Freedom Focus Photography

Dial in your Style

• Nicole Begley • Episode 93

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093 - Finding your style as a photographer doesn't happen overnight. I was six or seven years into my photography career before landing on a "signature look"—and that was after many whispers of the devilish voice in my head, saying you're just not creative! 

Sound familiar? Well, to all those nay-saying voices out there, I say pfffffft. If you were born human, you were born with an innate sense of creativity. And in this episode, I talk about how to approach putting your own unique stamp on your pet photography. 

What To Listen For: 

  • How (and why) to ethically copy other photographers' work
  • The worst idea that most pet photographers have 🙈
  • An irresistible rabbit hole to explore—with one major limitation!
  • What I mean by "the curse of the artist"
  • The thing we often get backwards (and what to do about it) 

Think of the exercise I share this week as productive procrastination—so enjoyable that it feels like cheating to even call it work! 

Resources From This Episode: 

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Welcome to the hair of the dog podcast.

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I'm Nicole Begley.

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And today we are talking all about style.

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So stay tuned.

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Welcome to the hair of the dog podcast.

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If you're a pet photographer,

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ready to make more money and start living a life by

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your design,

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you've come to the right place.

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And now your host,

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pet photographer,

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travel addict,

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chocolate martini connoisseur,

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Nicole Begley.

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Hey everybody.

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Welcome back to the hair of the dog podcast.

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I'm your host,

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Nicole Begley.

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And today we are talking about dialing in your style.

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Now style is one of those things that is wow,

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just overwhelming.

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I think a lot of times we get into pet photography

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because we love photographing animals or dogs or horses or whatever

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we're photographing.

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And we see other things that we love and we're like,

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oh man,

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I wish I could create work just like that too,

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but we're not sure how to start to get there.

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And then we're really completely lost at how we can ever

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possibly create our own style.

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So what happens is a lot of people end up copying

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whatever the most popular types of work in the industry are

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at that particular time,

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which is really kind of a bummer because we all have

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something amazing to share inside of us.

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And one of the reasons I believe strongly that if we

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have this desire to learn animal photography,

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then we have a unique voice that wants to come out

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in our animal photography as well.

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But often we just don't know how to do that.

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And quite frankly,

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you can't really come out of the gate with your own

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style because we have to actually build our style in foundational

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kind of foundational way.

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And if you look at any artist,

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I'm pretty sure they didn't just pick up a paintbrush or

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pick up a hunk of clay and throw it down on

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the Potter's wheel.

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And then all of a sudden start creating this amazing unique

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work, right?

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It's always a journey.

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It's always a process.

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Animal photography is absolutely no difference in that.

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We start in one area with,

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you know,

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none of us were born knowing how to use a camera.

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None of us were born knowing any sort of artistic rules

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or, you know,

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what any of these composition rules and things like that.

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These are all things we learned as we went.

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And so we,

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we all have to follow that same path.

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So I wanted to record this episode today to kind of

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give you a little bit of the path forward and kind

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of explain a little bit about how this style evolution usually

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goes. Because I don't know for me,

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I know it took a good six or seven years until

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I finally found my style.

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So I don't want you to think this is going to

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be a quick,

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overnight process.

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It takes some time,

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but there's a lot of minefields.

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We can kind of step in along the way.

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So I want to help steer you away from those.

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So let's talk briefly about what this process usually looks like.

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If you're starting out very,

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very new in the world of pet photography,

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and you're just getting out there and you're looking around and

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seeing work that you love.

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And you're like,

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man, I would love to create something like that.

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So how do we get started doing that?

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And that usually is by copying,

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right? We're like,

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oh, I like that.

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I want to create that.

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I try to make that.

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And you know,

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there is a place I believe in the world of learning

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for copying,

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but there is not a place in the world of photography

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or really any artist John rhe for copying and then sharing

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as your own.

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So let me explain how that the difference of this could

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be the difference is when we're starting out,

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we see something that we like.

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What I recommend you do is to say,

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oh, I like that.

