Lessons

Lesson Info

Battling Insecurities

battling in securities you usually no more than your client right usually oh my client has a camera more expensive than I d'oh can they pose a baby in a froggy position and wrap a baby while they're crying knew but they have a cuban more expensive than I did yeah because they make like a half a million dollars a year let them buy more expensive camera but are they specializing in newborn photography no and way I think you said they came to you for photos so why do you care what camera they have we don't allow people to take pictures during my session I don't care what camera they have we could talk about cameras are they gonna quit their job is a surgeon to take over a photography business I think not everyone has secured insecurity is the difference between successful people are that they simply get over them and move on anyway right surround yourself with like minded people you've heard me say that you're rid of the ones that aren't and don't post it on facebook you're posting on fac...

ebook all those people that are really pissing me off if I unfriend you don't be offended because you're pissing me off like what what do not compare yourself to others owe so much easier said than done we can say that all day long but we're still going to do it because we're human beings and we're not perfect and you've heard me say before that if you were perfect you'd be in heaven and you're not so we're here on earth and on earth were in perfect beings so since we already know where in perfect beings and we know that we're going to compare ourselves to others because that's part of who we are that's okay keep it under control don't compare yourself to others that it inhibits you from moving forward to follow your purpose in your passion that's where it causes damage right it's okay to look at people it's okay to get I'm tired I'm here to inspire in you I read books to teach and to help people that's ok that's that's great let's think people who share awesome bravo to you congratulations on that great image that's awesome I'm going to draw inspiration from you I'm going to try that on my next session see how it goes thanks don't copy draw inspiration and feel resist the urge to copy by the exact there's copping then there's copy there saying gosh and I love that image of a baby in a basket just on a wood backdrop it's pretty simple and clean I want to do that got it no problem it doesn't have to be the same blanket it doesn't have to be the same bucket doesn't have to be the same factory and even if it is it's not gonna be the same baby so it's going to be different anyway right continue your education creative live at home um I love creative live I tell my employees whenever there is a client around put on creative life and so thursdays are usually pretty heavy production days and if you come in my suit on a thursday we're not shooting creative lives on and I watched the most amazing speakers and I've bought many courses and I love it it's free education around the world in so many different things from yoga a photo shop teo learning how to do a business I mean this to me creative live is the best education and the planet right now the stuff is the best staff that I've ever worked with in my entire career and I think I've worked with pretty amazing people and so it's here they're doing it they're doing it for a reason so put it on when you're when you're anything putting on I've put it on my phone when my latest thing is when I'm driving I put it on my phone and I just let it I just let it listen to it I want to soak up every ounce of information I can and then when I when I when it gets me I just have to buy it I have to buy it so I can watch it later and some of the courses that I bought I've been rewatching them over and over and over and over and over again so you want to do that the importance of directing your shoots this is important confidence confidence is important and I believe that confidence does take time fake it till you make it in the beginning I wasn't confident I was insecure because I told you I felt like I was too young and everybody was older than I was and I didn't have a lot of professional x syrians and so I just was like I gotta get in there I got fake it I just gotta be like I know exactly what I'm doing I know I don't have a baby but I got this and you know what in some sense I did because when I uh registered my missus professionally in twenty nine even taking pictures for over ten years and so I felt like I had to take a picture I felt like I knew what I was doing it in his studio lights but I felt like if you've I took you outside or inside I was pretty confident I could get a picture and I was pretty confident that I could kind of tell you howto move and direct and that came in studying other photographers work I said tell j sunny ansel adams in the end get it's like I know every book they haven't every picture you ever had a lot of screen savers and he was for the black and white and an was because I felt like she had a timeless connection and I feel like I could refer to her books that I've had for twenty years and I could still draw from that and what's really funny is I feel like almost every baby pose after I see came from when it ends books all right you see something you're like that's new mike no it's not and that like twenty years ago so it's really kind of funny what's old is new again she's done almost everything I mean maybe I didn't see I don't think she did the frog pose but oh no she did maybe she did did she I don't know but I know that she's done most of them but my point is that when I became a photographer and I became shooting I did feel like I know something and I feel like teo tell yourself you're gonna become a photographer you should know something there should be an ounce of confidence that says I can do this I have a passion for this and it may have started when you were six or ten or twelve or you may be following in another generation's footsteps or you may be rekindling a career or a love that you didn't know you had but something underneath that passion says you