Right, so I wanted to share a bit about this phase I went through a while back, all sparked by this name: Andres Salgado. It’s not about the person, not really, but what trying to understand their work did for me.
Finding That Look
I remember it clear as day. I was scrolling online, feeling a bit stuck with my own creative stuff, you know? Just looking for something to kickstart my brain. And then I saw these images. Powerful. The mood, the way the light was handled – it just grabbed me. I thought, wow, I need to figure out how this Andres Salgado does this. It looked so unique, so polished. My first thought was, “I want to do that too.”
Down the Rabbit Hole
So, I jumped right in. My first brilliant idea? Just copy it. I took some of my old pieces and tried to force them into that style. What a mess. Seriously, it looked awful, like I’d just slapped on some cheap effect. Nothing felt right. I spent hours, I mean, actual days, staring at Salgado’s work and then back at my own attempts. “What am I missing?” I kept asking myself. It was driving me nuts.
I even bought some digital tools that promised that “Salgado magic.” Big surprise, they didn’t do much. Mostly a waste of cash. I started thinking, maybe it’s the equipment? You know how it is, you start blaming your tools. But deep down, I kind of knew that wasn’t the whole story. Still, I looked into it, trying to see if there was some secret gear combo. Nope. More frustration. I was really close to just giving up, thinking some people just have that magic touch and I don’t.
The Penny Drops
Then one evening, I was about to just shut everything down, feeling pretty beat. And it sort of clicked. I wasn’t really looking properly. I was so obsessed with copying the final shiny output that I was missing the groundwork. It wasn’t just about the software tricks.
I forced myself to go back, but this time, I slowed way down. I stopped trying to replicate the surface and started to really analyze. How was the light working in these pieces? Where was it coming from? How was the whole thing composed, even before any digital stuff happened? It sounds super basic, I know, but I’d been so caught up in the “effect” that I’d totally skipped over the fundamentals that this Salgado was obviously a master of. It wasn’t just about some fancy finishing move; there was a whole lot of thought that went in way before that.
What Stuck With Me
So, did I end up creating things that looked exactly like Andres Salgado’s work? Not a chance. And honestly, I’m glad. Because what I got from that whole chase was way more valuable. I stopped trying so hard to be someone else. Instead, I started focusing on those core things in my own work – the light, the composition, the actual subject. Getting that stuff right.
It was a weird, winding path, all started by seeing some impressive work online. But wrestling with the “Andres Salgado mystery” actually made me better, or at least more deliberate in my own approach. I learned to dig deeper, not just into other people’s results, but into my own process. And that, more than any specific technique, is what stayed with me. It was about the thinking, the seeing, and the real work, not just the fancy finish.
