What a year!
This year has been so busy, and I am grateful for that. Every day, I have to remind myself that I am living the life I have wanted, and I need to be grateful for the stress that comes with it. With the stress has come the best improvement of my career. If you scroll through my website, you can see the progression! I feel like working in the variety of 'genres that I work in has contributed to the growth that I see. If I can see it, I'm certain you can see it too.
Working in football has actually improved my portrait photography, and I know that sounds crazy, but trust it has. Because I look so differently and more creatively at the photos I take now, I feel like the compositions I have been able to achieve with my sports work have given me a different perspective on the rest of my portfolio. I approach my process pretty much the same for both. I focus on motion. Motion allows for more interesting compositions. Especially with women, a little hair toss can create interesting shapes. I have been lucky to photograph so many amazing graduates and gain the experience I need to be a successful portrait photographer.
Whenever I feel low about my skills or anything related to my work, I scroll all the way back to the beginning of my career and see where I came from and compare it to where I am now. I am so insanely proud of myself and the hustle I have put in to improve myself and get myself to the places I have always wanted to be (well, not always... this is a new dream and I'm happy to be here).
I am always a busy, busy bee, and there is that trade-off of being busy and being stressed and drained. I find myself more often than I probably should being more stressed about life than I ever have. The accumulation of being a full-time student, having a part-time job, an internship, and being a professional photographer can be overwhelming. I will always be transparent about how busy I am, like if you see my calendar, you can easily see why I am so high-strung all the dang time. I am balancing so much, and I will be the first to admit that it's hard sometimes. I have a lot going on, and leaning on my loved ones will definitely get me through it.
The best advice I can ever give is to ask for help. I am trying to get better about doing that myself, but I know that it's useful advice. This year has 100% been better for me in advocating for myself and the help that I need. So if you have people in your life who want to help you, lean on them. Those people want you to succeed; they want you to do well, so lean on them.
That's all I got. I'm trying to get better at this blog thing so definitely bear with me.
Best wishes,
t
