Becoming a happy photographer in six steps | Jessica Roberts

We all cause unhappiness in ourselves. Sometimes it's unintentional, and sometimes we KNOW we are doing it. For me, these were six small things I needed to understand that made a BIG impact in my happiness. My hope is that something in here resonates for everyone! Here are six steps to becoming a happier photographer:THAT TRIBE IS NOT YOUR TRIBEThis is referring to the cool kids you follow. Their work makes you doubt yourself. Their life seems perfect. Everything looks effortless. They run with a squad of more perfect-seeming incredibly talented people. It can almost make you feel like you’re back in high school when you realize the moment there is a cool kids group, and you’re not in it. I think we all have a few people that may make us feel like this at one point. The advice here- Realize this group is not your group. Make your own friends. They will be beautiful, they will be talented, and they will lift you up as you lift them up. We can’t do life alone, and we certainly can’t watch whoever we consider to be “the in crowd” from our social media feeds at home feeling down about ourselves. Go out and make YOUR crowd!STOP FOLLOWING ACCOUNTS WHO MAKE YOU DOUBT YOUR SKILLEnvy and comparison are toxic. Somehow we INTENTIONALLY do this to ourselves. We follow the industry leaders, the photographers way further in their journey, and we felt good about our work until… we saw theirs. Yet we leave them in our Instagram and Facebook feeds for what? We’re not feeling inspired, we’re feeling doubtful. Remove any accounts that are making you feel negative feelings. When you are in a good place, you can look at these people’s work to truly be proud for them, to be inspired by them. But sometimes we just don’t feel it. Sometimes this is our own friends we feel envious from! It’s OKAY to unfollow on Instagram. It’s okay to hide them from your timeline. Come back to them when you are feeling confident and see how you feel then but if it’s making you feel like crap, STOP it.MAKE FRIENDS OUT OF YOUR COMPETITIONWhen I moved to my new city, I immediately started reaching out, planning lunch dates, play dates, going to any event I could find because I wanted to see who my circle was. For the girls I clicked with, I just thought to myself “Did we just become best friends? Yup!” and went with it. The reality is, they do exactly what I do. We may have a consult with the same bride. I may even lose a booking or two to them! Weighing that worst case scenario with being completely alone, I’ll go with the possibility of losing a booking. And honestly, I’ve gotten WAY more bookings from having local wedding photographer friends. I’ve had the honor to send many bookings to them as well. It’s a very healthy and productive circle and you need it in your life.LEAVE THE CAMERA AT HOMEBeing a photographer, everyone wants you to bring your camera places. People don’t mean anything by it, but we hear comments of “Oh can you bring your camera to” insert holiday/event here all the time. My advice is to leave your camera at home ALL THE TIME unless you have the intention of shooting for yourself. With the amount of work I do, I have hardly no interest to shoot outside of that. And that’s okay. It is okay to say it’s staying right at home. Plumbers don’t get asked to fix toilets at parties.SHOOT SOMETHING YOU WANTI went a really long time only pulling my camera out for paid jobs. I went like a year without photographing my own family because I was just over photos and editing, I did it all the time! When I shoot something I want, it’s things like flowers. Macro ring shots. All things pretty. It’s not really people because it’s just nice to work slow and not talk. It helps me remember why I enjoy photography when I am shooting things just for me. We can’t let the camera only come out for business- that’s the quickest road to burnout.NO IS NOT A BAD WORDNo. Try it. Just…. “no”. Not to be confused with “sorry, but”. Not to be confused with “I’ll see what I can do…” and certainly not to be confused with “yes”. There is value in what you do. YOU run this. There are people who just plainly don’t value photography sometimes. Maybe they mean well and they think all we do is take photos (I wish), but we know there is a real (and really hard!) business here. When people don’t want to pay your prices but still want you to work? Say no. When someone wants you to budge from your policies? Say no. People can continue to take as long as you are willing to bend. Stop bending. There is a core issue with people pleasing here and believe me, I understand that so much but self-happiness has to trump all people pleasing.Hopefully you can take at least one of these pieces of advice with you on the road to a happier life as a photographer. I hope that you begin to feel free from envy, self doubt and lonliness and truly grow into your confident independent self!