Reply To: Please be kind!!

[meganray]

.. Thanks for taking the time to respond!

Ok, just gonna be totally honest haha.. everything I know about photography I taught myself by trial and error, I started with film … but that was in highschool.. really all that taught me was a little about light and composition, but it helped and I loved it. I was a painter and it was just another way to get that out. I worked at Superstore portrait studio for a while.. but we had no editing there, and they didn’t teach me anything about shooting manual at all, it was just set the person up and snap the pictures.. so again it taught me about posing and working with people.. a bit about cropping and contrast but thats it!

I’ve read my manuals, watched video tutorials and I play around.  I had a camera because I always just loved shooting.. and I mostly did young kids when I was in highschool.. because my mom ran a daycare and my brother and sister were almost 10 years younger.. haha just made sense.. thats what was avaibable to shoot.. so I practiced like mad…. I liked photographing people.. and then the amount of people that wanted me to do it started to grow and I couldn’t keep up and I am a people pleaser and didn’t like saying no… so I would charge 20 or 50 buck depending what the job was.. and give them a disc. It didn’t even pay for my time or equipment but it kept my boyfriend happy haha!.. He didn’t mind it taking up so much time because it made me happy and I wasn’t doing it totally free. I never lied to anyone.. I am very open about being self taught.

During that time I was still working at the portrait studio and was saving for school when I found out I was having my first, and after that I had 3 kids in 3 and a half years… So I have taken a lot of breaks and tried to slow down.. because I can’t improve my skills in the speed I want to while trying to raise babies and toddlers at the same time… so I feel a little stuck right now with my learning curve.. I teach myself one thing at a time..

I try to say no to weddings, because I don’t enjoy them.. so much stress..  but I do still do ones every year! I have a hard time saying no, and I am trying to force myself.. at least 60 percent of the people I work for.. I know..  because I am from a small town.. thats a huge thing… almost all my clients are people I know, or know my family and friends.. so the reason there is soooo many facebook images up is because they all want sneak peeks… I know them… and I know there kids… and I post everything I think they’ll like!… I know I need to stop doing that. Its good to have someone say so.. maybe it’ll make me stop.

I also tilt the camera… a lot! Guilty!.. I love it.. haha and had no idea it was a bad thing.. and I probably will never completly stop doing it because I still like it but I do it way to much and actually have been trying to rehab myself of it!

I am inconsistant.. on purpose.. eeeeeek I know that sounds so bad.. but up until now I have always approached every single picture as art.. as a painting almost.. I do each one individually and not in order… I am terribly scatter brained… I am not organized at ALL.. but its always worked until now… I literally have never had someone tell me they were unhappy.. after a session, other than when I agreed to do Dance pictures for my town one year there was a slight issue with the one client but it was more about time schedualing than pictures…  not there couldn’t have been unhappy people that never talked to me about it.. I do think about that. :/

I know I am not AMAZING.. I know I cant call myself a pro.. YET! I’ve never even been to a photoshop class…

But I do my best to give the best images I can.. not just ones that look good in a profile picture, but I print my personal work, and strive for clear, sharp images, but I am not all the way there. I would like to improve and become more consistant and I hope within the next 5 years start a full time business.

I WOULD LOVE advice. 🙂