Yesterday was a good day for me. My brother came by and we talked mostly about me. He is good for that and glad that I was able to get a chance to spend some quality time with him. We talked about my finances, about the direction I want to go with my photography and just overall caught up. However, I was on the defensive end a good part of the time. Here’s why.

Why People are Defensive.

I believe people are defensive because a great bit of what is said about them is true. We have to prove a point and feel that our decision is more valid than the person telling us how we are. The situation with my brother that I agreed on the most was the finance part. He went to school for it, knows how to manage his money and doing extremely well with selling and buying stocks. Everything that he said there is g0ing to be implemented.

But, the business and the photography is a different thing. The thing about him at times is that he looks at a couple of scenarios and makes his conclusion on how it is for the overall state of whichever industry or subject. I still admire him looking this up and seeing what I’m getting myself into, but it frustrates me that he can spend days and even weeks on a product that he is about to purchase and gets information from two sources and make a conclusion on an industry that he still doesn’t know anything about.

Most of the suggestions and realizations that he was making were very things that I’m currently doing. For instance, joining a photography meetup group and doing a couple of events, taking photographs of friends and improving my portfolio. And just getting better at my craft by studying and practicing as much as possible. So it annoyed me that he wasn’t listening to me and realizing that I have actually put myself out there in this profession that I want to make full-time sense the beginning of the year.

The State of Me and the Photography Business

I’ve talked about this a couple of times. And I have probably drove some people crazy. The thing about the photography business is that it is a profession that many people respect. If you want to say it is pointless and not earth moving, I’m sure we can have a long long discussion on that. However, the way of entry is one of the easiest to be a part of, but the way to profession is totally different than the norm. I’ve accepted that I have to do a couple of free photo shoots to get better and barter with establishments to let them see what I can truly do in order to build up my portfolio so people can better trust me. That’s here and now and know that as long as I learn from my failures I will be a badass person–relatively quickly.

The Problem With Most of the Noise Out There

Most artist are good at what they do. They know the inside and out of their cameras. They can look at the scene and take something that most people didn’t notice. They go to these conferences to get closer to the level of the people they look at and know that once they have taken so many photographs, friends and family members will start to take notice and then bam they would be successful.

That shit ain’t happening. Atleast for 90% or even more people out there who call themselves photographers. The reason why is because they fail to realize that they need more than anything is to be able to sell themselves, market their business accordingly and know how to talk to people. The art of business is what is missing in this craft and any other craft that is considered out.

I’ll leave you with this. There have been plenty of books that I’ve read that have been on the New York Times Best Seller’s list. Some of them I forced myself to finish, some of them were great and some of them I wondered what the hell people saw in this book to begin with. I can’t remember who said it, but the product doesn’t have to be the “best most amazing book ever written”, it has to be the “best SELLING”. Once the formula is figured out, the chances of having the life I want will become reality.

We learn the things that we want to learn. But in the things that we want to learn, we have to also take into consideration of what it is that we need to learn.