Community

Today was another great day at PartnerCon. We heard from a panel of photographers, including one of my mentors David Jay, who talked about community.

For the most part, the wedding photography industry is very unique in that we have a mentality of abundance and seek to help each other out with our businesses rather than compete with one another. It's such a great thing, I think, and has blessed me greatly in my business. The idea is that community and giving to one another only helps us and makes us stronger. We all gain knowledge from one another and when you give you find out that you get a lot back in return.

I also went to 3 classes given by 4 great photographers: Davina Fear, Nathan & Amber Holritz and Me Ra Koh. Davina is a really genuine, fun mom from Utah who talked about being who you are and getting to know your clients:


I came away from her talk inspired with some new fun ideas for engagement shoots. So if you have an engagement shoot coming up soon, we should definitely talk.

Nathan & Amber talked about how to make working from home work for you and I was definitely challenged in the area of setting and sticking to a schedule. I think I could accomplish a lot more on a day to day basis if I thought through and was more intentional about how I spend my time.

And Me Ra Koh was so refreshing in that she shared a lot about her life--the good and the bad--in her journey to where she is today--a nationally known photographer who charges 10-15k per wedding. Some well-known photographers who I look up to are really great and share a lot about their success but they have this "bigger than life" mystique and seem to have it all together. I appreciated so much Me Ra's vulnerability in sharing the struggles as well as successes.

So now I'm back home and have time to reflect on and process everything. Even more than the knowledge I gained this year at the conference, I am so thankful for the networking and relationship building that took place. Building a community with other photographers, both on a local and national level, makes my job so fun, inspires me and infuses me with even more passion for what I get to do for a living. Thanks guys!