Hey guys and welcome to another Tog Talk where we feature photographers who want to share some incredible tips and advice for others in the photography community. As a Brand and Website designer for photographer I want to do my bit in helping the photography community and support the incredible work photographers create. On the blog today I’d love to introduce Laura-Jane – A wedding, branding, motherhood and family photographer based in Central Coast nsw, who will be covering Stepping out of your comfort zone as a photographer!

I hope you enjoy today’s Tog Talk and do make sure to send Jenny tons of love! 

Sarah x 

Starting out as a photographer, you have so many different thoughts and feelings. On one hand you are pumped to start a little adventure where you can live out your passion and make some coin from it all, and on the other hand, you know you have to start somewhere and that somewhere is a the bottom of the professional photographer barrel. Today I’d like to talk about Stepping out of your comfort zone as a photographer!

Hi, I’m Laura-Jane (@by_laurajane) I’m a photographer, a Mumma to Sonny, and a hard-core coffee drinker! My photography game all changed when I decided to step out of my comfort zone and put myself out there, let the world (or a few hundred people on Instagram) see my work. I had to start finding people other than my husband and son to be my models, eeeekkkk I had to actually ask people if it would be ok if I take photos of them, it’s such a creepy question. The risk I took was not life-threatening but it was threatening to my ego! What if people didn’t like my work, what if I’m actually really crap and nobody has told me?

I decided to own it! Own what I love doing. Own my work, own my passion, own my editing style (which might not be for everyone) and live out the fantasy of being a creator. Its what makes my soul sing, its what makes my life fun and at the end of the day I didn’t want to live out another 10 years wondering ‘what if’.

I made a deal with myself ‘never be unteachable, always be ready to learn from others and always have an open mind when people have different ideas’. From this thought, I quickly started studying photography, learning the absolute basics of how to use my Nikon, I found support groups on Facebook (Build and Bloom being my favourite) I found mentors to help me with understanding the whole marketing myself as a photographer thing and I found people in my local community who would jump in front of the camera for me.

Once you step out of that weird little comfort zone and have intentional goals, you will start making progress. Your goal may be as simple as watching YouTube videos about editing photos or dealing with a crying newborn baby at a shoot or even how to use your camera in manual mode.

At the end of the day, you are never going to grow if you don’t put yourself out there. Your craft can only be perfected with a lot (a lot) of practice. I have so much growing to do and that’s cool because it means I will become better at my craft and I will be more confident, proud and ready to take on bigger and scarier jobs. It’s important to look back at where I have come from and how much I have grown and evolved but never forget to look forward, set new goals and be ready to always learn from others. I hope this post encourages you to Step out of your comfort zone as a photographer and embrace your growth.

You can find Laura-Jane on Instagram over at @by_laurajane

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