Procrastination. Avoidance. Self-discipline.

I shot a family portrait last week. It was an American couple who live in England who were celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary, their 30-something son and his wife and 18 month old daughter who live in Orange County (CA), and their 30-something daughter and her boyfriend who live in England too. The daughter-in-law was the one who contacted me and set it all up. They were all really nice and easy to work with. Except the 18 month old.

She was fine when it was just her being photographed. But she wanted no part of group shots. Maybe it was the long sleeved dress, socks and shoes they dressed her in. Maybe because she was away from home. Maybe it was the wrong time of day. Maybe I should have had toys and noisemakers to get her attention. Maybe I need more experience? On top of that my new camera was acting funky and not playing nice with the flash.



I'm a bit disappointed with the outcome and have been procrastinating on the editing. I don't like that part of the photography business anyway. And the editing actually takes more time than the actual shooting, so it's a funny thing about the profession. I wish I could get my editing time down so the shooting would far outweigh it, and therefore I'd have an overall more pleasurable experience.

I haven't given them a date when the photos will be available online so that adds to the procrastination and avoidance, but leads to me knowing I need to be self-disciplined and make it happen. Besides, I just shot another wedding last night that I need to edit, I might be going away this weekend, and I have 3 weddings coming up in 2 weeks so I need to wrap up this work.

It's so hard to see progress. I'm a bit down on my photography lately because I joined a pro forum and people post their work and some have some really great stuff. I keep feeling like my stuff is about a B or B+. I feel that way in general with my life. Like whatever I do, it's better than average, but very rarely is it outstanding. Am I destined to be a B/B+ person? I'd love to have something that I feel I really excel at. And I'd like that something to be photography.

Anyway, enough procrastination and avoidance.