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Let me try to create it for my own education.

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And it's not me trying to create this thing that somebody

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else created and then sharing,

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oh, look what I did.

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Look what I did because that is where it starts to

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cross the line.

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And that is what happens when everybody sees this one or

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two types of work and they all try to pile on

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and do the same exact thing.

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And then all of a sudden the entire industry,

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everybody's creating the same thing.

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And it's just not really unique.

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And I know you have more of unique voice in you.

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So what I recommend you doing is finding these different techniques

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and learning this technique and then breaking down this technique and

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breaking down that technique and,

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and learn to create,

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to replicate a photograph so you can learn the technique,

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but it's for learning.

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And then that replication stays on your computer and it's not

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being shared.

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Or if you're sharing,

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you can say,

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oh, I'm,

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you know,

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practicing the technique.

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I was inspired by.

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So-and-so like,

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just give some credit.

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But then this is where the magic is.

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And this is what's really important is that as you learn

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different techniques,

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then you can start mixing and matching these different techniques so

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that you are starting to create something unique.

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This is the place that a lot of people don't necessarily

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get to,

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but you know what?

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All the people in the industry that I have seen that

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have found lots of success,

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oh, they've all gotten to that point.

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So if you want to find success,

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I believe it is 100% imperative that you start to find

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some, you know,

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start to find a unique spin to your work and how

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we can start to do that.

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Like I said,

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we do that by breaking things down.

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Like that's how we learn.

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We learn by copying as a kid,

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you learn by saying what your mom said.

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Like we say truck tree,

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you know,

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we point out all these things because our parents are doing

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the same thing.

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We're copying what they're doing.

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We're copying what they say.

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We're looking at what they say,

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what they point to.

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And we're saying the same word.

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That is how we learn.

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We also learn by someone,

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you know,

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we see everybody walking,

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we start to learn how to walk.

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You know,

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it's just,

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it's repetition and it's doing something that's already done before.

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So that is just the learning process.

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But as soon as we have learned that process,

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then it is time to start to make it our own.

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Now, one of my favorite exercises for starting to kind of

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deep dive into what you actually love,

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like what you might,

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I'd actually be drawn to,

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you know,

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the, the work that might make your heart sing,

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that you don't even know it yet.

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You, you probably have no idea because we tend to look

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for inspiration in the same genre that we're shooting.

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And I think that is one,

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one of the most challenging worst ideas we can have is

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looking for our inspiration in the same genre that we are

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photographing. Instead,

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this is my homework for you from this episode,

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please, please,

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please. I can't tell you how many people have done this

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exercise and how many people have come back to me and

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said, oh my gosh,

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Nicole, this was so eyeopening.

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What I want you to do is I want you to

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go to Pinterest.

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You can go really anywhere where there's a lot of imagery,

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but Pinterest is a great place to do this.

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Create yourself a little board.

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It can be a secret board.

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You don't have to share it with anybody.

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And then I want you to start pinning images.

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You love here's the catch,

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absolutely zero animal or pet photographs on that board.

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I want you to pin other work that inspires you.

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Other types of things,

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photography, you can search wedding photography,

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high school,

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senior photography,

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fashion photography,

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commercial photography,

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you know,

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Photoshop, painting,

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Photoshop, composite,

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and like just look for different things.

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You can also search happy photography,

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moody photography,

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high key,

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low key studio photography on location,

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photography, flash photography,

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natural light photography.

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Start looking for all of these different kind of things.

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Just start searching landscape photography,

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fine art,

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photography. I mean,

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pick any adjective and put it in there and start searching.

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And then when you see things to catch your eye,

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just start pinning.

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Don't give it any thought,

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just start pinning,

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all the ones that catch your eye.

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And I would do this too.

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You have at least 20.

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I mean,

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it's a pretty fun rabbit hole.

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So stay down there for a bit and maybe get 30

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or 40 different images.

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And then you'll have all of these images and you can

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go ahead back to that Pinterest board,

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bring them up on a big screen.

