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Sit. Relax. Catch up.
Stop and Smell the Roses
Wow, the first month of 2023 has already flown by and I feel like I’m just waking up to the new year! With this time of the year always feeling like the time to “start something new”, it can seem stressful as we start and possibly stop that something. Yesterday realizing that the month was wrapping up, I got a little nostalgic and went over some old photos. Kind of like a walk down memory lane.
Back in 2019 I decided to do a 365 day selfie photo project. The hope of it then was to put in the time and practice needed to perfect my craft. Thinking about the day to day moments, I can’t remember a time throughout that process where I felt that “leveled up” feeling. Much like one would get in a video game. I thought, maybe I could mix some outtake images with what was used to create a video of the progression. I must say, watching the images fly by and seeing some of the incremental images taken to get to “that one shot” was fun. Check it out here:
Watching this reminded me that progress towards any goal takes work. We will have to experiment and fail along the way in order to get to the next step. Sometimes we reach the next step only to fall back down a few. Regardless of the back and forth though, it’s a journey and we have to remember it’s our own journey. Comparing ourselves to others doesn’t help level us up any faster. In fact it may make us go crazy LOL. Seeing one’s own progress from a day-to-day perspective, it may seem non-existent. Pulling back the view though from a longer lens, might just show that a lot of progress had been made and at that point, we should celebrate our personal growth!
Headshot Marathon!
What does one do at a photography conference full of amazing photographers around the world? Attempt to photograph all 500 of them!
September 4th - 7th, I had the pleasure of attending the 2nd annual The Portrait Masters conference in Phoenix Arizona. The conference is put on by my mentor Sue Bryce, bringing together photographers from around the world and amazing guest speakers to educate and inspire us all to take our work to greater heights. While I was there to take that all in, I found myself inspired to play and see how many headshots I could capture of those participating in the conference. In total there were 500 attendees, so the grand goal was to try and capture them all within the 3.5 days I was there.
Doing the math I figured spending about a minute with everyone to capture their headshot, which would require that I spend close to 8.5 hours of my time spread across those 3.5 days. With that knowledge I worked to spread my days accordingly so I could still partake in other parts of the conference, which included listening to the guest speakers, visiting the vendor booths and practicing in the shooting bays.
One of the key things in shooting for this personal project was to try and maintain a consistent backdrop. I learned early on that the location that I loved, was a bit out of the way for the attendees, so as in most things in life, I had to compromise in order to get remotely close to 500 photos. Further into the project I realized the math was calculated for optimal conditions, namely that people would be lining out the door to get their headshots with me :). I certainly had to hustle and get photographers, some a little more apprehensive than others, to get in front of the camera. In the end I was able to capture 209 headshots and have to thank my friends Ashley and Cody Lindsey for helping coordinating and assisting in the project, as well the many other photographers that walked in front of the lens and recruited more to spend a minute or so with me. From that I was able to create this fun slideshow. Sit back, enjoy the music and faces from the project and the fun collage at the end!
Awards and Accreditation!
When you have a passion for something, I think it is only natural that one gets to a stage where they are constantly striving to improve themselves. There's a vision in my head of the work that I want to produce...
When you have a passion for something, I think it is only natural that one gets to a stage where they are constantly striving to improve themselves. There's a vision in my head of the work that I want to produce. Some days I do not feel like I'm making forward progress and other days I feel like I'm making huge strides. Irregardless of the perceived back and forth progress, I know I'm taking action and continually moving forward.
Speaking to the constant improving of oneself, I have been working on my path to becoming an associate level photographer through The Portrait Masters Awards and Accreditation program. This recent round of submissions there were over 6,500 images submitted worldwide, judged by a panel of 9 award winning photographers. I submitted the following images and each received a bronze merit, signifying work that is of a professional level.
I'm very proud of the achievement and it all helps me get one step closer to becoming an associate photographer. As well, very appreciative of the wonderful clients who also help make this journey a possibility! I'm looking forward to the next round of submissions come August and excited for the new work that will be submitted. Hopefully even have one or more of them that merit gold or silver!
Click on an image to view full-sized image.
