A whole new year starts tomorrow, an unwritten slate upon which we can write a better life.
I’m about to come over all philosophical. Just a little warning. You can bail now, by going here: Exit This Post.
For those of you still here, the point I want to make is this: while it’s great to be looking ahead with ambitions, we can only stand tomorrow on the foundations we built in the past. If the foundations are feeble, the future will likely be equally weak. So the best way to sort out the future is to sort out the present.
Nothing new in any of that, but for me personally it’s become a guiding light for me in the past 12 months.
It’s been very liberating.
And scary. Because, you know, I’m solely responsible for where I am. I can’t blame anyone else. It’s all me. (And between the two of us: he can be a bit of a dunce at times).
There is an upside. A biggie. If it’s all me, then I have the power to change things. I can affect an outcome, give direction to a situation, meet a challenge and turn it into an opportunity.
I’m starting to think that too few photographers realize this.
For instance, go to any wedding fair here in Cork and you will hear constant bitching from some of the exhibiting photographers about how many other photographers have stands. The worst offenders are three photographers from the same company who complain the loudest, oblivious to the inflationary aspect of their own number.
It’s crazy. The more photographers in the hall, the better. How much easier is it to stand out if there are lots of people offering the same service? If you are truly different and have defined your USPs, you will rise above everyone. It will be plain to see.
What is really going on is that the photographers who complain the loudest haven’t in the past made the decisions that would have made them unique to the market today.
In the last 12 months, I’ve come to understand, through personal insight but also through the generous input of others, what I’m good at and what I truly love doing.
My utter conviction of the value of documentary photography shapes everything I do in the business now.
That is what I have taken from 2009, and it will help me going forward in 2010.
You won’t be surprise then that the last picture on this blog this year is a documentary one.
It’s a photograph of my two greatest sources of inspiration. I am very lucky to have them both in my life. I love them dearly. My wife and my daughter.
Have a great 2010, everyone.
My daughter is one of the funniest people I know. A couple of nights ago, she almost made us wet ourselves with a new look she had developed. It came out of nothing as we were all watching TV together. (c) Roger Overall 2009