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Look at them all and ask yourself,

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where are the commonalities amongst all of these images?

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Like, what am I drawn to?

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Is it a use of color?

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Is it a certain type of light?

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Is it a wide angle,

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feel a more like artistic or shallow depth of field feel?

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Is it the storytelling?

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Is it negative space?

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Is it,

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you know,

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whatever a certain color palette start to look at the commonality

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of the different images that you pinned.

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And that is going to give you a little bit of

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a glimpse into where you might want to start taking your

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work and where you might want to explore new techniques.

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And then you can look for places to learn those techniques.

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And the academy,

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we have guests,

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artists, we have lots of different editing tutorials on YouTube.

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There is a world of different editing tutorials you can explore

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or shooting tutorials,

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you know,

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just start finding different ways to learn some of those individual

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pieces. So maybe look at that big group,

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pick out three or four common traits and then learn those

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individual tasks,

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like learn those individual,

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you know,

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the, the techniques for how to do them.

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And then can you start mixing and matching those techniques and

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creating something completely unique?

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What other ideas do you have?

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Can you keep a little notebook where you jot ideas?

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I have a Trello board when I have just like random

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ideas for random interesting either techniques or really like composites or

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print and competition images,

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or just different things that I just kind of jot down

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there because here's the truth.

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I used to tell myself that I'm not creative for a

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long time,

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probably until about four years ago.

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It was,

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you know,

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Hey, I'm Nicole.

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I'm really good at business.

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I'm really good at the business of photography.

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And I do believe that if we are going to have

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a business,

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we all need to be business people first.

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However, I would then not feel secure in my artistic ability

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or my creativity,

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because I felt like I just was never really creative.

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And I think a lot of us can feel that way

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because we were all born creative,

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right? Like when you're in kindergarten and preschool,

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you're just taking the colors.

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You're smearing them all over the place.

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There is no part of us that is second guessing,

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our creativity we loved to create,

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but then something happens as we grow up.

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Whether it's an offhanded comment,

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you know,

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not on purpose,

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not malicious from a parent or a teacher telling us to,

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you know,

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focus on something more practical or artists don't make any money

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or, you know,

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whatever. It could be.

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Just this one little tiny offhanded comment that didn't even mean

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anything from like an aunt when you were three,

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could have totally changed the trajectory of your self thoughts with

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your creativity or how creative you think you are.

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But here's the truth.

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We're all born creative and creativity is not something we have

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or don't have.

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It's something that we all have inside of us,

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but it has been pushed down in many of us.

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So the best way to start to bring it back is

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to create is to practice is brainstorm is to go down

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this Pinterest rabbit hole of finding things that inspire you.

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And then you can start to reclaim that creativity again.

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So this is part,

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two of your homework is to have,

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and it could just be that same pincher sport or another

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one just to have a place or a Trello board or

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a physical notebook,

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or you can keep ideas for things that you want to

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do in your photography.

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And, you know,

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every stall once a month,

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at least once a quarter go out and try something new

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because it's really,

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really easy to get in a rut of doing the same

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thing again and again,

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and then just,

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you know,

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getting really comfortable with it and not continuing to push the

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envelope. That's one thing that I actually really enjoy about print

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competition is it's not about competing with other people,

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but it's actually about pushing ourselves to create something new,

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to create something better,

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to improve what we have done in the past.

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So just find a motivation,

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a way to continue to practice that creativity.

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And I promise you that creativity will continue to grow.

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One other thing I want to talk about before we go,

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and that is really the curse of the artist.

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And I hear so many photographers telling me that they're not

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creative, their work stinks.

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It'll never be where it needs to be.

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And I look at it and I'm like,

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Hmm, this is pretty darn good work.

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I don't know what you're looking at.

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Do you have eyes?

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Because my eyes say this is lovely,

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but as creatives,

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we tend to be hardest on ourselves and it can be

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pretty challenging sometimes to kind of get past that.

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So one of the easiest ways to do that,

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of course,

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just keep on creating and then just know,

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give yourself permission that,

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you know,

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not everything has to be perfect.

