You’re the niche
You spend a lot of time looking outward. Watching what works for others and wondering if it might work for you too. If you’re a photographer - especially one trying to find the niche - it’s easy to get lost in the noise. Been there, done that.
But your niche is closer than you think. You are the niche.
It’s so easy to fall into the current. To shape yourself after what's already out there. But the moment you try to fit in - the work starts to feel a little less like yours.
While it is not about others.
It’s all about you.
Before you start thinking about this as an egocentric approach, let me explain.
Chasing
World is overloaded, there’s plenty of everything everywhere. It’s almost impossible to create something new, something different. The only thing which is different here - it’s you.
It’s the thing that makes your work different - your way of seeing - that’s what draws people in. As long as it’s true.
If you're constantly bending to fit the current, you're dimming your own edge. And ironically, it's that exact edge that could be setting the next trend.
It’s tempting to follow what’s hot. I am guilty of it all myself. There’s nothing wrong in being inspired, too. Only the thing is, you get inspired most likely by someone who wasn't following trends at all. They were just doing their thing.
What if you could be the one creating the next wave - but you’re too busy riding someone else’s?
Gentle note to myself: stay authentic.
Searching Too Far
I think we all play this tricky game sometimes: if only I lived where they live. If only I had access to that kind of landscape, that model, that piece of gear. But creative acts don’t bloom from perfect conditions. They bloom from tension, from noticing what’s in front of you. From curiosity.
It’s not about better, more, somewhere else, someone else - it’s about deeper.
Some of my favorite images weren’t made in grand locations - they were made in the quiet, in places I’ve walked a hundred times. Sometimes the most extraordinary thing is right in front of us, waiting to be seen differently.
Gentle note to myself: notice it.
You Are the Niche
You have your vision, a voice, a perspective that no one else can replicate. You don’t need to fit into a category. You are the category.
Lean into what lights you up. Trust that your eye knows something even you can’t explain yet. You have it.
Pictures in this blog are made during the evening walks with my wife and a dog in our neighborhood.
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