Holler dear friends. How are you all? Can we talk about confidence today? well yes we can cause I’m in charge here. Bahaha.
Success in photography: it’s not dependent on talent.
For real.
Some of the most talented photographers I’ve ever seen cripple themselves with one thing: lack of belief in themselves. Lack of confidence to do what they really want to do. Lack of confidence to own the value of their work, both monetarily and in everything–the work they take on, the amount of time they spend spinning their wheels, watching other people live the life of their dreams. Pretty depressing right? So this begs the question WHY would anyone ever wanna go down this route, if all you have to do is change your mindset to be successful?
We want to blame lack of talent or ability and tell ourselves, “I’m just not good enough” because that feels like we’re not responsible, and that someone else holds the key to this whole success thing. It’s just a fancied up excuse. We are afraid of putting it all out there, really giving it our all and trying and then failing–so we just fail on purpose by not trying.
But the good news is that fear doesn’t have to run your life, cause when you really boil it down, what are you afraid of? It’s only an emotion. You’re afraid of never being successful or people laughing at you only because of how it would feel. It’s only a willingness to be uncomfortable in chasing your definition of success, versus tricking yourself with “I’m just not good enough, I’ll probably never make it as a photographer, so I’ll just stay in this corner and never make it as a photographer.”
So honey lemme tell you: it’s very simple. All you have to do is being willing to be uncomfortable, be willing to dive full on into a deep pool of newness, and swim around in there for what feels like an eternity. And that discomfort? I’m not going to pretend it’s fun. But here’s the fun part: when you practice that discomfort long enough, leaning into it instead of resisting it–things start lining up. Results start to bang down your door. But most of all: you water and grow more and more confidence in your own ability to do whatever it is you want to do with your one sacred wild life. All you have to do is be willing to find the fun, the delight in the process, the awesome threaded through and on the other side of the discomfort.
All this to say: at many points the workshop is uncomfortable for the peeps who come; it’s all new, and they practice trying on new ideas both in how they shoot and how they see their work, and dare I say, how they approach lyfe. (cause the reasons we are drawn to make art are very connected to life, and it all blurs and bleeds together very beautifully you know.) So I get all proud-mama-hen when I see them rolling into that discomfort head-on, being willing to go out on a limb with something new and supporting each other wholly, and THAT’S when I know I’ve done my job.
wait, before you go, do you wanna know what it’s like to have a family session with yours truly? read some reviews here and get the full scoop. or skip that and let’s just chat about your session, love.