know what to do doesn't mean you have all the answers and I don't think there is a photographer on this planet that has all the answers I don't think there's a photographer on this planet that knows every single lighting situation every single baby pose and every single this I just don't think it is because we're continually evolving and that's impossible the part you're pregnant moms don't have a pose some know how to move and that's different than posing julie showed us she can move right and she was having fun with it and I'm sure when she was a little girl she was the one in the mirror singing to the hairbrush right and so you know with three kids I I love watching them do their own little movements and I think we all are born with that and then it kind of gets crushed right hidden as we grow up in secure so many times working with pregnant women is kind of tapping into that inner child that inner diva like remember when you were in your underwear is singing on your hairbrush when you were in removing let's tap into that you know the moms of newborns need to be able to trust you I said the other day that you are dealing with the youngest human beings on the planet and if you let that resonate with you and think about that it changes your perception because you say I need them to trust me but you have to earn trust it's not a given you've gotta earn it you're being paid to direct and shoot so when you come to me and you say I don't really feel like telling him what to do and I don't really feel like directing and I I'm afraid of what to say and I don't want to tell them not to beat their kids during a photo session they're paying you to get a good image and if beating a child during a photo session causes that child tv upset and not have a good image you need to call time out we all get mad at our children we all d'oh we're human um but sometimes we need a check we need someone to say hey and it's ok chill out chill out it's okay relax and I had that with my children when I felt like oh gosh they're being so disobedient in front of somebody else and and they go no they're not no they're not they're being okay and so obviously my sense of awareness is heightened by a parent but yet to someone else it's not as bad as you think right so let's help each other along you have to release your vision you ever have a photo session when you're done you like I just I didn't get what I wanted ever have that happen tell me you I'll go in and I'm like this is where I want my vision and especially new boards are trying to work it trying to work it trying to work it and you don't get it and then what disappointing I think is you try too hard you win in with a preconceived idea and didn't just follow what was evolving naturally just getting lost in what what is the thing you're trying to get when you go into a newborn session let's be honest come on you guys were at the end of the day you ready thank you sometimes try and force things that can't be done like if why because you can't get out of your head of having that what you wanted out of that session you have to know each sessions different and and what is that why are you searching for that particular image because it makes you feel like that's what makes you a good photographer if I if I get that and I got that awesome image and then what happens when you get it there's another one are you a spectacle a lot of times if I did get that image I when I go when I'm looking through I'm like I don't like that one so do you think there's ever a time where someone says just get that image if I could just get that sail I'm good I'm done I can sit back no no more but yet we wake up every day trying to do that instead of saying I'm gonna wake up every day I love my job I love my job I heard jim say before he loves his job susan said it too ready to love your job and I know people all across the world that do different things that feed the homeless that make blankets for cancer patients when I get infusions for iron every week I'm sitting with chemotherapy patients and I see the blankets that are made for them that somebody had enough passion to make blankets because you get really cold I get really cold and so I think if we stop waking ours waking up every day saying I have to get whatever is in this box and wake up every day say man I have a passion for photography and I have no clients in the books and I am broke but you know what I'm gonna go out and photograph flowers and learn how to do macro because then when I have a child in front of me I can get those eyelashes up in close and I know how to do it you know or I'm going to do a self portrait today who's done a self portrait yes or no no no yes yes no what you have not done a self portrait you have a client sitting right in front of you it's you I wish I had a mirror and I could walk you up to that mirror and say there you are there's your client remember when I first wanted to do a video on wrapping a woman I wrapped I did a video of me wrapping myself why are you doing a south portrait who said now stand up who said no they're like yeah twenty minutes man who's said know why no hey I have an answer for you I don't know why I know I haven't really thought about doing it why know I always have an excuse not to do it I haven't done my hair I don't feel like I wanna have the camera on me today yeah there's always a reason that you don't really want to be in front of it really so we do have a daughter no boys okay so your son years from now he's going to talk to his wife who has a daughter with coloring just like his mama I told you and hey this is a photo that she took of herself no makeup this is what she looks like when she wakes up so when she looks like when she goes to bed you have to create your legacy you know what you sit down before you get in ugly cry you to sew for all those people who said I never thought of it no one told me I just told you uh now you're on the hook I just told you come on you have to release your vision let it go let it go try to do the best that you khun dio the next time you have a newborn session here's what I want you to dio before you