I did something I told myself I'd never do - start taking paid portraits. I know a lot of people get into photography to have that specific type of business (family, seniors, weddings, etc), but those things never appealed to me. In fact, I really want to keep this as a hobby and not turn it into a business. I think my only exception would be more documentary type photography, but even with that, I would prefer to do that with my own family.
Recently, I had a bunch of people ask me to take their pictures, and in the past I've done this for free (even though everyone insisted on giving me money or gift certificates anyway). But recently, people started asking how much I would charge them and my husband suggested that I start charging to make it worth my while as there is a lot of work to it. Someone I know who just got into the photography business told me I needed to charge way more than I was, but I just wasn't comfortable with it.
It's just not really my thing and I felt that the last time I took family pictures. They weren't as good as I knew they could be and I felt like I really let them down. They weren't necessarily disappointed in me, but I was. Big time.
It was a lesson learned. Not that I won't ever do portraits again, but I want to treat them more as a learning experience - rather than me being a pro at portraits, because I'm not. It's not a goal of mine - I will leave that to others.
After this recent experience, I didn't even want to look at my camera. My picture of the week seemed to come and pass, but I decided to bring my camera to my doctor's appointment with me last night because I didn't want to totally miss the week. My doctor's office is located on a small lake so I headed out back after my appointment, just before the sun set, and snapped some pictures.
Ahh, it was just what I needed to do to reset... to stop feeling so horrible. I was taking pictures for me and not for anyone else and that felt good.
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