What I will no longer do after my 30 day photography challenge
I just completed a thirty day photography challenge that I borrowed from Click it Up a Notch.(Here is the link if you’d like to check it out!) If you haven’t seen it, check out my Instagram and you can see each challenge for each day. The challenge itself is doable, what made it harder for me was making the videos to go with each challenge. BUT it also kept me accountable to complete the challenge, which we need these days. I didn’t do this challenge because I thought I was a “bad” photographer, but I did it because we can ALWAYS grow and learn something new. Always. This industry does have a ton of photographers (which is great) but I believe in order to succeed we must keep growing!
After doing 30 days of trying new things, here are some things I will no longer do when photographing my clients.
I will not stress about the time of day anymore. I still recommend family photos during sunset because it is GORGE, but honestly I learned that I love me a heavy shadow if it is done properly! I did most of my photos mid-day and it was not only fine, but I liked them! So I will open up to family photos being done at different times!
I will always try the shot, even if it “feels weird or wrong”. When I am doing a family, maternity, or newborn session, sometimes I get in my head and think that something will look bad or weird so I don’t try it. This challenge gave me the confirmation that I was overthinking during sessions and I had the ability to try it without any judgement! We get in our head when money is involved and we want to make sure our clients feel like we know what we’re doing, but this is ART BABY. So it’s ok to try the weird thing. And if it’s bad, don’t send it to them haha.
I opened up a whole new world of photographing landscapes and I LOVE it. I never use my time to photograph landscapes because I don’t get paid for it. Stupid I know, but most of the time if my camera is out, it is because I have a family, maternity, or newborn session. Which I also love, but doing this challenge re-ignited WHY I love photography. It reminded me that it is my art and art doesn’t have to have ANY purpose behind it besides just being whatever you want it to be! So now I will be adding more landscape photography into my work because dad-gummit I freaking like it ok?!
Nobody has to love what you’re doing as long as you love it. You don’t need anyone’s approval, and quite frankly, nobody really cares. I was so nervous about doing this challenge at first and the only thing that happened is that not a lot of people “liked” the reels. (Other than my tried and true peeps you know who you are) and if I quit making them because people didn’t care, I wouldn’t have learned what I learned. So if you’re thinking of joining my next challenge, mark your calendars for an unspecified date in the future, because it’s coming!