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Cause I think that happens a lot too,

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where we're scared to try something new because it might not

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work out.

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It might not end up as we had hoped it would

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so that we just don't try because we don't want to

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fail. But what is failure?

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I mean,

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it's just learning.

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00:14:02,050 --> 00:14:02,620
I mean,

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00:14:03,640 --> 00:14:04,310
yeah. It,

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00:14:04,310 --> 00:14:06,640
it, every time you try something new,

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you're going to usually take a few times to start to

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perfect it and start to get better at it.

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So if you start doing that now,

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then you will reach that mastery level faster and just know,

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just know those feelings of self doubt,

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00:14:20,650 --> 00:14:21,730
those feelings of,

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00:14:21,760 --> 00:14:22,420
oh my gosh,

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00:14:22,450 --> 00:14:23,680
I'm not cut out for this.

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00:14:23,890 --> 00:14:25,300
I don't know if I can do this.

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Those are normal.

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00:14:27,190 --> 00:14:30,520
And we all have those and we all go through them

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00:14:30,580 --> 00:14:31,990
and you know,

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you're not alone there.

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So I think one of the biggest ways to combat that

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00:14:36,610 --> 00:14:39,370
is just get back out there and start creating.

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And also sometimes you can't wait for the motivation to come

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because I think this is a fallacy too,

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where people wait for motivation.

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They're like,

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00:14:47,530 --> 00:14:48,970
well, I'm not motivated to create,

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but what if let us,

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00:14:50,260 --> 00:14:51,500
that's actually backwards?

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00:14:51,560 --> 00:14:55,040
What if once you get out and you start creating whether

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00:14:55,040 --> 00:14:57,500
you feel motivated by it or not,

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00:14:57,530 --> 00:14:58,670
but you'd get out and do it.

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What if that causes you then to feel the motivation?

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00:15:02,330 --> 00:15:05,480
What if getting out there and doing the creativity,

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00:15:05,480 --> 00:15:06,740
just getting started,

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00:15:06,740 --> 00:15:09,140
putting one foot in front of the other is actually what

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00:15:09,140 --> 00:15:10,430
leads to our motivation.

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00:15:10,490 --> 00:15:13,070
Cause I know I found that to be true quite a

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00:15:13,070 --> 00:15:15,560
bit. So that's my homework for you this week,

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00:15:15,560 --> 00:15:18,710
guys. It is to go ahead,

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00:15:18,770 --> 00:15:22,550
make that Pinterest board find different things in inspire you that

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00:15:22,550 --> 00:15:28,220
are not pet photography and then go and try some new

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00:15:28,280 --> 00:15:31,010
things. And if you're very early in your journey and you're

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00:15:31,010 --> 00:15:32,720
still learning those basics,

408
00:15:32,810 --> 00:15:33,320
you know,

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00:15:33,350 --> 00:15:35,990
it's okay to break down an image that you love to

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00:15:36,050 --> 00:15:37,310
learn the technique for.

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00:15:37,310 --> 00:15:39,650
Remember then to keep learning other techniques.

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00:15:39,650 --> 00:15:42,710
So you can start mixing your techniques together and you start

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00:15:42,710 --> 00:15:46,940
to create something that's incredibly you and unique and amazing.

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00:15:47,000 --> 00:15:48,050
And gosh,

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00:15:48,080 --> 00:15:49,970
we would just love to see it.

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00:15:49,970 --> 00:15:52,010
So I would love to know if you guys have any

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00:15:52,010 --> 00:15:52,880
breakthroughs from this.

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00:15:52,890 --> 00:15:54,830
If you guys do that Pinterest exercise,

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00:15:54,860 --> 00:15:56,360
let me know what you find out.

420
00:15:56,390 --> 00:15:58,880
You can let me know on Instagram at hair of the

421
00:15:58,880 --> 00:15:59,840
dog academy,

422
00:15:59,900 --> 00:16:02,450
or you can let us know in our Facebook group and

423
00:16:02,450 --> 00:16:03,830
our podcast community.

