Stephanie, as well as a couple others, has been helping out as my assistant for most of this year for which i have been extremely grateful since Javi, my usual assistant, is off getting smarter in England – she has a passion for photography and doesn’t mind being in front of the camera at all…(unlike me)
so, when it came to her senior shoot, we had 1 goal – try and create something unlike anything i had before, or at least try

yeah it’s true that over time you start to develop your own style, and by “over time” i mean more like 6+ years of fully pursuing your craft – considering that I have been fully pursuing this craft for only 3 months, i would say that i still have a lot of time to figure that piece out – however, i know that i will never stop growing, learning, experimenting, failing, attempting, failing, shooting, dreaming, and then failing some more – if i ever stop doing any of these, then i may as well sell everything and close up shop

in the end, i think that we met our goal with at least a few of these images – it was a breath of fresh air to challenge myself and step out of “auto senior mode” – my hope is that by pushing myself to try new things, it will begin to show in the style and vision of my work as i continue on in the process

to anyone who is a photographer and feels as though they are in that horrible “i hate my work, it all looks/feels the same, and everyone else is so much better than me” valley, get out and shoot! – i have been there pretty much daily since picking up my first dslr in 2007, and the only remedy i can think of is to keep picking up the camera and shooting – some days you will create something you absolutely love, and then you will hate it within 2 weeks at most – but, it’s all about the process

some may get frustrated with this fact, that you can never really “arrive” as a photographer or really as any sort of creative – but isn’t that the point? if we “arrive”, what’s left to create? what do we do? i think that would be a very boring place that lacks any purpose – so for me, i will deal with the valleys, the frustration, the hatred towards my own work, and the belief that everyone else is better than me because at the end of the day, glimpses of growth and progress provide greater peace than quitting ever would