It's been more than a year since I started uploading videos regularly to my landscape photography YouTube channel about all my trips (by the way, it just reached 1k subscribers, thank you so much to all of you!).

One of the things I've learned in the process is that documenting -and sharing- your work actually helps you improve quite a lot. Showing what I do and how I do it, along with some of the thought process behind it has pushed me to be better.

This didn't happen overnight though. At first, I was afraid of at least three things:

Not being able to focus on my work

It is true that in some situations, you need to fully focus on what you are doing. But those are rare, usually due to fast-changing weather or short-lived light.

More often than not, getting away from the camera to tell your story will make finding inspiration even easier.

Criticism

When I uploaded my first videos after purchasing the Bronica, I thought I'd get a lot of comments pointing out my lack of skills and experience shooting film. And while I got some of those, most comments were of support.

Nowadays, and to be honest, I wish I got more criticism. I rarely do. And that makes me feel like I'm not going deep enough, or that I'm coming out as neutral or uninspiring.

I was afraid of criticism, and now I want it. Funny how things work.

I'm not an expert, what could I possibly talk about?

I'm not an expert, and I hope I never become one.

"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few"

I ran across this quote a long time ago (currently, I'm finally reading the book it comes from: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, by Shunryu Suzuki).

This quote really changed the way I think. It took a lot of the fear of not being good enough and actually empowered me because at that time, I did have a mind of a beginner, thus I was able to create something others dismissed as amateurish or not worthy.

I believe it's very important to share what you do. Talking to a camera, writing a blog post or posting it to Instagram, whatever your favorite medium might be. But share it.

I'm sure you've experienced this before: you have an idea in your mind, you think you've thought about it and all the possibilities, but when you tell a friend or family member you realize about things you hand't thought about.

Documenting your work, and showing it to other people, will do the same for your photography. You'll see things you wouldn't see otherwise. And you'll gain invaluable advice from other photographers.

Don't forget about the most important thing of all: it will not only benefit you, but it will also help many others in who to are on a similar journey.

If you only share your work but not the behind the scenes, give it a try. It might be scary at first, but I promise you it will get easier and at the end, it will make you a better artist.