A lesson learned in WHY~ Barb Dubrawski Photography

Early this January I travelled to Mystic CT USA for a photographers conference with my very talented and very good friend Kathy DeMerchant. We’d booked this seminar instead of WPPI in Las Vegas this year, hoping for a more intimate approach to learning and networking with other photogs ( compare 300 vs 13 000, yup this was definitely more intimate). It was also my birthday: I celebrated with a glass or two, ok who am I kidding..of champagne over lunch on the 7th, and went to the next class feeling lovely

That weekend I learned a few things: Don’t let Kathy navigate to the airport, its OK to be intimidated, and to remember to bring a spare pair of undies. No not what you are thinking, but after listening to Arizona photographer Sergio BADASS Photographer ( for the life of me I can not locate his last name ), its time to to do some soul searching for the type and style of photography I want to try next. Don’t get me wrong, I ADORE participating in weddings and in the style I have developed over the years, I LOVE my brides and grooms, but I’d like I to start a few personal projects of my own and experiment with new styles and techniques. Sergio’s discussion concentrated on being true to yourself and to your own style, finding your WHY. I extrapolated this to include excelling in few select styles and  and its now time to figure out my own current WHY. Why do I love composing an image the way I do, why do I love stylizing an image the way I do, why do I love photography so-so much (this one is pretty deep I already know that )? Why do I put my true self out there for anyone to critique when I am so sensitive about my work? Why do I put my right foot into my pants first?  ….. why? Sergio’s slideshow showed a different view of a pro photographers vision on how he captures a wedding day, and his style is for a particular type of person- not everyone will love this style, but I liked that he put himself out there and found out his why early on, and be quite successful at it. One of his slides was a personal lesson learned on what to bring with you on a shoot…I’l let you guess which one that was:-)

We spent what little time we had after classes to visit the town of Mystic; we checked out Mystic Pizza, one time home of the legendary Julia Roberts, Pennywise (check the stitching on my new-to-me, barely there mini:-) and the harbour front. We were lucky in that a snowstorm hit while we were there ( lucky as in not in transit to or from the conference, flight delays are brutal!!), the area was quite picturesque.

Its that time of year when business slows down, so I will take this time to look back on 2010 and ask myself how could I have done “x” better, differently, or what I should stop doing all together. If you do have anything to share with me, constructive of course, please do so now, or forever hold your peace. So off to search for my WHY’s on this snowy day, might be something you’d like to ask yourselves too, WHY do I do “x”, do I like when I do “x”? how can I improve, change, stop doing, this particular “x”…and remember to bring a spare pair of undies!

Peace Patience and Prosperity!

Barb