Secret Garden Styled Shoot

Styled Shoot at Asterisk Denver

A month ago, I shot my first styled shoot! I found myself faced with feelings of insecurity and inaptitude. Can anyone else relate? Imposter syndrome? I'm not the first, and I'm sure I'm not the last to struggle with this. I was so excited to come together with so many other industry professionals. But I put so much pressure on myself to "perform" up to their standards. I kept telling myself that at the end of the day, it didn't matter how well they all did to make this dream of ours come to life. The only thing that mattered was how well I was able to capture it. No pressure, right?!

Having done photography professionally for two years, and as a hobby for close to six, I have learned a lot over time. I am constantly growing, changing and adapting the more knowledge and experience I gain. I find myself more passionate about capturing the big moments, and the in-between moments, and freezing them in time now than I ever have before. There is so much beauty to be captured, and when I remind myself to focus on that, the anxiety and insecurity lessens. It is so easy to get wrapped up in the comparison trap, the habit of constantly measuring ourselves and our lives against what we see others doing. In reality, none of the vendors I worked with during this styled shoot had a scale to see if I measured up. They were as stoked as I was to be there with a group of professionals doing what we love, and stepping into the unknown (cue "Frozen"). I compare my journey with that of other photographers all the time. I want to be where they are, instead of sitting back and enjoying the ride that I'm on. But I have to remind myself, most of them have been doing this for a lot longer than me. Theodore Roosevelt once said, "Comparison is the thief of joy." Have you heard that before? I know, cliche right? Yet, it could not ring truer. So, I'm starting this blog as my way of staying present with my own photography journey and embracing the path I'm on.