Honor Your Profession, Honor Yourself

The article I have written for this issue of One View touches the heart of every photographer working today. Honor Your Profession, Honor Yourself is a new article that addresses the negativity that seems to pervade our industry and asks each of us to accept the responsibility for turning this energy around.

As usual my commitment as a teacher is to inform, and I do so hope that this essay is of help to you and to our industry.

Please feel free to forward or send it to anyone you feel might benefit from reading it...

If the information in Honor our Profession, Honor Yourself resonates with you, you will love my new book...

How To Succeed in Commercial Photography

My new book is here!!!

How To Succeed In Commercial Photography : Insights From a Leading Consultant has been out for barely four weeks an I am receiving email daily from readers thanking me for "sharing ideas, concepts and truths that have never been addressed in a photography business book before."

My heart is full as this book truly combines practical and spiritual information for photographers and offers you a new way of looking at your world. One reader wrote... "Thank you so much Selina, Your new book is nothing short of transformational and I am only on the fifth essay."

To check it out and order your copy today click here.

"I Know This Much is True"

...is the title of my new lecture program that is premiering on the west coast in September 2007.

My new presentation is information packed, informal presentation. Come join me in San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara and L.A. as I share the value importance of the concepts: vision, value, team, tools, persistance and faith. All successful photographers employ these concepts daily, as they know that the absence of them can be disastrous in today's hugely changing market. In most cities a special guest will join me during the second part of the program, and together my guest and I will answer any and all of the questions attendees have about the world of photography and their place in it.

Check out the PA site for current lectures dates and if your area is not yet on our calendar and you would like to attend this important program contact your ASMP or APA chapter and send them to the Port Authority site as I am now booking lectures into Winter 2007 and the Spring of 2008.

New Selina Maitreya Site

A new window has been opened. In addition to the photo consulting and coaching services I have offered photographers for years I have now officially posted my shingle as a spiritual teacher. My new site selinamaitreya.com details the beliefs I hold and the work that I do. I must admit that I was a bit shy a few years back about introducing this work to my clients and was gratified when a long-time photography client said, "What's so different about what you are doing, you have always been my guide."

Well there are new and different offerings and yes I am (as I have been for the past 30 years) a guide in the world of photography and now a teacher for those interested in the World of spiritual development.

Have a wonderful Fall... the apples orchards here are almost ready to welcome visitors! As always I'd love to hear from you. Let me know your thoughts on the idea of honoring your competition and honoring yourself.

In Grace
With Gratitude,

Honor Your Profession, Honor Yourself
© 2007 Selina Maitreya

Our industry is in a slump, and I am not referring to the assignment market shrinking or to the lower fees being paid. I am referring to the ongoing negative attitudes and actions that many photographers exhibit daily regarding their potential clients, each other, and our industry.

Now is the time to stop ALL of the pessimistic behavior, the low-balling, and the seemingly constant complaining that permeates on- line list serves, blogs, and daily conversations. This negativity is a poison that continues to fester and infuse our industry and your life with misery.

We as individuals can indeed take leadership and turn our attitudes around. If we choose not to do so, it will be us, not our clients, or royalty free images, or the Getty's of the world who will be responsible for the demise of our industry.

Strong language? Most definitely.

However, it is my belief that clarity and direct teaching is needed now more than ever as many photographers are losing ground and as they loose their footing, so do we all.

Clearly not everyone invests in darkness.

There are lots of photographers who are working hard to be the light. Tons of suggestions are freely given on online forums, lots of one on one mentoring exists and educational support is available through APA and ASMP and PPofA.

I know from vast experience (just about 30 years) that our community is chock full of wonderful people, many of whom these days, are struggling in the fight to stay positive.

As I lecture around the country and receive emails daily from photographers, many communicate that they feel the darkness that currently surrounds our community is due to the changes the industry as a whole has experienced in the least 5-7 years.

Changes cited include: a shrinking assignment market, editorial publications going stock or worse going bust, stock mega giants gobbling up independent operations, an overly abundant supply of royalty free images, photographers under bidding assignments, and "clients who know next to nothing about buying assignment photography" and want to "pay less for lots more."

These developments have left many photographers wondering "What planet have I landed on and how did I get here?

How Do You Define the Word Competition?

If you find yourself relating to these words please remember that while we cannot immediately change our surroundings or the environment we inhabit, we do get to choose how we respond to these changes. Our responses over time indeed change everything around us. How can they not?

While changing an entire industry's perspective from a negative slide to positive direction is not your job, (and may be indeed be an impossible task for any one person) there are simple steps you can take to feed the positive vibes, and to change the course of the current negative energy trend. In doing so you will also be changing your world for the better.

Begin with a simple exercise. How do you define the word competition?

