09/09/2026
At the beginning of this year, I found myself in a bit of a creative rut. As we all know, Instagram can be both a blessing and a curse. You can find tremendous inspiration, but you can also find yourself in endless mind games of comparison. In my state of, “Am I doing enough?” and “At 43, there is so much more I want to know, and I feel like my time is ticking,” I reached out to two extremely accomplished photographers whose portrait work I greatly admire and asked to meet with them. Thinking they would ignore my Instagram messages, I was shocked when they responded and graciously said yes.
I sat down for coffee with one of the photographers in January and another in April, with a follow-up with her a few weeks ago to critique these photos of Louise. I could go on and on about the wealth of knowledge I took away from these meetings, but I’ll spare you lots of technical details. However, I will tell you one of the most important things they both told me, and one of the things they both unknowingly modeled.
Both photographers told me to keep practicing and keep playing. I used to feel that if I were shooting just for fun, it was a waste of time. But in fact, it is quite the opposite. Just like any other skill, you have to keep practicing beyond your paid shoots in order to grow. These photos of Louise were simply an afternoon of playing with this hot pink paper… using an umbrella, using direct flash, playing with the angles of the lights, figuring out shadows, watching how the color of the pink paper changed based on where I had the light set up, dealing with color cast on skin, etc. The process was fun and frustrating all at the same time.
And while the lesson of continuous playing and practicing was important, at the root of it all was lesson number two.. something these two photographers unknowingly modeled for me.
Stay humble. One of my favorite Bible verses is, “Those that exalt themselves will be humbled, and those that humble themselves will be exalted.” The photography world, like many other creative worlds, can be a bit isolating. Understandably, people guard their craft and their knowledge because they have worked hard to get where they are. You can buy expensive courses and pay tons of money for mentor sessions with photographers. But these two people, who are far more accomplished than I could ever dream to be, were quite the opposite. They refused anything from me and never made me feel as if I were taking up their time. One of them spent hours answering my endless questions. They simply said they loved to talk photography and were glad to help. These two have no blue check by their names, no Instagram reels, nothing that screams, “Look at me.” They are humble and kind and silently crushing it in the industry. I think this is the lesson I will forever be the most grateful for. There is always room to lift others up while continuing to grow yourself.
In my quest to quiet my creative rut, I actually ended up tapping into something a little deeper. And for this, and for these two wonderful photographers who took their precious time with me, I am incredibly thankful.