i'm been contemplating this whole blogging thing lately. i am not the most disciplined blogger, and if i haven't any work to share i often find it difficult to come up with something write. part of this is questioning how much of me - my thoughts, my life happenings, my dreams and ideals - do i share... do you really want to know? but moreover, i want to make sure that i my work is about my clients having the best experience and not about me getting my accolades and being a "celebrity"!
there seems to be two camps within the professional wedding industry. those that market themselves, and those that market their work. but most of the photographers that i love and am inspired by seem to find a way to balance both things well. through sharing their life with their clients [and anyone else who cares to read their blog, follow their facebook, retweet their tweets] many photographers successfully promote their work, their skills, and offer insight into the overall experience they wish to give their clients that makes their clients feel like rockstars!
i know i am a good photographer and that my work is good. part of what makes me confident of this is your feedback; the other part is that i am always striving to learn, to better my skills, to see/find/create the light, to better the quality of the finished product, to learn more about the history of photography and the photographers who have been most prolific since the invention of the camera, and who the game changers of my industry have been. i am always looking for inspiration from unusual sources and pushing myself to look as things differently through the lens. but, what really makes me a good photographer is because i love what i do [aside from bookkeeping and few other things i have to do to operate a business, there is no part of my job that i do not love], and because i pour every bit of myself into my clients and work, and find my own life-giving moments in this. i love my clients as though they are my friends. i want my clients to be happy, to follow their dreams and to be successful in love and life the same way i desire these things for my friends. so... how do i separate myself from my work?
this time of year [in this part of canada] is likely to be slower as people hibernate in their homes and think less about having a winter wedding or being outside to have their high school senior portraits taken [though, hello, how beautiful the morning light is in the morning... i would love to be out shooting more right now!!], thus i am going to take some time to really think about how i wish to move forward with my business, what kind of web presence i wish to have and how to balance who i am with the work i do so that my clients always have the very best experience that is one hundred percent centered upon them, delivers amazing photographs to boot, and so that i can feel the joy that my work brings to me!
thank you for sharing my journey with me!
love & sunshine,
shannon-may
Hmm. I think if you want to blog, then blog, but don't force yourself to do something you're not really into or comfortable with.
ReplyDeleteFor me, I used to keep my blog really professional and formal, and really struggled with thinking that nobody would be interested in anything else I might right about. But then I was like screw it, it's my blog and I'll write about what interests me! So now I post a lot more often and more personally, and if people don't care at least they have the grace not to say so ;) I figure it people want to see my photography and nothing else, I have a website for that. If they want to know more about me, that's where the blog (and Facebook, and Twitter!) comes in.
There's another element though, which is that I had a blog before I was a photographer, professional or otherwise. I had a blog before they were called blogs! So writing about my life and mundanities comes naturally. I think the divide is more between photographers who are also writers, and photographers who aren't... and one isn't better than the other.
thanks kandise for your insight!!! you're the best!
ReplyDelete