Are you making enough progress with your photography?
Steady, consistent growth trumps quick tricks.
As a photographer for over 50 years now, I can state with some real authority, that growth takes time and focus to accomplish.
Experience trumps practice and practice trumps passive learning (watching videos, taking workshops…).
The only way to get better is to get better. The operative word is “get”.
Get is a verb.
And we do that by focusing effort, not spinning a hundred different ways while trying to be all things to all beings.
If you want to be a food shooter, shoot food.
Every. Damn. Day.
One of my mentees, Judy, wanted to grow out of shooting tiny gigs and delivery service menus ($15 per shot). It was too much work for too little reward.
(Ya think?)
I explained the process and told her I wanted at least 4 shots per week from her.
She never sent less than 20. Not one week.
Her technique got better and better, and her ability to know what the job would call for got nailed down. (Helpful when putting together bids.)
And her style began emerging. Clean, poppy, a bit of a sharp shadow that art directors seemed to take notice of.
To this day she shoots multiple images per day. If not for a client then for herself. She is a very busy photographer with an A-List client roster that says a lot about her work.
This amazing focus on the work, the styling, and the marketing — did I mention she is a monster at marketing making hundreds of calls to potential clients — makes her formidable in her field.
Do you want to go up against her?
Work be damned, can you match her amazing work ethic?
To get from A-B you must go the distance… it’s an endurance race every morning, a competition with your spirit every moment.
The way forward means step after step…
There are no shortcuts, no ‘easy buttons’.
Get ready for the slog, put together a plan, build a system, then get after it.
NOW.
And every day forward.
See Judy Doherty’s work, go here.
I am a photographer, designer, and photo editor. You can find me at my self-named website or at Project 52 Pro System where I teach commercial photography online. This is our tenth year of teaching, and it is the most unique online class you will find anywhere.
You can find my books on Amazon, and I have taught two classes at CREATIVELIVE.