LEVEL UP YOUR PHONE PHOTOGRAPHY

WITH GABRIELLE TOUCHETTE

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Welcome to Week 15 of 2025!

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In today's e-mail, you'll get:

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INSPIRATION OF THE WEEK: Emulation Leads to Transformation

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PHOTO OF THE WEEK: Photoshopped Photo Circa 2008

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RESOURCES YOU MIGHT LIKE: We're Traveling to Norway with Emma Wright

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INSPIRATION OF THE WEEK

Emulation Leads to Transformation

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A little personal story from me today. It's a 4-min read.

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If you feel like your photos aren’t improving and your creativity falls flat, even after learning all the photography techniques there is to know, you might be starting to wonder if photography is for you.

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I came to that point back in 2009 after spending 10 years taking courses and shelling out all my life savings to attend a 1-year intensive photography diploma program.

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The problem wasn’t the courses. Those were good. And I learned a lot.

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The problem was Hitting the Creative Wall.

This is a period of time when despite having all the technical knowledge and skills, photos still fall flat. It’s like the creative flow has stalled (or has never arrived in the first place).

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I felt like I was lacking new ideas.

My photos were repetitive and uninteresting.

I struggled to experience free-flowing creativity.

It was 2009 and I had started my photography business the year before. I wasn't getting enough bookings to quit my day job and go full time. Clients came, and clients went.
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I saw others running successful businesses, producing incredibly creative and innovative photos that made an impact.

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Despite my professional gear and formal education, my photos were not as impressive or unique as I wanted them to be.

I felt stuck, and I didn’t know how to fix that.
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By 2010, I was still struggling to get my business to full time. My husband was in university and I was the sole income earner. With a mortgage and a baby on the way, I needed to get my business to the next level.
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But how do you do that when your photos are creatively flat and definitely not competing in the market?

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I turned to my successful photographer friends, the ones who were 10 years ahead of where I wanted to be.

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They counselled me:

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“Double your prices.”

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and

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“Improve your photography.”

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*Gulp*
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Those two things terrified me!

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But I took their advice. I doubled my prices overnight. (Yikes! That was a scary move.)

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More importantly, I doubled down on figuring out how to improve my photography.
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It felt impossible. How do you just do that, after taking all the photography courses possible and having already spent 13+ years taking photos?

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Suddenly a thought popped into my head: “Emulate the best of them.”
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This went against everything I had ever thought to be right.
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I always believed that the mark of a true, great artist is one who is independently genius, not relying on anyone else to tell them how to do their art, and able to create masterpieces straight out of their soul.
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To emulate others seemed so blasphemous.

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Up until that point, I would deliberately NOT look at what other photographers were putting out there for fear that I might accidentally copy them. I was so worried that I’d become a fraud. I would put my blinders on when creating my photos and I would make sure I sourced inspiration from inside of me, and me alone.
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I was so wrong.

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The truth is: inspiration comes from the outside.

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When we let it into our soul, our creative being synthesizes it into a new version.
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The output of that is good art. It's our art.

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That’s not copying.

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That’s letting our creative being absorb the beauty that already exists around us.

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It took me many years to learn that.
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So when I was forced against The Creative Wall, I had no choice but to reevaluate my values.

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So I doubled my prices... And I (*gasp!*) started looking at other photographers’ photos.

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Slowly but surely I started curating lists of my favourite photographers and analyzed their work.

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The results? A gradual improvement of my photos over time.

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It was the spark I needed to accelerate my photography to the next level.

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Not only did my business grow, but I was finally reaching a place where I felt immense creative fulfillment.

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I was producing photography that moved me and that felt exciting to me.

To this day I still emulate photographers whose work I admire. Being in a community of artists is essential to our growth, and I wish it upon everyone.

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I’m hosting a 1-hour crash course on Zoom on how to analyze photos to transform your photography. If you've hit The Creative Wall and need a boost, join me here.

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PHOTO OF THE WEEK

A Photoshopped Photo Circa 2008

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This week I’m sharing a very old photo. This was back when I was in photography school and one of our assignments was to emulate a photographer whose work we admired.

The ironic thing is that despite having been taught how to emulate in photography school, it never really sank in until years later. Funny how some things I learnt sat dormant in my brain for years.

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This was one of the first times I seriously worked with multiple exposures and editing in Photoshop. I created this photo in response to the work I saw Katherine Sanderson do in 2007/2008. Her work is hard to find on the internet right now, but I found two photos of hers here and here.

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RESOURCES YOU MIGHT LIKE

Traveling to Norway with Emma Wright

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Speaking of emulating, I find that Emma Wright’s iPhone photos are perfect for analyzing and emulating. Her work is moving but also clearly creative. Especially if you’re into travel photography, you’ll be inspired by these iPhone photos:

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PS: If you'd like to learn basic techniques and the path to analyzing and applying creativity to your photos, join me live on Zoom on April 29th for a crash course.

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PSS: If you're in Winnipeg, and you're looking for a community of creatives to meet and be inspired by, come join us at our next CreativeMornings Winnipeg event (it's free). I'll be there taking photos. :)

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