go in that room and I do this whether the client came from a referral whether they came off the street whether they're free go in the other room and just be in your space for a minute and just say to the universe it doesn't have to be to a god just release it and say allow me to be the creative person that I was born to be allow myself to be creative just let me be creative and just say it out loud and it can change help me know what I'm gonna do next help me motivate help me inspire every time I go to do something whether I'm speaking to moms groups and I speak to moms groups or I'm speaking to a photographer I'm going to do a photo session tiff knows she'll see me and I go I don't have it I don't have it I don't have it show what voting me and she's like end of the clients in there mike can and should go I don't have it I gotta just be alone for a second will be like okay and she'll go in there and like and all will be right here and I'll be in my bathroom and I'll be like I've got nothing I've got nothing I've got nothing I've got nothing I can't go in there and this happens to be fourteen years later until like what's going on I'm like I don't know I blocked I just blocked it happened to me yesterday morning the women came and I didn't have it I was like pacing the hallway didn't have it didn't have it I don't have it and tiffs like we know what she said look at your own work normally you'd think people would say oh go girl campaign trees go looking another photographer's paige go look on facebook should go look at your own work and inspire yourself it's like go look in the mirror and take your own photo and it worked you need to be in control don't let shoots control you can we talk about that how many of you have done reshoots no no no no no yeah way have one answer across the board you ever have a session though where you feel like it's gone completely out of control and you were just an observer that watch the crazy train come into town and wreck right in front of you it happens especially christmas time we're getting into crazy crazy crazy land these next thirty days they're going to be nuts and we're all like fall asleep on christmas eve trying to accomplish everything we want to do between now and christmas there's less than forty days till christmas so in the craziness in the business of the season try and keep things under control when you when you've got the shot stop don't push it the child yesterday when we had him like he's good we got it I could have pushed it but why I already got it how many shots does she need I got it no one to stop the over shooters pull yourself stop I got it I got it taking this scary steps introvert personally versus extra over in a business I've already told you whether you believe me or not then I am more of an introvert if somebody said and you can go live in a cozy cabin and do photography in the world but you don't really have to talk or see anyone but you can make justice much money I would probably do it but then I my every time I tell my husband that he's like you give you twenty four hours and go crazy I'm always like I'm going to stay at home mom I'm tired I'm exhausted just stay home and just please my kids and do laundry all day my husband's like maybe five days maybe and then you'll be done in like but I love my kids he's like you do what you love photography and that's what it goes back teo course I could I mean I stayed home with my when my babies were born of course of course it's not that I can't do that there's nothing wrong with it I love my children I really like hanging out with them but when it comes to business bring it on bring it on I have a job to do and my personal persona gets pushed away and I'm out my son said it yesterday he does mama you're on the computer and you're just you're kicking it and then you get off and you're just like quietly walking down the hallway and he was like that was cool because I got a job to do make it and I have a job to do realizing that you are here for a purpose and find that purpose everybody is here for a purpose there is no doubt we know that to be true you were in an accident a meteor meteor meteor meteor meteor meteor didn't fall in the planet what is that called me okay something didn't just fall on the planet and you fell out right when I was trying to say believe it or not so the question lies are you good enough yes you are you are believing yourself and follow the desire to be the professor still photographer that you want to be I think we're done I think we're done with your slides down with my sign that was great the girls like no more questions way survive three days hannah we're gonna be like you know I could see hannah for a really long time it's okay they don't talk to me for about a year I understand I understand it's it's intense of close and personal I get it I would be offended so yea belly says and it doesn't just teach photography she teaches self confidence and believing in yourself and your dreams well said she's been with us for three days so yeah yeah you know it's weird can I say something on that what's weird is when I started this journey it's all about keynotes and pregnancy and newborn and I'm trying to think of the best poses and when I first my first intention incoming incredible I've is I'm gonna list out every single baby pose I know we're gonna bring in like fifty babies and I'm just going to sit there and just pose and shoot in a quiet little room while the world watches and things I'm amazing and then that went out the window and then we're going to write a kino and I'm writing all this stuff and then as we kept going it didn't matter what I talked about with my producer it kept coming back to this the motivation like it why didn't mean I meant I wanted to took creative I want to come and teach pregnancy newborn and then the whole thing just evolved and took on a completely life of its own and this keynote looks nothing blank when we first started and I'm like wow I feel like somebody threw me in a roll in tunnel and spun me around and out came all of this so I'm glad I'm glad it works well I just want to share