Have you ever looked back at work you just recently completed and found all sorts of things wrong with it? I do that allll the time. It is so hard to look at my early work and see all the mistakes I made. Sometimes it’s mortifying, honestly, to see all my technical errors, styling mishaps and editing embarrassments. I think most of us can say that we didn’t really start out where we wanted to be but, truly, that’s ok. Progress is good. It’s fine to look at past work and see how far we’ve come. That means that we’ve learned from our mistakes and applied the lessons learned to become even better.
Take Ethan’s newborn session, for example. I LOVE his photos. I love the stying, I love the editing, I love the posing. I love everything about his session…and it drives me crazy that, in about a year’s time, I’m going to be looking back at it, shaking my head in chagrin that I did the one thing like this or another thing like that instead of the new way that I’ll know about next year. Progress is good, sure, but it can also make you crazy.
I have spent a lot of time and money on newborn photography workshops and education. The newborn photography sphere is actually pretty small, in the grand scheme of things, and everybody is always looking at everybody else, seeing what they’re doing, what new trend is coming down the pike. It’s hard sometimes to keep up with the Joneses, always trying to succeed at the newest and greatest thing but progress is good and, for me, what’s really important is remembering who I do this for – my clients. The parents aren’t going to know whether the baby’s hand was supposed to be 2 mm closer to his eye or whether her foot was tucked in the exact right place. No, they’re only going to see the sweet curve of their newborn’s cheek or the way her mouth crooked up into the perfect newborn smirk at just the right time.
Progress is good and it’s something I will always strive for. In the end, my clients are happy and that’s what matters to me.
Liz Viernes Photography is based near Fulton, Maryland, and specializes in maternity, fresh 48, posed and lifestyle newborns and first year milestone portraits.
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