Reconnecting | Destination Senior Photography | Central PA Senior Photgrapher

I think as creatives, most of us photographers go through moments where we just feel restless, where we aren’t feeling connected to our work. Where we find ourselves in our heads fighting that battle of “Why am I doing this?” “Your work is becoming boring” “So and so’s work is eons better than you’ll ever be..” “Why can’t you be more like…” and on and on and on that internal struggle goes. And social media…don’t even get me started. It’s one of those necessary evils in this day in age, but even the most confident of us can fall prey to the comparison game or the ridiculous “why isn’t this getting as many likes as this other pic” when sweet Lord…real life and how many clients you book has NOTHING to do with how many people double tap that photo that took you all of 3 minutes to post.

This year, while I’ve really committed to making it a priority to schedule creative shoots just for me to collaborate with friends and try new things…I’ve found that THAT alone has not served to help me remedy those ruts I go through where I just feel so disconnected to my work.  I’ve been in a bit of a rut lately where I’m really picking at my work and tearing it apart a bit more hard core than usual, and just not FEELING anything when I look at my stuff.  There are artists (some friends, some I’ve never met) that I follow that, the minute I see their work, it just makes me FEEL emotions…be it joy, be it sadness, be it UNCOMFORTABLE, be it a longing, or some type of connection…it just makes me feel something!

I spent the other night up late on social media finding images that just really resonated with me and exploring why that was…was it the light, was it the composition, was it a mood…was it that “something” that I just couldn’t put my finger on. I looked at the images not from a comparison stand point at all, but more from a “WHY” and then from a place of “how do I infuse that more into my work in a way that works with my style?” (much more constructive than the comparison game is it not??)

Then I took the next morning to dig through some of my old stuff trying to find images that DID make me feel something. And I came across this shoot that I did on the beach in Miami last fall while at Seniorologie’s conference 12 with my friend Caroline of CG3 Photography and one of her models.   There’s just something about this shoot that made me say “YES. There’s something there.” There’s just a mood/a vibe about these images that I love, that made me really excited for the start of my senior sessions next week. I can’t wait to really reconnect with my WHY and infuse some more storytelling into my sessions. Really hone in on the vibe of my seniors and their families and recreate something for them that evokes emotion in them and me too.

If you made it to the end of my verbal vomit, CONGRATS…as a reward, here are some of my favorite images from that shoot.  And if you’re a 2018 Senior who wants to get out of dodge and head to the beach for your senior shoot, hit me up, so I can get you details and we can get something on the books!

Enjoy!