online I know we re quotes a lot but just the outpouring from the people in the chat room is just absolutely amazing you know to come to a baby and newborn or pregnancy and newborn workshop and to be crying and have it change your life you don't really you don't necessarily think of those things that they would go together but they do so just just just start reading off what's in the chat room left bridge says oh my goodness she's going to make me cry love anna kayla says second time she's made me cry a day what an inspiration joanne says absolutely simply amazing it just goes on and on and on lisa stone says I cannot wait until the day I'm like anna ah photos by melissa may who has been with us through the workshop says I lost my mom to cancer almost two years ago I don't have very many pictures of her and I or her and my kids I don't want that for my kids or anyone else tomorrow is self portrait hey have fun with self portrait stephanie one of our assistance is like the best self portrait ever there's like a stack of books in the foreground her glasses are on top and she's I think ling just down on the sofa it doesn't have to be a self portrait of you like hey was you could do that too but if you think of the everyday that you do think of um if you're struggling with a cat or a dog or think of when your home in your personal space what is the one thing you d'oh that feels amazing like we have a california king bed and I love with all the kids just jump in it and we're all together it's I love I love it and there's gonna be a time where they can't do that nor do they want to do that I'm relishing the last days of that happening but my kids and I do some fortunes together all the time by the way doing with your kids well evident I'll be on the chair we snuggle in you sees almost biggest me like mom mom look do it let's do it let's get it and we'll like take pictures together the girls and I do it all the time so don't just do it with you by herself it's ok do it with your kids do with your animals do something where you're like you know hey look this is me and you know what clients love to see that people want to see who you are you're asking them to pay you to take pictures of them and release their insecurities and you're doing what or you're not doing what you know I do know it's just it's great teo and I just want to remind everybody again about the facebook the thank you card on facebook on the credit like paige I just there are so many people that are just telling their stories in the chat rooms and giving their thanks tio it's incredible I just I really want you guys to it of the creative life facebook page and leave these comments there so anna can read them because these chat rooms she won't be able to read all of your comment yes and we can't possibly read them all on air so please go to the creative life facebook page and write them they're the post should be at the top and so that you can read them later I think we're gonna be blown away yeah I have a question for you guys no it's not okay I can't do it just get a gun so you guys see a lot of instructors here you've seen some of the best in the world because I've been at home watching them and you see a lot of different techniques taught here but yet I heard you say a couple of times that the stories you're getting in the responses you're getting in the chat room you haven't had before so what is it about now is that the time of year isn't what's needed in the industry what is it that people besides me what is if it's being said in the air that you think people needed to hear that's different I know for me it's that we've heard over these last three days is that you know we talk a lot about about equipment and about software in about processing it about lighting and so much and other photographers do talk about the feelings that they that they bring in that people show they bring to their photography because that's what it's all about but when you talked about gaining trust I mean we're talking about people are putting their children in your hands and about building that trust and there's something about that that and I do a little bit of newborn that that really brings a great spirit but potentially we need to bring that to all of our photography so that's something that resonated with me um free there have been instructors that have kind of there've been a handful of instructors or less that have brought this kind of outpouring that I've seen before um and it usually doesn't have anything to do with photography you know it's just it's about it's about your heart and soul on white what you're living your life for so we've touched on that nerve so many times you know it's not about pricing it's not about these details it's about your passion is about living living in your true authentic self on dh and knowing what that isthe and that's a struggle for everyone but it's really the most important thing to me yeah and I feel like when you say the word business some people think I can't talk about all of that but that's how you get a successful business me sitting here telling you how much you charging me by ten isn't gonna work because I don't know where you live and I don't know what the what the market will bear but I can tell you to test it and I could tell you to do your homework and do field trips and write it out and start you've got to start somewhere half the time people freeze with their pricing is they don't know when it starts they just don't where they just say ok two hundred dollars for your cd and they just do the shoot and don't do anything else because they're so afraid teo waiver from a two hundred dollar baby cd that if they say no more no one's ever going to call them ever again and I don't think that's ever happened don't think that's gonna happen I'm quite certain that's not gonna happen so you will know unless to try your prices not working change it if you're tired of doing all digitals on a cd change it if you say I'm I'm comfortable doing two hundred dollars for the digital sessions and I'm happy that way then stand by your ground but if you're not don't let me just change it