4 Ways to Conquer Your Photography Demons

There is nothing worse than fear and doubt getting in the way when you are trying to be creative. They tend to show up at the most inconvenient times and can trigger internal conversations something like this:

• You are not good enough.
• What makes you think you can take a great picture?
• You have no vision.
• She/he is a much better photographer than you.

These thoughts are not unique to any one individual and the list could easily be a mile long with additional negative thoughts. When you need to be creative, make a beautiful picture or get something done, it helps to have a few things in place to help you conquer your demons and do the work:

• Establish a ritual. Shoot your morning beverage everyday. You don’t need a fancy camera or special lighting, just get started and do not miss a day. What you are doing is establishing a habit that will get you in the mindset to create and you are shutting up the demon that says you can’t shoot a photo.

• Join a photography group or community. Having other people around to share your love of photography may be all you need to boost your confidence. There are Flickr groups, Google+ communities and Facebook groups you can join based on your specific interest. These groups also offer weekly and monthly challenges to help you grow as a photographer.

• Shoot from a different perspective. If you always shoot landscapes or wide-angle shots, try your hand at shooting up close, macro images. If you always shoot portraits, try shooting action shots. Changing your perspective helps curb boredom with photographing the same types of things and you will develop new skills as you explore new styles of photography.

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• Start a long-term photography project. 365 Days projects are very popular and they are a great way to enhance and develop your photography skills and vision. A few 365 projects you can start right now are shoot portraits of yourself, choose a color each week to explore and only shoot that color, shoot only in black and white or you could simply take a picture everyday. It does not matter what it is. What is cool about 365 Days projects is you end up with a year long record of your life and you will see how you have grown as a photographer.

Try any of the ideas above and you are sure to conquer your photography demons. Which are you going to try today?

**All images were taken by Lucrecer Braxton**