I have made a LOT of mistakes professionally.

The goal of being a halfway decent business person is taking a good honest review of the previous year and not only looking at the good you’ve done, but the bad and major mistakes you’ve made. While I’ve made my fair share of bad mistakes, the worst mistake I have made is allowing people to control who I shoot.

That may seem like a silly thing to say, but it’s very true and a problem I have personally been facing for some time. Part of my big preaching is connection. Making a connection with people is huge in ALL genres of photography and fashion/glamour it’s even more important. In so doing, we tend to become closer to our clients than a general portrait photographer for the simple fact we see our clients with less clothes. Boudoir, Art Nude, Fashion, it’s all things that require a connection to convey a mood. Our clients form a bond or a link with us and because of that, they often don’t want to share us. This is great in some ways because we want that link with them, bad in ways that if we let it, we allow it to severely limit who and what we shoot.

It’s not that saying “No” is an issue, but for me personally, I form a bond with almost everyone I shoot. When I form a bond as in real life, their friends become my friends, their not so cool people become my not so cool people. It’s not that I set out for this to happen, but again, in the real world when someone angers your friend, you tend to feel hostility towards them because you like your friend.

In our industry, clients cling to us because we tend to make them look better than those that have come before us. This being the case, they don’t want us to shoot their friends or their less than favorable’s as they don’t want to share. I used to hold off but starting today, I’m going to shoot any and everyone!

What’s your biggest professional regret?