Commercial Photography
London / Brighton UK

17 Apr 2020 1:52 pm

Deeper and deeper into lockdown – a tale of one photographer’s hell

Would you like to know what I’m doing during Covid19 lockdown?  Well, I can't go out with my cameras, and like most photographers, my clients are struggling too, so there's not much studio work either. It’s not great but I've been trying to embrace lockdown and use the time to reflect on where my business is going and how I can refresh my skills. I sat and wrote myself a new business strategy and marketing plan. That went ok...Then I went and bought some online courses to refresh my skills - that bit was easy too. Then came the need to sit down, at home, at a desk, I struggle with this at the best of times, and actually learn a few things... That's when things started to go a touch awry. Oddly, my house was suddenly suspiciously tidy and super clean. After awarding  myself the "Queen of displacement activities 2020" award, I had to have a think... Why was I finding this so difficult? I think I'm usually pretty good at learning new software, weirdly, sometimes I even enjoy it.  I tried again. I had to admit I felt overwhelmed and overloaded by the courses I was taking. It didn't help that the social media course I was taking was already out of date, it is nearly 6 months old after all, now where is that button on Insta these days? This morning I figured out why...I got a pencil and piece of paper, attacking the dilemma old skool style, and made myself a mind map. That's it, in the photo above. I’ll admit I also need to work on my drawing skills too but I am NOT adding anything else to that map. I'm trying to learn 11 pieces of software.....11 ....ELEVEN....!!!! No wonder my overloaded grey matter was having a grey squishy sulk. I can't imagine Bill Gates ever had 11 software programs to learn! It’s pure madness! I had a slap forehead moment - right in front of me was exactly why I was feeling the learning curve is too steep. I'm running up the down escalator all the time, it's just all too much. So I slapped myself smartly on the forehead, smiled, rolled my eyes and went out for my daily health walk. Right now nothing is more important than a good walk for the body and brain :) best part of my day. 

My mind map didn't help me learn all the software but it did put everything in perspective for me, allowing me to pull back, be kind to myself, give myself a mental hug as it were. I will get there, I'm  determined to break the learning curves of most of the “hot 11”, it's just that I need to take it all slower, much slower and pace myself better.

So there you go, there's a little insight to my day when I'm not attached to a camera. I'm sure a lotof people think I spend all day taking pretty pictures (I wish) but I have to invest a lot of time into learning photography software (note that Photoshop isn't even on my map,) shooting software ( I shoot straight into one of my computers), asset management software - love love love Adobe Lightroom :)  WordPress is on there too as I'm about to launch a new project (teaser alert - very excited about this but it's too early to tell anyone) and more recently video software and all the programs and apps that  come with being your own in house marketing manager: "Is social media marketing a dance with the devil?" - In my head I can hear my English teacher demanding a 1000 word essay, to be on his desk by next Monday.