March of Dimes' WalkAmerica 2007

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I'm not sure what was I thinking when I told Tina that I could volunteer to photograph at this years event. Being 37 weeks pregnant and having to pose groups of a 100 was definitely a challenged.

Here was one of the biggest group at the event.

They were the Savemart/Albertson group

The event overall was a success. There were so many walkers out that morning. It was great to see so many people supporting the Walk America event this year. Daniella and Warren also joined me to help me out. Daniella had a ball there listening to the music and watching the crowd. She even manage to find a 4 legged buddy.

Daniella with one of the mascot. This group had 5 dogs on their team.

So from 7:00am-9:00am we were out photographing the teams for March of Dimes. Daniella would have loved if we stayed longer to listen to the music and play at Vasona Park. Unfortunately we had to leave. I had to pack up and run down to Campbell Community Center because I was one of the vendors at Meet BABI. That was another fun event for the days. So many beautiful preggo and cute babies.

UGMX Model Mixer

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Margarita and I went down to UGMX last night and met some new faces as well as had the chance to photograph some of the models. These girls were all so nice, fun, and easy to work with. For those of you who don't know UGMX is a music production company. They were started last June. They have really been out there networking and growing so it'll be exciting to watch where they will go in the next year. We also had MILO agency there last night and some of the models from the agency was there. Everyone I have met through both companies have been super enthusiastic, passionate, and fun to work with.

Here are some of the images that I took last night.

Little Avery Rogers

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Welcome to the world! Little Avery was born premature and I was excited to meet her. She was sooo cute. I love newborns. They're so small and sweet, plus they make such cute little "mouse" sounds. Leslie, Avery's mom, looked great and was so natural at caring for this little angel. I just wanted to share a few of my favorite images from the session.

Seeing this little human makes me even more excited about my little one coming in a few weeks. Time goes by so fast and I can not believe that in a few weeks I'll have a little angel of my own.

Anxiety and Expectation

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I have been photographing professionally for over 7 years and to this day I still feel my heart rapidly thumping right before a session. You would think after so many years that I wouldn't be so anxious right before a session. I want to be sure that my clients love their images and the fear that they may be unhappy hangs above me. Then when I start looking through my images and the samples I have display I realize that I'm a great photographer and that I have created many gorgeous images for many happy families. Once my clients arrive and I start the session, I then calm down and by the time we finish the session I loving the images that we created together and I forgot why I was anxious to begin with.

What I have has been called, Photographer Anxiety Syndrome (PAS). Many new photographers who have come to me as a mentor often tell me that they also have PAS. They are scare to get out there and photograph, let alone charge for their service, because of the fear of rejection. Here are some tips on how to get over PAS.

Tips on how to deal with PAS
1. Anxiety is good: I know this sounds like crazy talk but it's true. It means that we care about our work and our clients. This is a service business and we want to make sure our clients are completely happy with the work. After all these images will be in their family for a long time, it's natural for us to care that they get the most from the session. A photographer that isn't anxious may not care for their clients.
2. Practice your craft: You hear it all the time, practice makes perfect. Keep working on your craft and over time you'll be more comfortable. There are so many ways to light a person and it's so different photographing in a studio, with natural light, on-location strobes, reflectors, etc.. It's easy to see why it's so confusing and stressful, but keep practicing and you'll learn what you like depending on your situation.
3. Build your confidence: Go out there and get experience. With experience and skill comes confidence. As your confidence builds the anxiety will decrease.
4. Find a mentor: There are many professional associations out there with successful photographers. Join one and meet other professionals who can guide you and teach you what it takes to be successful. Many of the association have print competition. Enter the competition and have your prints evaluated so that you may continue to learn.
5.You get what you paid for: With digital photography age, there are so many new amateur photographer who really don't know what they are doing and will give away a CD full of images for pennies. Many of these "photographers" have no schooling, training, experience, or knowledge. All they have is an expensive SLR and out of 1000s of images they are bound to have a handful of good ones. It may seem hard to compete with that, but remember that it takes years to perfect a craft and what you provide your clients is a complete image that they will be proud to display on their wall, not just a snapshot.

Remember that anxiety is a natural feeling and isn't always bad. It's good to be enthusiastic and so passionate about what we do. Professional photography is one of the best field to be in and even if I have to deal with a little anxiety, I wouldn't trade it for the world. It is what keeps me excited and on the edge.