Seeing each other | Community over competition

I’ve seen this popping up over pinterest and on my instagram feed and I just love it so much!  I love it because it’s the truth and I think it’s a truth we all need to really embrace and embody more in our every day lives.

I think it’s something that really rings true in the photography industry right now (at least in the cozy little corner of the industry space that I’m occupying!)

I’ve been hearing recently a LOT about how so and so is doing this… and so and so is doing that!  There’s a lot of talk on location these days about what OTHER photographers are doing (or aren’t doing) and this kind of talk makes me sad.

I recently had a chat with a good friend the other day who isn’t in the industry but is surrounded by great friends that are all in the industry (sometimes I feel really badly for her about that!)  She was telling me that it’s hard to navigate because even though some of her friends don’t know one another they don’t even LIKE one another because of the number of likes someone has on their facebook photography page vs. the number of years in photography she has under her belt, or the success she has had, or whether she uses manual settings or not!

It all just seems soo insanely crazy!!!!

We need to start remembering that photography is our ART!  We all started this because we absolutely loved it and desired to do this every  moment of the day.  We never set out to do this as a “job”.  It just happened that way and for that we are all extremely blessed!

We began this wonderful journey in the exact same way… and because of that we are all connected!

Instead of wondering what other photographers are doing… we should be focusing on what WE are doing!  We should be striving to find ourselves in our art and what makes us special and unique and different!  We should be aiming to create something unique and lovely for our clients, and that comes from knowing who WE are in our craft.

We should be confident in who we are as artists!  We should believe in who we are as artists!  If we can do this than we can stop comparing ourselves to each other and support one another.  When we can stop the competition we can really start to SEE one another and appreciate each other.  We can create a community of support and respect!

When we can find the beauty in our own work and our own selves we can start to appreciate the beauty in other’s!

We are all unique.  Our work is all unique and wonderful!

That’s what makes is so incredibly great for clients these days!  Not one photographer is alike and that is AMAZING!  It’s to be celebrated!!

The more we come together and support one another, the more we can start to find the clients that appreciate US and the art we create!  The more we can identify when the clients are a great fit and when they might benefit from another photographer!

We want our clients to be happy and to receive the best kind of service and care possible.  It’s when they do that we can create long time clients that become friends and family.

That’s what I want… it’s what we all want right?!

So when you start feeling like your falling behind or lacking motivation… when you start feeling you aren’t keeping up with the tide or when you worrying about things like blog posts, FB likes and such, just remember this little saying and maybe call on a friend to help you remember that you are special in your own way!

Create some community today instead of competition!

Let’s build each other up!