New Year's Resolutions

So I had 2 New Year's Resolutions and both were related to photography.  Knowing how resolutions generally fall off the to-do list pretty quickly, I decided to start working on them early.   The first resolution was to work up the confidence to call myself a "Photographer" out loud, the second was to get into the PrePro program on my forum.  I belong to a forum for Child Portrait Photographers and have learned most of what I know from this website.  I post photos for critique and I learn the ins and outs of everything photography related.  This community has been my been my little alternate reality for the last 5 and half months.  I've spent hours a day on there and have made friends all over the world.  I communicate with photographers all over the U.S., Greece, the U.K, Denmark, Finland and Australia and they have become such a supportive group of friends.

I originally planned to apply for their PrePro program in the spring as I didn't think I was in any way good enough and because most people don't make it until after being on the forum for a year.  6 months happens, but is rare, especially with no prior photography experience.  The PrePro forum is a private section of the forum where you can talk about the business side of photography.  They really push skills before business, which is why you can't talk about it in the open forum.  You have to submit a portfolio of 30 polished images that show clean processing (editing), a variety of subjects and sessions, technical proficiency and the ability to shoot in a variety of lighting situations and environments.  Well I really wanted to start a business, but not until after I got into this program so that I wouldn't have to recreate the wheel and I could learn how to do things the right way by learning from the real Pros of the industry.  Therefore, I started to push myself as hard as I could and did over 40 practice sessions (on kids other than my own) in 5 months.

I pulled together an initial set and posted it for critique.  I got a good response and continued to polish it up over the last week and posted it again for more comment.  I had planned to wait one more week as I have 3 sessions coming up, but I got the itch to just apply as the stress and anxiety over the process was consuming.  I should note that it is quite difficult to get in and if you are denied, you have to wait 60 days to reapply and then you have to submit 45 polished images (knowing that you have to take out some of your original 30 that kept you out in the first place).  I really wanted to do this only once and just do it right the first time.  Well, after getting a lot of support from some Pros on the site, I mustered up the courage to submit last night....and.....I GOT IN!!!!!  I still can't believe it!  It is so surreal and I'm so excited!  I can really move forward now and start working on setting up a business.   Now I have to work super duper hard and hope that someday, I can get into the Pro program on the site! :)

I can't believe how much I've learned in the past months and I am so excited to see where the New Year takes me!  Oh, and I'm so crazy grateful for my supportive husband and kids who have endured many weekends without me around, and to my family and friends who have supported me and let me use them as photographic guinea pigs!

Oh, and just to put it out there, I AM a photographer!  There, 2 resolutions tackled and we haven't even hit the first of the year!  Perhaps now I can drag my feet on the resolution to stop eating as many sweets! ;)

Here is the portfolio that got me in: