The blessing of the beginner

If you are just starting out your artistic journey, you are blessed with freedom. You can choose to do whatever you want. You get to build your skills, your style, and your portfolio along with your audience.

A body of work needs some consistency over time, for both the artist and the audience's sake. A singer builds an audience because they stay loyal to a genre and style.

All artists should evolve. But when you've established an audience, change is hard. When a band releases a new album that doesn't sound like them, fans complain. It doesn't matter if it's good or not, what matters is that it wasn't what they were expecting.

Take advantage of your current freedom, don't be afraid of experimenting and sharing the results. Eventually, you'll settle on a style that clicks with you and an audience.

Become a curator

Ain't nobody got time for nothing nowadays.

You can see it on the road or at the grocery store.

Time is the asset of our days. It always has been.

In the past, there was no escape to a "let me show you the photo album from our last vacation". Today, you can simply leave a like on the FB post and swipe away. People aren't paying attention, though.

Curation is more important now than ever.

We need to respect our viewer's time. They will give us a few seconds -minutes if we are lucky- of their days in exchange for good content. We need to use that time wisely.

Give too much, even when it's awesome content, and they'll swipe away. Give too little and they'll forget about you.

Small doses, all the time.

Edit your videos. Keep clips short, between 5 and 10 seconds. Use good music. Show only the parts that contribute to the story.

Edit your images. Don't show 30 pictures of the same thing from different angles. Sit on them for a while before sharing them.

Discarding clips and images will hurt. Like a wound that is healing, this is good.

Knowing what to share and (even more importantly) what NOT to share is a skill in high-demand, a skill that may take time and effort to develop.

I'd say it is THE skill a photographer must have today.

Listening to destructive criticism

I've grown used to destructive criticism. I've got a lot of it since I quit my job 10 months ago to pursue a career as a professional artist.

I usually dismiss it and carry on.

One day, Person A -let's call them that way- was trying to discourage me and asked a question:

"You say photography is your job... Do you work 8 hours a day then?".

They weren't looking for an answer, but to diminish what I was doing. Those are the ways of destructive criticism.

I couldn't dismiss it this time, though.

It was true: I wasn't putting the hours. I was definitely getting out and making images, but starting a photography business requires so much more than that.

From that day on, I've been working 12+ hours a day on my photography, 7 days a week.

Even though some people will try to ridicule what you do, the way you take their words is up to you. Use them to your advantage if you can; discard and forget them if you cannot.