Keep Swimming! | Crystal Broussard | Quad Cities Photographers

About this time yesterday I was in the middle of about a two and half hour conversation with a friend, fellow photographer, and occasional colleague. We discussed all kinds of things, typically it goes like this: business, photography, business, personal shtuff, humoring ourselves, business, photography, business, photography, personal shtuff, humoring ourselves - you get the jist. & one of the things we talked about was how undeniably discouraging the winter can be for photographers who primarily shoot outdoors or who, like me, primarily shoot weddings.

But it can also be a discouraging time of year for every photographer, the winter for photographers is basically the summer vacation to teachers. Business is a bit more mellow, inquiries are little bit more sparse, etc. And for many of us we just want to get out there and practice some more, which I feel is exactly what every new session is: more practice. Now if this feels discouraging for slightly seasoned professionals imagine how this feels to the new photographer! It can be hard to see into the future with a positive mindset. 

That is why I am here to tell you, in the words of Dory: Just Keep Swimming! 

& this goes for more than just making it through the winter. If you are feeling discouraged, you CAN get through this... you just have to believe that you can. (Really, it's... that simple. I promise.) I have almost quit 1,000 times and I can assure you that the sentence "I just want to quit" will escape my mouth several more times in my career as a photographer because despite the rewards it can be a discouraging business to be in sometimes. It also takes a long time to understand time management and not overwhelm yourself, this is something I am still working on... but the important thing is really to just not give up. Especially if you love it! 

I want to show you guys something that I am almost embarrassed to put out there but I think it really drives this message home. I want to show you two portraits (well, I stretch to say two.. but for the sake of things we'll be nice and call the first one a portrait too) of my daughter taken four years apart just to prove that you can learn, you can grow, and you can become closer to the type of photographer you want to be if you just believe that you can. 

So I'll just.... leave this... here.. 

So both of these images are of my daughter and yes... both were taken by me. I don't feel I necessarily have to point out the major differences but as you can see that is a lot of progress in four years. In fact every time I meet with someone I am completely honest when they ask "So, how long have you been photographing?" 

And I always say when I started, followed by... "But, I was not any good until about 2012."

Which I feel is okay to poke fun at ourselves and realize how silly we were when we first started and thought we knew everything about photography when... of course we didn't but that's not to say that we cannot learn and we will not grow. So if you're discouraged right now... it only gets better the harder you work at it. & most importantly, you need to get yourself to a point where your time is as valuable as your work. This is extremely important. And it's also important to network with positive minded individuals, this will help boost your confidence tremendously... in no way should you ever feel like you have to subject yourself to the bully mentality that seems like some soft of rights of passage initiation process into this business... I can assure you 100% that we are NOT all like that!

& more importantly, NONE of us started out knowing what we're doing, so keep that in mind the next time some big shot photographer wants to make you feel small.

Actually if anyone tries to belittle you or make you feel insignificant through bully tactics you should just walk right the heck away from that situation! They don't call gratitude the gift of abundance for nothing dolls and you do not have to take that garbage.

Anyway, back to topic & short story long: you got this. If you really want it, just keep on keepin' on!

Best of luck!
Crystal B.