There’s a certain arrogance that can creep up within a photographer.  You capture an amazing wedding, start to finish and all of a sudden, for a short season, you think you’ve mastered every aspect of photography. It’s similar to riding a bike.  You just get the feel for it and you GO! However, you don’t know everything.  You’re not 100% sure of how to handle the turns or how much to slow down in loose gravel (I understand this all too well. I have dozens of bike accident stories from my childhood, just ask Michael!… actually, don’t ask, they’re so embarrassing!)

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Once a photographer gets the feel for something, it’s so easy to believe that you’ve learned all you can, you’ve mastered it.  I mean, just look of those images! How much better can they get? Right? …. Wrong.  So so wrong. This moment came for me after I shot Kenny and Christy’s gorgeous wedding last spring. It went beautifully and some of their portraits are still some of my most treasured shots.  I remember thinking that I had captured everything that way I had envisioned it.  The ceremony shots were on point, the details were fun and creative, the portraits.. oh man the portraits!!! I LOVED this wedding! But for a short period of time, I lost the balance between confidence and my willingness to learn.

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If I can offer any tip, any word of advice to other photographers that we just starting off, it would be this : You will NEVER master EVERY aspect of photography! (Encouraging right?) The point is that you will NEVER stop learning.  The moment you think you know everything is the moment you stop growing and that is an extremely dangerous place to be if you’re serious about growing your business.  For me, I keep this in check by constantly evaluating my strengths and weaknesses.  My strengths right now would be portraits. I LOVE them! My weakness right now are Macro detail shots. I’m just not that amazing at them and I don’t totally understand how to get the shots I realllllly want.  So I practiced! and practiced and practiced! I still haven’t mastered details but every time I try, I get a little bit closer to achieving the shot I want!

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I practiced with my ring…. of course.  Maybe I wanted to do a helpful post or maybe I just wanted to show my ring off! ha! Whatever the case, I hope this was helpful for at least one person! So practice! Believe in yourself, but continue to be humble and you’re GOING to grow! Goodluck!