All Together Now! - The Power Of Creative Community
It's no secret that the last year has been tough on creative and hospitality industries. We have suffered greatly!
Up until October last year I actually had a role as a Global Learning and Development lead in a leisure photography company. I had worked with them for 13 years (since leaving school!). And at the same time as redundancy from the role within the leisure industry, Booths took a huge blow with lockdowns meaning we could not photograph anyone! Double-whammy of 'how are we going to survive financially!?!?!?!'
And to be honest, we've still not quite figured that one out, but as the bank balance dips, something else has started to grow...community.
We have been finding creatives from all over the World in the same position. I had the pleasure of connecting with some incredible photographers Globally joining a 5-day photography challenge run by Heather Chesky (www.heathercheskyphotography.com). And in just five days began to feel part of something much bigger and was able to drag myself out of self-doubt and fear and back on the motivation train! What an accomplishment for just five days of talking to other people and connecting online!
Community is a powerful thing, and as Heather said "Transformation happens in community."
Communities have so many benefits, they can help us to:
Find confidence
Feel less lonely
Grow personally and professionally
Support us mentally through challenges
We are expanding our community reach beyond photographers, into wedding and hospitality sectors, reaching out to new vendors for some collaboration shoots from next month. Okay, it might not pay the bills just yet, but what we gain is a network of professionals and friends, united in our challenges and re-growth.
We have already visited an incredible venue for our first wedding shoot (with a pretty famous next door neighbour might we add!!)
I wont disclose more than that just yet, but hope to update you with our progress on these collaboration shoots soon. But if you are in the same boat as us, and are about to embark on styled shoots, here's some blogs we've found really useful to guide our planning:
https://cocoweddingvenues.co.uk/our-members-community/the-ultimate-guide-to-styled-shoots/
https://photographyfarm.co.uk/my-guide-to-styled-shoots/
https://amandawosephotography.com/2020/06/30/a-styled-shoot-survival-guide-for-photographers/
Speak soon!
Rachel
Cover photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash