Learning, growing.

My confidence ebbs and flows along with my skill and creative desire. Currently, I'm going through a growth period in photography. I discovered something new, and now I'm working to incoporate that with my previous skillset.

When I'm learning something new, I fumble. I make mistakes. A LOT of them. But I keep moving forward, knowing that with each mistake I will be able to critique and learn something new. I remember the first little shoot I did for a friend of mine. I was shooting away at her little one, chatting up with her. I kept adjusting the images, but they all were overexposed. I just didn't know what was wrong, what I was doing wrong. In the end, I went home, and saw that I was shooting at ISO 400 on a very bright, sunny day. I didn't realize it until I came home, and was so scared to see the results. In the end, the photos turned out pretty good (not great, but I learned something!)

Currently, I'm playing, learning, growing. It's SCARY! And each time I'm in this phase, I become fearful of 'messing up' shots. I know deep in my heart that they'll end up OK and I now have enough confidence as to avoid shooting some photos in green box mode 'just in case'.

Today and again this weekend I'll have the opportunity to shoot a newborn. He's going to be born TODAY. I'm so excited, a bit nervous and anxious to meet this little man. Then, this weekend, I get to shoot him again with his older brother.

My confidence will shake, but I know that I've been asked by this friend to capture the newest addition to her family because she trusts my eye. She knows my style, knows that she won't be able to shoot the images herself (hello recovery!) and I'm so pleased she's asked me to be part of her son's new life. She is one of the people that feeds my desire to grow, she is the one that suggested we 'split' MeRa's DVD set. I have her to thank for all this growth.