... The Photog eat Photog world we live in ...

 A few days I was looking through my news feed on facebook and seen that another local photographer, Self Portraits had posted a link, found here, to her blog with the message reading "A good blog post for other photogs!". I knew I had to check it out, and boy am I glad that I did. The words that were spilled onto that blog post hit me right at home, well... really close to home actually. Did you happen to see that part where the she talks about sharing locations and one photographer ignoring her? Well that was me. Before we go any further I do want to add that thanks to Facebook creating a "other" message folder for messages to be received into from people you are not friends with, that of course Facebook did in fact send Baileys message to me there. To make matters worse, I never.. and I mean never check my other folder. It always completely slipped my mind and I honestly find it to be completely unnecessary.

Once I had finally discovered Baileys message a few months after she had sent it, I felt completely awful. I sent her a message right away apologizing that I didn't mean to ignore her what so ever, that it had in fact been sent to my others folder. When I read her blog post from a few days ago, again I felt awful and wanted to write her again letting her know how truly sorry I was. We ended up having a great chat and realized that the situation was a huge misunderstanding. And guess what? It felt awesome to have a convo with another local photog. Because let's face it, it's a tough world and most of the time competitors (in the same area) don't really get along. But... after reading the heartfelt words on her blog, I agreed 100% with everything that Bailey had written. I had even posted a facebook post on my facebook fan page back in January regarding the same issue. It's something that needs to change.

After talking with Bailey, I was flooded with my own similar situations. Man, I've had some people say some very hurtful things. I've been mocked about my camera body, had images that I took made fun of, been told I charge too much and I've even had clients tell me that when they worked with another photog that that photog made fun of my clientele not being as big as theirs. Obviously I know that photog gets more clients than I do, but one of the main reasons is because I book sessions to the amount that I'm comfortable with. I work a second job, have a husband and a 3 year old son and of course have my photography. I don't want to rush myself or end up creating images that I feel my clients will not be happy with. Once I feel that I have more time to add more sessions into my schedule, then I will do so. However, as of right now I'm happy with the clientele that I bring in each month.

A few months ago I decided to take all that negativity and turn it into good. So I told myself that I would make a change. I started a little thing that I called Small Business Sunday with Sarah Elizabeth Photography. Each Sunday I give a shout out to another small local business on my facebook fan page and ask all my fans to go show them some support. The feedback has been more than I ever imaged. I'm starting to see it spread like wildfire and it makes me incredibly happy to witness it happen.

Just because I myself am a photographer does not mean that I will not tell another photog how amazing I think their work is, that I will not like their photo or that I won't recommend clients to them whenever I'm already booked. I personally love telling other photographers how amazing they are, how much I look up to them & how much they have inspired me.

Another thing we need to remember is that we all started from the exact same place. We didn't grow into the artists that we are over night, we didn't grow our clientele over night and we certainly did not become professionals over night. 

Why should we keeping breaking each other down and saying things that could possibly make someone give up their dream? Who seriously wants to ruin something that means so much to someone? Let's stand up and make a difference.

Here's my challenge to you -I encourage any and all local, Missouri and even world wide photographers (fingers crossed my blog someday makes it across the world) to take part in a new beginning. Make friends with other photographers. Tell them how beautiful their session was at they posted today, show support, ask them for advice or even just give them a smile when you see them out in public. Get to know the person behind the camera before you are so quick to judge. You'll never know the opportunity of an amazing friendship if you never take a step forward.

Ask yourself- Do we really think that if we are constantly talking down other photogs, making fun of them and destroying dreams that clients are going to want to work with us? I know I would never want to work with anyone like that. Would you?

Let me add that in no way do I consider myself the "perfect" example of what im talking about. I would be completely lying if I said that I don't think that i've never done anything that may have hurt another photog. But I have and fully intend to never revert back to those ways. Sometimes you gotta let things go, tell yourself your an amazing person and move forward. Anyone can change and I know that I have for the better.