Mar
04
This will be a pictureless and very personal post, because I just want to share what is inside my head and because words are more important than pictures for this. Those who know me and those who read my blog (or my facebook page) will know I am generally a very positive person. But it has been a while that something is bothering me: the direction my photography and my photography business are taking. Yes, that is right, they are taking a direction and guiding me, when I feel it should be the other way round.
Things are changing here. Slowly, I admit, but it has already started. One thing I am changing is the look of things. My website, my logo, they could have been anyone’s. There is nothing that says me in them, nothing that sets me apart from the next photographer. I want people to hire me because they like me, my style, my photos, not because I am the cheapest (which I am sure I am not!) or because I came first on their google search. For that reason, I want my website to scream “this is Ana, she is fun, come and meet her”. I have just ditched my flash-based website and I have hired an amazing graphic designer and artist to do my brand identity (she is Brazilian and writes in Portuguese, but go have a look at her beautiful work). I am going to rescue some of my “old” work from my old computer and build a decent portfolio on this website.
As well as that, I have decided I can’t cope with doing everything, so I want to do ONE thing. Which is what I think I do best. Which is what got me started in first place. My first (pro) photography love: children. I say pro because when I was a kid, I hated taking photos of people. Ok, not hated, but I wanted to take picture of interesting things. Buildings, mostly. I didn’t think people were interesting then – how wrong was I? 
– and my mother kept telling me she wasn’t paying for more film because there was never people on my photos. But then I grew up to love portraits. And children. I want to focus and develop (no pun intended) in what I like best and be the very best at it that I can be. I have absolutely loved every minute of the weddings I shot, and there is still one to come, and I am incredibly thankful to my lovely clients for choosing me to capture their special day but as I said in the beginning I can’t cope with doing everything, and my ONE thing is children photography.
The last thing is about the way I do business. If you google portrait photographers, you will see that most charge in the same way – albeit not with the same prices: a session fee, which might include something or not, and prints and products are sold separately. This is how I do it too. However I don’t think it suits me and how I want to be perceived as a photographer any more, so I am changing. I will charge more, but I will offer lots, lots more. I will offer a very personalised service and will only sell selected products by request. I will only shoot a very limited amount of sessions per month, so my clients get my full attention. I want to offer top quality service and photography at reasonable prices.
It’s all very scary. Specially because I am doing fine now – not fully booked, but booked and working in something I really enjoy. But I want the change. And I want the change to be a positive one. I don’t want to do what everybody else does, I want to be different. And if it doesn’t work, it’s fine too, I can just go back to old models, tried and tested – at least I went out there and followed my heart.
I am not going to apologise for the mess on my website, and it will be messy for the next couple of months. I am going, instead, to invite you to come back every week or so to watch me grow and to share the joy with me. I hope I come out at the end of this journey a better professional, a better photographer and a better person too.
