"Truth About Photography" Response

It appeared that Jared Polin's main point in his video on "The Truth about Photography" centered around a phrase that he uttered numerous times throughout the presentation: Own it. His discussions and topics drove home his argument that in order to be recognized for your work, you have to put yourself out there and sell yourself to people who might want your work. Even though it's been said many times before, I appreciated his statement, "The worst thing that'll happen is they say no; the best thing is if they say yes."

A lot of this mentality also applied to the business side of photography. It doesn't really matter if you're getting paid a truckload of cash or nothing at all, as long as shooting is something you love to do, and you do your absolute best even if it's a project you're not that interested in.

Letting people know about your work and asking for jobs is the essence of putting yourself out there, and can be done in many ways through different networks. Email, social media, and simply meeting up with people in person (the most effective strategy) are all ways of marketing yourself to those that want your uniqueness and talent.

For me, this was a really useful presentation that told me the mindset you should have for photography. I have a hard time putting myself and my work out to people because I fear that people will dislike it or that I will fail. Sometimes it makes sense in my mind why I'm anxious, sometimes it's just an irrational feeling in my mind that still overpowers my actions. But as Jared explained in his video, his way of dealing with work rejection is to learn why you were rejected, accept it, and find work elsewhere. Because if you put yourself out there and make a case for why your work is quality, people will eventually see your value and want to work with you. And hopefully I will be able to teach myself to feel confident in sharing my work and, in Jared's words, own it.

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