Now that I’ve been doing this for a few weeks, here’s some of the mental stages I’ve gone through.

1. “I suck.” Everything I took sucked. I have crappy equipment. If I had better gear I’d shoot better.

2. “I got some gear.” And I still mostly suck. Guess it wasn’t the gear.

Here I started shooting the Mrs. She starts to hate it because the images makes her look fat, or old, or bad, or whatever.

But I posted a few on Garage Glamour and all the other newbies told me it was great. Most of the people who post really great pictures, run workshops, etc. just ignored me. A few people point out some obvious flaws.

3. “I still suck, but I suck less than some people.” I’m starting to learn stuff. I get the exposure right consistently.

4. “You know some of the models on [censored] have really crappy portfolios. I’ll ask them if they want to shoot with me.” I ask 4 or 5 models and hear nothing back from them.

Then I caught a break. One model said she’d shoot with me, and an aspiring MUA wanted to shoot with me. She brings in two other models.

Now’s the time to build that florescent light box like the one from the workshop.

5. First TFP shoot. Mine was a baptism by fire. But you know what? I did it. I shot 200 images and not all of them were bad. One model loved the pictures. And I learned I could shoot on my own.

At this point I realize I need to really push it. So I decided I’m sending out 10 requests for TFP a week. Do that for two weeks and I get my second and third positive response. Some don’t pan out, but now I know I’ve got something they like.

I’ve now got two scheduled shoots in the next month, and I learn something every time. One thing I’ve learned is I need more confidence.