Merrilyn Romen Design and Nico Moon Photography » Merrilyn Romen l Modern Newborn, Child, Family, Senior Photographer

When I was raising my children, I asked myself the question most artists inevitably ask themselves: am I really an artist or am I just a pretender, just another imitator with no real voice of my own. It disturbed me so much that I quit designing altogether (I had been a graphic designer for the previous 8 years). I immersed myself in my children, sewing them dresses, quilts, decorating their rooms, designing my new backyard into a proper English garden and sketching out concepts for picture frames that I could use for the many photographs I took of them and finally designing dinnerware and teasets for them to play with. You see where I’m going with them. Being an artist isn’t something you choose to become, you one day realize that you just art….. often for worse than better. Artists are rarely rich. In fact, the average photographer in the U.S. makes $20,000/year! Lord knows what the average painter or illustrator makes. But once you realize that you have the ability to turn something mundane into something beautiful, it’s like a drug and it is definitely addictiv

I had thought of going to medical school after college, but my degree in filmmaking didn’t lend itself to immediate admission so I would have had to taken more science and math pre-requisites in order to apply and, well, my parents had had enough of supporting my somewhat bohemian lifestyle so I passed. I often wonder if I would have lasted in medical school or even in being a doctor. Would I have sewn my own uniforms to keep from going crazy?

And speaking of crazy, I was going to apply to become a psychotherapist when I was going through my identity crisis after my children were born. But, truthfully, the only thing that keeps me from going crazy is doing what comes naturally to me…..creating. I am a bit cranky and frustrating when I’m not able to create something.  It might be as simple as making an apple pie or sewing curtains for my room (note to self: get on it!), but the act of creation – for me – is not optional.

And so, when I heard that one of my favorite photographers, Natalie Dybisz aka Miss Aniela, was coming to town from London to teach a seminar with my other favorite photographer – the self-taught incredibly prolific Brooke Shaden, I grabbed my credit card and signed up for a day of complete immersion in my natural life force of creative photography.  And what a wonderful day it was. We posed, we conferred, we shared ideas and we went for sushi at the end of the day. And I found Natalie to be entirely wise beyond her years and profoundly intuitive. (Brooke and she have been collaborating on images during Natalie’s stay in America and they both showed their work at LAPhoto in  Santa Monica this week. Even Brad Pitt was seen looking at their work!)

So here are the images I created that marvelous day with my two fave 20 something mentors. I feel another image coming upon me as a toy store asked me to post something in their store.  The mind boggles!

Went to see Justin and Mary Marantz’ Spread the Love seminar yesterday in the pouring rain.
Can’t think of anyplace I would rather have been. Mary is so interesting to listen to! She poses questions and then answers them, always knowing what we’re thinking! They both challenged us to think about things that feed our soul, the types of clients we work best with, the choices we make with our time, and how to value ourselves, our time and our money. If you can, sign up here. You won’t be sorry! It’s for anyone in the service business….not just photographers.

I have been struggling with time management lately. Making too many plans, not spending enough time on my new website and feeling frustrated by my lack of momentum. I’m trying to stick to a schedule, but so many things come up that throw me off track!
I’m going to find some books that help me with this and “try to find time” to fit them in my already nutty schedule.

One of them I want to read is Twyla Tharp’s book called “The Creative Habit – Learn it and Use it For Life”.

She lists 5 types of failures, explaining why they are necessary to experience and to ultimately overcome. Here is just a small excerpt on the type of failure that I can relate to most…

“The worst is failure of nerve. You have everything going for you except the guts to support your idea and explore the concept fully. The corrosive thought that you will look foolish holds you back from telling the truth. I wish I had a cure for this. All I have is the certainty of experience that looking foolish is good for you. It nourishes the spirit. You appreciate this more and more over the years as the need to not look foolish fades with youth.” Twyla Tharp

I’ve been privileged to take a few classes from Creative Techs online last semester and I’m amazed at the depth of content they give away free. In order to receive the content without charge you must be able to sign on at the times they are presenting it – usually during the daytime. Alternately you can buy an all-access pass for only $50/month which allows you to download ALL of the current offerings this year! Right now they are having a sale on their Lightroom class for only $37.50. This was the class I took last year and I am now an expert in Lightroom!

I’m signed up to take their photographic Lighting course which starts on Wednesday. They also have Photoshop for Photographers and InDesign (to learn how to make your own books and marketing pieces). I can’t recommend Creative Techs enough. Sign up today for your free classes!

Here is a link to an excellent Cost of Doing Business Calculator I found in one of my forums recently.

Soon I’ll do a post of the forums I belong to….they’ve proven an invaluable source of information to me and some are free!

Be honest with yourself and figure out if you can afford to start a new business. It takes more than talent and determination…as you’ll see. I would say that a good photography studio is 10% talent and 90% smart business structure and planning.

What do you think?

I’ve been spending the last couple of weeks listening to tapes, reading blogs, and basically getting my hands on anything I can find that has to do with marketing photography. The most helpful thing so far has been the Joy of Marketing’s Tele-Summit which was broadcast without charge all day on December 28th. I pre-purchased the downloads along with a pdf transcript of all of it and I’ve been immersed in them ever since.

Sarah Petty, the founder of The Joy of Marketing also has an online forum/club for photographers with a focus on marketing their photography. It’s only $35/month (I believe until midnight tonight when the charge goes up to $199 starting fee plus $35/month). I hesitated for a long time because, right now, increasing my outlay of cash every month when I’m just starting is very scary to me. But I truly believe that the only photographers (make them small businesses) that truly succeed have a solid marketing plan for their upcoming year and don’t re-act, but pro-actively plan for down times and stretching their budgets.

I highly recommend you check out the recordings of the Telesummit here and learn along with me as we embark on this new year. $35/month is a small price to pay if it makes you thousands a month. Don’t you agree?

I would hurry as I don’t know how long this telesummit’s tapings and complimentary products will be available, but Cafe Joy is available at any time.

See you there!

Merrilyn

Last month I discovered Me Ra Koh, an incredible wedding photographer with an extremely interesting blog. There was a contest on her site called SOAR! and it offered 3 very fortunate women the opportunity to be mentored by several key people in the photography and coaching fields. The winners would also receive SONY’s newest photography equipment and Adobe software, etc. to work with.

Me Ra Koh was to appear at a shopping mall about 2 hours away from me at the SONY store so I hobbled into my car (after foot surgery — on crutches) and headed down to the store just to meet her. I was not at all disappointed She is as beautiful a woman as I could imagine and has the sweetest spirit! She was there with her co-photographer, Brian (who is also her husband). She taught a basic workshop mostly geared towards amateur photographers, but just meeting her was worth the drive (and pain) of the long visit.

Inspired, I made my own video entry. You can see it here! I’m #145 and tomorrow (the 1st of January) I’ll find out who won this incredible prize. I feel as if I might already have won in that I’ve found a group of women all much like me who want to make photography their career as badly as I do. There is a lovely group of women who entered and I would like nothing more than to help them— as much as I can.
Each video (yes, I went through all 260 of them!) is heartfelt and touching. I don’t envy Brian and Mera for having to select only 3.

I don’t know everything there is to know about starting a new photography career.. that’s for sure! But I’m willing to share as I go along. So I’m going to dedicate this blog to them! I want them to have something to go by… even if it’s watching me fly by the seat of my pants (so to speak!).

So stay tuned and I’ll take you with me on my journey towards starting my new photography business (or should I say re-starting)…..

Much love,
Merrilyn