Yeah, I know. This is a wedding and portrait forum, but change a couple details, and this letter is spot on for wedding photographers, too.

It’s written by a Sports Photographer, Jason Heffran, who has realized, after about a year of shooting and trying to make it his own way, that he’s been burning bridges and alienating people by assuming (and acting) like he knew what he was doing.

The post talks a little about how to behave on the forum, and how to behave in real life, and it is a difficult, powerful self-analysis. Are we, as wedding photographers, prone to some of these errors?

Here’s one confession offered:

  • I ignored the advice I got OVER AND OVER again about making friends with other shooters in your area. I didn’t disregard this advice for any specific reason, but initially had the attitude of “I’m here to do a job, not make friends.” The reality was that I was so underqualified to do the job that I didn’t have any time to socialize. Being a good salesman hurt me one more than one job. I also didn’t want to be viewed as a pest and was also slowly learning that I was much more inexperienced that I thought. Was I polite? I think so. But, here’s a sad fact… after 2+ years of shooting around the same guys at least 100 times, I can only tell you a few names and have only carried on a 3-minute conversation with one of them. I’m usually the guy in one corner of the endzone while 2 or 3 stand in the other. The irony is that I am actually a pretty personable guy – I just didn’t want anyone to see through the falacy.

Difficult stuff. Take a look at the whole letter then tell us what you think.

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