The difficulties of being a new photographer

First off, I would like to thank you for wanting to read my stories and I truly hope you enjoy the read. As you can see from the title, i'm going to be talking about how difficult it has been for me to get into photography as someone who deals with extreme social anxiety and what I am currently doing to help myself.

I've been in photography for a couple of years now, but my portfolio is very small. The only reason i have any pictures in my portfolio is because my sister is a model and a lot of the times she would ask me to do her casting shoots or if some brands send her clothing to promote, i'll be the one taking the pictures, and she paid me for every shoot I did. recently I have moved from new to Georgia and its a lot harder because now I have to really network and find people to work with. honestly its terrifying for me to even think about.

I've signed up for different casting networks like model mayhem and model now. I haven't posted any casting calls yet, but I always browse what models are signed up in the state that I live in and there aren't many. I know eventually i'm going to have to physically go out there and try to find people and network as much as I can. which is hard to do especially during covid obviously.

Ive started to do many things during this quarantine other than photography as well. I restarted my youtube channel ( Nyahtv ) and i'm also getting back into fashion and creating pieces .because not only do i want to do photography but I want the models to be wearing what I make. times have been hard, and trying to find way to make extra money can be hard when dealing with anxiety and stress from covid alone.

Things I have found to help myself get over the anxiety of trying to network is

1. Plan a bunch of photoshoots that I know I want to do, whether they're self photoshoots or shoot I want to do with other people

2. Try to find what kind of photographer I am aesthetically. That makes it easier to know what kind of models you're going to be looking for.

3. Watch a bunch of youtube videos on learning more about whatever camera you use and learning about every aspect of photography because there is always something to learn

4. Also watch videos on how to pose models and speak throughout a photoshoot. Learning how to find the angles that you want to show in your shots.

5. Try to start looking for people that can possibly help you during your photoshoots. Its always good to have a stylist and a make up artist that you know can give you the look that you're going for. It also saves time during the shoots because it's not you having to do everything at once.

Doing all these thing at some point in my day replaces the anxiety I have with excitement because now I know what i'm looking forward to. I've planned and studied the angles and lighting tricks. I studied angling and direction, so at this point all I need to do is find the model.

Also, you need to know that you do not need a crazy expensive camera to want to start photography. i've used about 4 different cameras luckily the next better than the last but I still made sure I got the job done. I just study the functions of the cameras that I get and use them to the best of my ability.

I truly hope the little tips that I have can help you grow your photography as well. I'm going to be updating on how its been going for me and I hope you continue to read. Thank you if you stayed this long.