It’s now a little over 12 months since I first declared myself a “real” Photographer. Since I launched my website and Sally M Photographics as a business. Since I dared to consider that I may have what it takes to be a great photographer!
What an amazing, confronting, wonderful, horribly uncomfortable, extraordinary 12 months it has been.
I remember the day I found my logo online (for $49); the weekend I spent creating my website from a template I found online (for $300); the day I created my Instagram page and wondering what the hell I was going to say!!
It was ridiculous how confronting all of that was and yet so wildly exciting!!
I now know what all the success gurus are trying to tell me when they yell “Just get started!!”
I didn’t have to wait until I was a super amazing photographer or know how to do everything perfectly, I didn’t get guffawed at and look like a total idiot!! (they were both very real possibilities in my mind…)
Oh I’m so glad I took action anyway. And really, why does it matter anyway if I look like an idiot. No one is going to die.
Clearly my attention was firmly on one thing. Myself.
Fortunately I gradually got over the self-concern and started to put my attention on something far more important and valuable. The people in front of my camera. And that is when things really started to shift. I became more creative, I took more risks, I saw opportunities where before I would not have. My confidence grew and my work improved, I was able to relate to myself as the real deal.
But best of all, I fell in love with my clients! It can all happen in the space of a two-hour photo shoot! Truly! I never expected to feel so connected to every person that I photograph, it’s really quite wonderful! Being photographed is not comfortable for people, at the beginning of a shoot they will invariably say to me “I really don’t like having my photo taken”. They feel exposed and vulnerable. Perhaps that is why a photo session allows for connection to happen so easily. What ever it is, I like it!
There are two things that light me up. One is having people feel great about themselves and the other is awakening the creative Sally (that has been desperate to get out..) and photography allows for both of those things. Isn’t that just bloody fantastic?
I can acknowledge myself now for even getting started, I am SO glad I did.
These are some of the people I have got to photograph over the past 12 months…in all their gorgeous human-ness!
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