I have been to this spot several times trying to get "the" shot. The shot that wows me. This isn't it. When I uploaded it onto my computer I thought that I was close.  Now, I don't believe so. This photo does not "wow" me.  It's missing something and I can't pin point it. I can't figure out what it needs. I've tried different angles, I've shot higher and lower, yet I still haven't found the "sweet spot".  Maybe it's not just how I shot it, but how I edited it. I don't know the answer yet.

I'm going to keep trying. I'm going to do it over and over until I get the shot I want. The image that wows me. I know it's here, somewhere.  This is how I view my business and photography. 

I don't know how different I am from other photographers, but I bought my first camera because that was my dream when I was kid, to be a photographer.  Someone told me "You can't do it, it's not worth it, too expensive to get in to, and you have to be really good at math." Well, that squashed it! I was 10yrs old when my dream of working for National Geographic Magazine was crushed. Yes, I would look at those magazines at school and dream of going to those countries and taking these amazing images of people and landscapes. I gave up learning and dreaming about it and moved on to more practical "dreams".  I no longer have the desire to travel to third world countries and catch third world diseases, but I still want to be a professional photographer. 

So, when I first started I had a lot of oooos and aaaaas from friends and families. Some even said I could go pro. You should see what I was producing. Well, maybe you shouldn't. Please don't. After I spent some time learning and growing it came to a point where people were coming to me. People I didn't know. I had choices, I could shoot for free, shoot and charge illegally and not pay in to taxes, or get my business license and get legit.  I believed since my goal was to follow my dreams (so cliché, I know) I had to go about it in a way that people would take me seriously.  So my business was born.

I have a lot of competition. Photography is a very saturated market. For example go to Facebook or Google and search for Photographers in your hometown. What do you get? Facebook will have countless more pop up. Am I better than my competition? I've seen a lot of professional photographers that really need to work on their knowledge of their camera and exposure, there are a lot that I am very close to in skill, and then there are some that are amazing and I can't wait to be on their level one day. Those that have mastered natural and artificial light in such a way that I almost believe all they have to do is tell the light what to do for them rather than adjust themselves and equipment for the light.

 I am working from the ground up. I study photography everyday. Techniques in shooting and editing, I read, I shoot, I edit, I do this over and over. I am, and forever will be, a work in progress. If a photographer ever tells you that their work is fine just the way it is, and do not need to learn and grow any further...they are sorely mistaken. This industry changes so often. Technology and equipment keeps changing. Trends keep coming and going. Remember when all the "cool" photos out there were black and white and then one item would be in color? Today it's matte finishes. Tomorrow, who knows? 

I'm going to keep trying. I will continue to pick myself back up when I fall. I don't want to just lay there. Don't just lay there. Whatever is important to you, pick yourself up when you fall. Don't lay on the ground wishing you never tried.  It's an easy cop out. I've been tempted to lay there, I've been tempted to give it all up, I've been tempted to just exist. I am tempted to stay where I'm at every day, but I won't. In the words of a good man I know, "If you stay where you are you will die." I think he means you will die where you are. To me it means if you don't feed your passion, your heart, your very being; that part of you will starve to death. Don't give up in the face of failure, don't let people bring you down. Keep trying. Make it count. Do what you need to do to feel fulfilled. Don't do it for fame, fortune, recognition, or whatever, just do it because you love it.