Interestingly enough the dictionary on my Mac had two very different definitions for this word:

• The struggle between organisms of the same or different species for limited resources such as food or light
• An activity in which people try to do something better than others

Which of these definitions resonates with you?

Do you see yourself scrambling for work against "all of these photographers fresh out of school who know nothing"?

Or do you hear yourself saying, "I'll never get work because the old school guys are underbidding me?" or maybe you have said: "Why do I keep giving clients bids, I never get the work?"

This type of thinking smacks of the first definition for competition. You are choosing to see this as a struggle, fighting for limited resources. You give your power away to circumstances and to others. You opt with this mindset to see yourself as pitted against the world.

In choosing this way of being, you undervalue yourself. You ultimately feel lousy about you and that fact is reflected in your words, your deeds and in your actions. Unless you correct your thinking, you will over time become based in a depressing frame of mind and let's face it, no one wants to be around gloomy people.

The interesting fact is that if this happens, you will most likely blame other people for a mindset that you yourself have created and that you and only you can correct.

In the world of spirit we often say: "Its all about me" meaning that I alone am responsible for my thoughts, my actions and my life. The good news is that you get the chance every moment of every day to change your world.

Choose to accept the responsibility for your thoughts, your feelings and your actions. Stop seeing yourself as a "struggling organism fighting for food." Pull back the power you have given to others, now.

Begin by seeing the word "competition" as defined in the second definition.

"Activities where people try to do something better."

While this meaning may speak to a competition as an event rather than a noun (your competition) there is much we can learn here when we simply sit with this meaning.

If being in competition is "doing something better than" make this statement about you being the best you can be. For after all the one person you are always competing against is yourself. We do not get to be the best by painting others as the worst.

I remember seeing Michael Jordan interviewed many years ago, and the announcer asked him who his toughest competition was on the court. I'll never forget his answer. He said: "I am my toughest competition."

That is how champions think. They know that the only performance that they need to worry about is their own.

How can you be the best? Begin by articulating for yourself what it is that you truly offer that is outstanding. Is it your vision? Is it your service? Is it your positive attitude? Your 'can do' spirit? Or are you a combination of all of these outstanding qualities?

What is it that you feel you could improve upon? Make note without judgment and get to work on changing these qualities.

Your Value Message

The step of honestly examining your value as a photographer as a supplier, is an important one.

For as you focus on your value and putting that forth, you begin to honor yourself. Its not about what "other photographers do that's wrong". Its about what you do that is so very right.

There is also a side bonus here. As you focus on your value and begin to market your worth clients will begin to get it. For in a world of fewer assignments what clients look for is clear and present value. If it's there, they see it. If it's not, they move on. You focusing on your value will not only help you to retain your power it becomes a sales tool.

Being in your power honors you, and it also honors your clients (with the best that you can be) and our industry.

For after all, providing the best talent and service that you can, raises the bar for us all.

Referring Other Photographers

Referring other photographers for jobs when you are busy or passing on assignments that are not up your alley is another way of creating goodwill. But you must always refer the best talent available.

Recently, I was talking with a photographer who told me that when he is busy he always refers the worst photographer he knows. His idea was that the client would never be happy with the service his recommended photographer was offering and the client would come back to him. It was (he thought) his insurance against losing a client to a referral. I was aghast. I expressed to him how this act was not one that would be of benefit anyone. If the photographer he referred was not very good, the client would not be happy, and if that was the case I could not imagine the client calling the photographer again as all trust the client might have had in the shooter would be lost.

The photographer was puzzled when I told him that I would recommend the best photographer I knew for the job.

That would be a win for all I explained. The client would be happy, the new photographer would be happy and the photographer who passed on the assignment? He would be happy knowing that he had so much work that he had to refer an assignment to another. He would find happiness in the knowledge that he had serviced his client as best as possible by referring him to another talented shooter. He would experience satisfaction in knowing that he had taken a positive action that expressed how he values himself, his client and our industry.

For those of you who are saying "Great Selina, that's easy for you to say, you don't work in a competitive industry."

I would respond that my industry is filled with consultants.

I was one of two consultants for many years.

Now there are over 30. Here's how I choose to honor my clients, my competition and myself.

I choose never to be booked so fully that I can't give my clients my top attention. For this reason, when I get close to my max and new clients request my services, I refer them to other consultants. These are experts who I have checked out, who are fully committed to servicing our industry and come highly recommended by photographers I know well.

In referring new prospects to other top consultants I believe I am providing the best service possible, even when I choose not to service a new account.

Clearly we are living though a time of great change. Our world shifts at the speed of light or so it seems. We need to stay out of fear and we need to have a way of being that speaks to who we are in our higher states.

Simply put. We need to have thoughts, actions and deeds that honor ourselves, our competitors and our world.

Take some time today to see what you might change in order to be a part of the solution. What is it that you can do to honor all of us as we honor you?

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One View - September 2007, Issue 11

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