424
00:16:03,830 --> 00:16:04,300
If you will,

425
00:16:04,320 --> 00:16:07,250
to go to hair of the dog academy.com/fb

426
00:16:07,250 --> 00:16:08,600
group, it'll take you there.

427
00:16:08,660 --> 00:16:11,030
But I would love to know what takeaways you guys have

428
00:16:11,060 --> 00:16:11,990
from this week.

429
00:16:12,020 --> 00:16:13,760
I'm going to keep it quick so you can go spend

430
00:16:13,760 --> 00:16:15,200
more time on Pinterest,

431
00:16:15,290 --> 00:16:16,250
happy pinning,

432
00:16:17,030 --> 00:16:18,320
enjoy that rabbit hole.

433
00:16:18,680 --> 00:16:20,690
And I will talk to you guys next week.

434
00:16:20,930 --> 00:16:21,530
Have a good one.

435
00:16:21,530 --> 00:16:25,310
Everybody. If you enjoy this podcast episode,

436
00:16:25,310 --> 00:16:28,730
go ahead and take a screenshot of this episode on your

437
00:16:28,730 --> 00:16:31,970
phone and post it up there on your Instagram stories and

438
00:16:31,970 --> 00:16:35,480
be sure to tag us at hair of the dog academy.

439
00:16:35,600 --> 00:16:39,140
And we would just love to see how you're listening and

440
00:16:39,140 --> 00:16:40,280
a full disclosure.

441
00:16:40,400 --> 00:16:43,850
Sometimes we just like to give away a little pet photographer,

442
00:16:43,850 --> 00:16:47,690
swag in the form of hair of the dog t-shirts and

443
00:16:47,690 --> 00:16:50,270
sweatshirts. So what are you waiting for?

444
00:16:50,300 --> 00:16:53,390
Go ahead and share that screenshot of this episode.

445
00:16:53,660 --> 00:16:55,520
And don't forget to tag us at Hare,

446
00:16:55,520 --> 00:16:56,330
the dog academy.

447
00:16:56,570 --> 00:16:57,590
And while you're there,

448
00:16:57,620 --> 00:16:59,900
maybe you want to jump on over to our account and

449
00:16:59,900 --> 00:17:02,870
see what we're up to on the gram would love to

450
00:17:02,870 --> 00:17:03,590
connect with you.

451
00:17:04,520 --> 00:17:06,800
Thanks for listening to the hair of the dog podcast.

452
00:17:06,800 --> 00:17:08,870
If you want to check out the show notes for access

453
00:17:08,870 --> 00:17:11,090
to any of the links that we shared in this episode,

454
00:17:11,390 --> 00:17:13,670
as well as any additional related resources,

455
00:17:13,910 --> 00:17:18,530
simply go to www.hairofthedogacademy.com/

456
00:17:18,530 --> 00:17:20,330
93. Once again,

457
00:17:20,330 --> 00:17:24,500
that's www.hairofthedogacademy.com/the

458
00:17:24,500 --> 00:17:25,940
number nine and the number three.

459
00:17:27,040 --> 00:17:30,010
Thanks for listening to this episode of hair of the dog

460
00:17:30,040 --> 00:17:32,470
podcast. If you enjoyed this show,

461
00:17:32,530 --> 00:17:34,240
please take a minute to leave a review.

462
00:17:34,450 --> 00:17:35,350
And while you're there,

463
00:17:35,440 --> 00:17:36,850
don't forget to subscribe.

464
00:17:36,880 --> 00:17:39,100
So you don't miss our upcoming episodes.

465
00:17:39,610 --> 00:17:40,360
One last thing,

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00:17:40,750 --> 00:17:43,420
if you are ready to dive into more resources,

467
00:17:43,690 --> 00:17:49,090
head over to our website@wwwdothairofthedogacademy.com.

468
00:17:49,420 --> 00:17:52,630
Thanks for being a part of this pet photography community.