success

So, I had the opportunity today to review 14 hours worth of podcasts from professional photographers. There is a photographer (Scott Hayne) that I absolutely LOVE...I frequently check his blogs for new photos from weddings/senior shoots and I just adore his work. About a month ago, he posted something about this "webinar"...it was basically a free (if you pre-registered..otherwise it cost $59!) seminar from top photographers around the world. They posted about many different things...a lot of them were based on marketing yourself, your photos and your business, which is incredibly helpful. But there were also quite a few on other topics such as: technical aspects of photography, specializing, how to get certain effects, lighting, etc.

Needless to say, I have been in Heaven since about 3pm!

The podcasts are only available for 24 hours (so, just today) unless you purchase them...8--yes, EIGHT--pages of notes later and I have TONS of information that I think will help me in the future.

But the main purpose of this post is to talk about one photographer in particular, Marcus Bell. He started doing photography about 13 years ago...at that point, he was basically at the point I am at now. Where to start? How do I start? How do I learn enough? How do I get people to hire me? Pretty much everything I've been thinking about.

He actually was more inspirational (at least to me) than educational! Don't get me wrong, I learned A LOT from him but I came away from his little podcast completely inspired. I think the thing he said that set me into motion was

"You are the difference between wishing
to be successful and being successful."

How true, right? I mean, when I think about it, what's stopping me besides me? The other thing he said that really hit home was "passion makes you want to work at it 24/7"...*lightbulb going off* "Oh...is that what it is?" How often am I either taking pictures, editing pictures, or talking about taking/editing pictures?? Pretty much all the time (which also means that the majority of my friends/family are probably annoyed with me!). That's passion though. If you're passionate about what you do...if you LOVE what you do, it's not a job to you. Marcus basically said when he goes to shoot weddings or portraits or whatever he's shooting that particular day, he doesn't feel like he's going to work. It doesn't feel like a job to him; it's fun. It's something he enjoys!

That's what I feel like when I'm taking pictures. I'll be honest, before the wedding, I thought I was going to hate having to run around and I worried that I wouldn't get the shots that they wanted or the shots I wanted. I worried they wouldn't be good enough. I worried it would be too hard. I worried that it would feel like work and I wouldn't enjoy it. Guess what? I was dead wrong. I had fun the entire day. From 11am to 10pm. Almost 12 full hours. And there wasn't a second that I wasn't enjoying--no, not enjoying--LOVING what I was doing. It was busy, of course. But it was a good busy. It wasn't a scary busy or a rushed busy. It was a fun, good busy.

The last thing Marcus said that I took to heart was "make a choice to be successful; to be ordinary or extraordinary. But if you want to be extraordinary, know it takes hard work and determination."

Ya know what? I'm going to show everyone what I've got.

:)