today. Photography has so many elements, and you’re not going to learn this craft overnight, so look at every day as a chance to learn something new and grow. Another big change came when my Sony camera was stolen, and I decided to invest in a full frame Canon Mark lll professional camera, and quickly found out that this was an expensive hobby, but wow did having great equipment change the game going forward for me. Today I shoot landscape, Weddings, Family portraits, and anything else that looks intriguing to me.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
My main goal is to create photography that moves people when they see it. With my Landscape work, I try and set the mood and composition so people could imagine what it was like there, even encourage them to pick up a camera and try it, or perhaps travel to the location I was at themselves.
I just don’t take a picture, I try and create art that is beautiful and has a good vibe.
The stereotype of a starving artist scares away many potentially talented artists from pursuing art – any advice or thoughts about how to deal with the financial concerns an aspiring artist might be concerned about?
My advice is to have a solid income to support yourself and build your photography skills and business on the side until you have the choice to full time if you wish. We have to eat and pay bills first…
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
I haven’t done any Exhibitions, although I’m building a portfolio and hope to be able to show it someday, even though it scares me to death…
Contact Info:
- Website: https://robertburke.smugmug.com/
- Phone: 626 209-5660
- Email: robertburke64@gmail.com
- Instagram: @roberthburkephotography
- Other: https://500px.com/robertburke64
Image Credit:
Robert H Burke
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