Tilanie

Chairlady’s Musings: The Tale of Two Moods

9 July 2024

I am sure you’ve all seen the following meme, that says. I have two moods: 1. Constant panic and worrying about every little thing.  2. It is what it is.

Who can relate? I think as business owners we can go between those two moods a few times a day. At least I know I can. As each of us have a different work and personal situation this can be a challenging one to unpack. By nature my profession is very ad-hoc, irregular hours, feast or famine and varied. And I love it that way, but it does flame the see-saw emotions of panic versus blazè. It is trying to find that middle way for me or adjusting my thoughts to each variable that will be the secret for me.

I must admit, I used to panic a lot more, trying to change my surroundings or environments and wanting everything to be perfect for me to do a perfect photoshoot. I mean a sunset beach photoshoot would be stunning, yet the sun doesn’t set over the ocean, so yes, it is what it is, accept it, and do the best I can with sunrise pics or windy afternoon beach sessions. Call on your expertise and experience when your environment is not perfect. Then, let it go. When I am lying awake at 3am I do tend to go more panic mode, and then at some point just before leaving for my shoot or arriving at my shoot I will go, ok, it is what it is, let’s do this.

A few tips to try and help with the panic:

  1. Information – if you have all the information about your upcoming job/day/situation you can plan and prepare.

(Fail – Information received from client: I have a beautiful garden to do our photoshoot in, I arrive to find a small corner with a few succulents surrounded by a cracked boundary wall topped with electric fencing).

  1. Then plan and prepare as well as you can.

(PIVOT! Planning, read hoping that what she said was correct…hahahah. And take variety of lenses and a reflector and sense of humour.)

  1. Make sure you have all the correct equipment you need for the job with you.

(Nothing I took would make the area look better – so I had to just go, “It is what it is”, focus more on close-up images and tell them variety is good and move to different areas on the property.)

  1. Do your job the best you can, be happy, smile and make the client feel important, then your work is done! 

(Tick!)

I have now learned to not trust anybody’s interpretation of a beautiful garden (LOL – no offence to anyone with a beautiful garden), and to only hope for the best but be prepared to make changes, adjust or just accept what I am presented with.

So which mood will it be today?

Tell me about some situations you’ve been presented with and which mood kicked in and most importantly, what did you do?