Coffee Talks

Wednesday afternoon I had the pleasure of sitting down for coffee with Rachel Waters of Rachel Photographs for an interview/chat.

Rachel is an immensely talented wedding photographer located in OKC. I stumbled upon her website a few months ago and have been dying over her photos ever since. I mean, if you haven't already, check her out at http://rachelphotographs.com/. The girl got skill and she's only 23.

I emailed her to ask if she'd be willing to talk photography with me, and she suggested we just meet for coffee and chat instead. Which is totally fine with me, being the coffee junky I am. (We went to Cuppies and Joe, btw. Super cool.)



I asked her quite a few questions and wanted to share with you some of what she said, because it was really helpful to me.

E: "When did you first start taking photos?"
R: "When I was twelve, my grandma gave me a digital camera and I started taking photos with it. Really bad photos. And eventually I realized that it was something I wanted to do and I just stuck with it."

E: "What inspires you most?"
R: "Light and shadow. Symmetry. Travel. Real emotion. Lately, mountains, trees, and the Pacific Northwest in general. Sometimes music or poetry. And other photographers."

E: "What would you say is your style?"
R: "I'd say its whimsical and nontraditional. I think I'm photojournalistic, with paid attention to details, wrapped up in whimsy. But I don't say that because its kind of long" (I wrote it anyway because I liked it.)

E: Who are some of the photographers you find inspiration from?
R: "Ben Sasso, Dylan & Sara especially in wedding photography, and Logan Cole. He's so good and he's really young. I mean, he's shot Beyoncé." (goals)

E: "What kind of equipment do you use?"
R: "I use Canon and Sigma gear-the body is a 5D Mark. I shoot film too for more personal images."

Finally, I asked for her advice and anything else she had to add, and this is what she gave me:
"Stick with it. There were so many times I wanted to quit. There still are times I want to quit. Always keep trying to get better, keep learning. Study others work and see what you like and dislike, then use it as inspiration. Make sure you're doing personal work-shooting for yourself is so important. And don't compare yourself to others. Just don't."

Rachel is definitely making a name for herself with her emotion-evoking images. If you didn't already think she was cool by now, she's also totally self-taught. Boom. Mic drop. Big thanks to her for taking the time to meet with me!