About a year ago, I started to give up on photography as a full-time business. This may sound like a sad thing but sometimes it’s better to not transform something you love into something you make money from.
When I stopped caring if I got clients, I stopped trying to change my photography, and myself, to get business. Because I changed my mindset, my photography went back to capturing moments that made me happy and not capturing moments that other people considered “frame worthy.”
In the last year, I have started focusing only on moments in my photography that bring me joy, and much less on the scenes others might call “pretty.”. I prefer capturing visual memories not photos if that makes sense. If my personal photos come out blurry or dark or “imperfect” I don’t care as long as I feel something when I look at the photo. What some see as imperfections in a photo are what I see as perfections because the moment was what I was after when I clicked the shutter – not the perfection.
Like anyone, I’m more inclined to feel strong emotions about a photo if the subjects are one of my children or a family member but I can also look at a photo taken by a stranger, featuring their family members, and still feel happiness, or sadness, or nostalgia because of how the moment was captured. Many photos trigger an emotion in me because it reminds me of something or someone in my own life. The image being technically perfect is irrelevant to me if it creates a strong emotion for me.
With personal photos, there is always going to be a memory attached to the photograph but as important as the memory is the feeling the image invokes in the viewer. Personally, I can look at a technically beautiful shot of a high school senior and say “oh, that’s nice,” especially if I know the high school senior, but those photographs, no matter how well lit or sharp or colorful, rarely sparks any kind of passion or emotion within me. It doesn’t inspire me to live a happy life or enjoy the little moments or dance in the rain – it just inspires me to say “oh, isn’t she pretty?” or “isn’t he handsome?” or even “lovely lighting.” But I can walk away from that photo and not feel much of anything inside. I can scroll past it pretty quick.
If I see a photo that invokes emotion or offers something different visually, though, it will stop me in my tracks, hold my attention and make me want to photograph something similar or write something about how the moment captured made me think about similar moments in my own life, moments tucked back in the corner of my memories.
Zalmy Berkowitz recently said on a podcast on Outerfocus that the photography industry, especially the wedding industry, sells on the idea of “pretty”, that everything has to be “pretty”. His photography, to me, is beautiful but it is beautiful because it captures moments and feelings over the idea of magazine perfection. And he’s right – the photography industry, especially in the area I live in, is focused on poses and smiles and heads tipped just right. It’s not a bad thing – it just is.
Clients in my area truly don’t want documentary photography. They don’t want to pay a photographer to capture moments for them because they have a cellphone and they figure a snapshot of their kid on a swing is all they need and that’s fine, that’s good, if it works for them, then I’m happy.
As late as last year it irritated me that people, where I live, don’t enjoy the type of photography I produce. I used to be depressed I couldn’t get hired for the photography work I wanted to produce but lately, I’ve realized I don’t want to try to sell someone on something they don’t like so I am content in taking photos for myself. It may mean our budget is tighter, family trips are almost non-existent and my children don’t wear fancy clothes but in the long run none of that matters as much as feeling like I’m creating the art I want to create.
Photography has never been “just a job” for me. Yes, I need money to help support my family but photography started to become something I hated instead of what it used to be for me, which was a way to document my family’s life, but also a type of therapy to calm and focus my racing thoughts. How can I calm my racing thoughts if every morning I wake up and try to think of a new way to make clients who have no interest in my work suddenly love it and want to hire me?
I couldn’t.
So I stopped trying.
And it’s been the best thing I could have ever done for my art and for me.
Boondock Ramblings 
You take beautiful pics! Do what you love! I think you are doing a fine job! 🙌🏼
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Thank you, Renee! I appreciate it!
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You are welcome! 🙂
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I feel sorry for those who don’t agree with you to capture their precious moments through your lens. It’s their loss.
I fell in love with the beautiful emotions visible in each of your picture.
That stare of the cat …wowwww…
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Thank you!
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i don’t know what sort of photos you were taking before but to me, these photos are the essence of what a photo should be – real, emotive. Times will change i hope and people will value this but you might just be in front of the curve. In the meantime, your works will be priceless to you and that will make them enduringly valuable.
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Thank you! It’s the area I’m in – we are always a few years behind the curve 😂
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There is so much wisdom in this post and doing what we love not for the sake of others.
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I don’t know if it’s wisdom or survival at this point 😂
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I love seeing your photos. They are absolutely gorgeous and so full of life! I am glad you are able to find joy in your art again. That is very important for peace of mind…or at least I think so 😉 God Bless!
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Thank you!
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Everybody is a photographer now that they have cell phones with filters. I hate that! I love your photos and the memories you capture. You can almost feel the photo, if that makes any sense. 😀
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It does! Thank you so much for that comment because it’s the best compliment ever! I say I can feel the moment 😊
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Awww…you’re welcome! 😀
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It’s a shame the people in your area don’t enjoy your style of photography. Your photos are stunning! Personally, I hate posed photos. I love the ones that capture moments when people are living and not standing like statues. They’re much more useful when trying to remember a particular moment in time.
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I think so too but nope – not this area. They want posed and they come to sessions dressed in the same colors and yelling at their kids to stand straight and smile this way and … ugh. It’s awful. Once I had to listen to a dad berate his daughters for half an hour over not smiling right. Not sure how he thought we would get anything natural after that crap.
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That’s terrible, and so potentially traumatizing. We did a posed session last year and we had an opposite experience. Our photographer was giving us a hard time because she wanted to do certain poses and our kids weren’t cooperating. We kept telling her to just take a picture, that it didn’t have to be perfect because our kids were 1 and 4. But, no, she gave up after 20 minutes. I think she would be a perfect photographer for your area. I’ll take you any day.
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Photographers like that not only traumatize families but they make their own job more difficult, in my opinion. Maybe some day I’ll return to photography as a business but for now I’m content where I am.
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These photos are beautiful. I recently had a photographer come and take pictures of us just playing around in the water, and they were absolutely stunning. She was able to capture the truest personalities of my children without perfect poses. I loved the whole session!!
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I love those sessions but in this rural area it’s not really ” a thing” but like I said .. it’s okay. I enjoy capturing my own children and photos for friends. So much so that at this point I can’t even imagine doing it as a business.
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I completely understand. I remember you mentioning that at sometime in the past. Glad you are finding ways to still use your gift ❤️
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