Last Saturday I was lucky enough to go on the Welcome Home workshop with Emma Case and Pete Smyth. I’ve admired Emma’s work from afar for many years so to actually meet them and learn from them was a wonderful opportunity in itself.
What actually happened on the workshop sort of knocked me for six. Like, seriously. It was more than a workshop, it was like a big bundle of everything that makes me love what I get to call a job.
Its hard to explain and I’m pretty bad with explaining myself with words (hence why I love photography!! lol). But I walked into the room expecting to be taught about business skills and posing, and came out remembering exactly what my ‘why’ is.
I’m not going to go into too much detail and ruin the workshop for anyone who hasn’t been on it yet, but your ‘why’ is the reason you do what you do, what makes you tick, what makes you have passion, what makes your soul sing.
When you finally make the jump to become self employed like I did 3 years ago, the rush of adrenaline is immense. You don’t know where your next wage is coming from, you constantly promote yourself, you take any work at any price just so you can make ends meet, its like a crazy, amazing ride that hopefully takes you to a stop where you have a stable income and business you adore and are proud of and can sustain for years to come.
But the reality is once it all settles down, it becomes a job, and like all jobs there are parts of it you don’t like such as, paperwork, tax, invoicing, backing up everything a million times, chasing people for money, the 90 hour weeks, the endless inbox to reply to, not having a day off for 6 months, the list goes on and on and on. And the actual part of the job that you love such as the taking photos, meeting AMAZING people, finding locations and props, sharing in peoples happy once in a lifetime moments, can all get a bit buried underneath all the bits we don’t like so much.
I hope I don’t sound like I’m complaining about what I do, because I’m not. My passion for my job is the one thing that carries me through all the bad bits, and I’m so grateful for each and every client future, past and present. All I’m saying is sometimes, you forget what your ‘why’ is. It gets buried under all the stuff you don’t enjoy doing as much and sometimes you need some one to reach down through the rubble and rescue it.
Emma and Pete rescued my ‘why’.
They made me remember ‘why’ I love what I do, they made me remember that having a ‘why’ is the most important thing. This is my ‘why’…..
My ‘why’ is my family. My ‘why’ is being able to capture these memories of my family, the good, the bad, the happy, the crazy and the grumpy and look back at them when times are tough and laugh, cry and remember. My ‘why’ is wanting to to that for other people. My ‘why’ is wanting my photographs to be the ones you pass on to your grandkids and tell them the story behind them. My ‘why’ is wanting to give people memories to cherish.
I just want to say a massive thank you to Emma, Pete and ALL the people I met on this weekends workshop, you were all a total inspiration. I left there with a wonderful need to carry on doing what I love and to continue being myself.
To anyone out there who is doubting themselves or wondering if what they are doing is the right thing to do, go and find your ‘why’ and you will have your answer 🙂
xxxxxxx
Angelfire Photography specializes in newborn, baby, family, child, maternity and wedding photography in West Midlands, England and surrounding areas including but not limited to Stourbridge and Birmingham.
