Five Ideas That Hold Your Photography Back

And what to do about them.

You can work on your work, or stack rocks in the middle of nowhere… it’s really up to you.

Too many photographers with real talent fall prey to ideas that are not in their best interest at all. These ideas become ingested quicker than a street taco on my styrofoam tray.

Usually, these fake beliefs are created by people who have never really been a photographer before but decided it was an easy enough way to get truly, mega-rich. Like that FTX guy.

He was a photographer too.

I’m told.

Anyway, the sad fact is that most of this bogus info is designed to sell you on the idea that you need more. More-more-more-more… You need it.

There is no level of more that you do not need.

I’m gonna take a pin to this balloon of hot gas and tell you as straight as I can what this bullshit does to you, and one idea to combat it.

1. You NEED the latest and greatest. Yessir, folks, we live in a time where new cameras come out more frequently than new cars, updates on Google Chrome, or even weather reports. And you can’t look away. It is forbidden… if you are not smashing that great new ZRIIIN-Mark42 — then you, my poor misbegotten fool are toast. Without butter.
   THE TRUTH: is that you don’t need it. No one can tell what you shoot with. They simply cannot. And when you realize that the only people to benefit from that new camera body are the same folks who — you know — sold you that camera body, you awaken to a deep and spiritual “boy-howdy”! Bottom line… if you cannot make a good photograph with a Nikon D750, you will be unable to make one with a ZED9.
2. Gotta have that kickass IG feed. If you aren’t shooting exotic models in exotic locations with exotic cars and exotic pets in an exotic town, then you, poopsie, are not making it on Instagram. And being on Instagram is the bestest.
   THE TRUTH: IG is a sort of joke for most working photographers. Why would I want my work to be in a feed showing the pablum spit-up of my neighbor’s baby, or what Taylor Swift is wearing to yet another award show suck-up? IG is for fun… if that, anymore.
3. Marketing is hard. Weewy, weewy hard. It makes our brains hurt, and BTW, if you didn’t notice, I’m an artist and I don’t know how to do business stuff. Yeah, sorry that makes no sense at all. Marketing is sharing your work with people that matter. Ask yourself how much effort you put into sharing your photos online.
   THE TRUTH: is that marketing your work is really fun when you develop a system. It can be a little tedious at times, but it pays off faster than that killer IG account you have with 204 followers… most of which are family and friends.
4. Listening to Debbie Downers pontificate on the “sorry state” of the business. I see them everywhere whining about how there is no business to be had, or that some soccer mom with an iPhone is killing their business. They are failing and they want to bring you down too. After all, if you succeed, they may have to take a long, and a rather unpleasant look in the mirror and ask themselves WTF happened?
   THE TRUTH: is that there is business out there. One of my photographers in Miami has shot her third 6-figure gig… this month! Photography is being used in more places than ever before and is the defacto advertising tool for our time. It is different than it was 20 years ago… it’s better. Best time ever to be a professional photographer. You just gotta embrace the changes.
5. Telling yourself and anyone within earshot that you are just too busy to work on your portfolio. I hear it all the time. “I was too busy this week.” “I had a lot of stuff going on.” “My aquarium needed cleaning, it was starting to smell like a wet market in some exotic seaside village where you could possibly make some great Instagram… oh, never mind.”
   THE TRUTH: This is pure cow-digested alfalfa, right there. You have the same 24 hours, 7 days a week that everyone else does. You are not prioritizing. There is no push to your grit. Your hustlin’ ain’t bustlin’. The pedal is definitely not on the metal. (I could go on…). You are choosing to do what you do every single hour of the day. If you want to do something you will find a way. You eat lunch, right? Everyday? Yeah… not too busy to do that, so prioritize your work.

It’s a jungle out there. That’s just a fact. Prepare yourself well and manage the suck.

In the end, it is all up to you. And this is really only five of the actual 2,412 reasons we give ourselves that are maximum production killers.

Too old. Too fat. Too lonely. Too needy. Too stupid. Too unartistic…

Hell, the list goes on and on and on.

The opposite of that list is shorter — much shorter.

Stop with the procrastination, listening to outside influences that really do not give a hoot (I have used up my allotted curse words) about you, and pretend calamities that aren’t.

Make art. Make some today.

I am a photographer, designer, and photo editor. You can find me at my self-named website or at Project 52 Pro System where I teach commercial photography online. This is our tenth year of teaching, and it is the most unique online class you will find anywhere.

You can find my books on Amazon, and I have taught two classes at CREATIVELIVE.