I don’t pick my camera up enough outside of weddings, especially since my kids got older. It’s something I need to change. Picking my camera up I mean. I can’t reverse the ageing process, sadly.

The longer I go without actually photographing something, the less I feel like a photographer. Goes without saying I guess.

The less I feel like a photographer the more I feel like an imposter, so imposter syndrome takes hold especially in this off-season downtime. It’s tightened its grip so hard that I have questioned whether I should even be doing these newsletters.

And so with my lack of practice, and seeing all my friends attending or teaching at these pre-season workshops, I start to worry that I’m going to miss out on “the big new thing” for the season ahead. They’re all going to know something I don’t, and I’ll just be the lame-o doing the same old thing yet again.

Well if you’re feeling this way too, feeling the FOMO of everyone learning stuff while you are left in the dust, here’s what I always remind myself…

There’s no race, there’s no dust, there’s no big new thing. Workshops are great but at best you come home with a couple of valuable golden nuggets of knowledge – and never enough to transform you into a completely different photographer. What you already do is great, and as long as you never give up on learning and keep striving for continual evolution as an artist, that’s a great path to walk.

The best thing about workshops has always been the opportunity to meet new people and grow your “like minded people I’ve met in real life” community. Sometimes the actual learning part can do more harm than good, let’s talk about that for the next minute or two…