My first priority is a shout out to one of my former student athletes and fellow bloggers, Jessica.  Jessica ran track for me and was one of my better athletes back when she competed.  She  read my Candy Gram blog and posted a reply.  Her post condensed everything I am trying to write about down into one unique word: authenticity.  I know that when I am writing this blog, trying to come up with topics, sometimes writing multiple paragraphs only to hit the “move to trash” button, I am searching for a certain quality, a certain standard to my writing.  I have written about the frustration I have with blogging, especially trying to do it on a daily basis, but I have had a difficult time trying to express the final result I am looking for.  I couldn’t find the right word to describe it.  Oh, the word was there, but it was always circling around the outside of my consciousnesses  like a fish circling the bait.  You know it is there, but it is under the water, bumping into the bait so the bobber moves, but just not giving the bite you need to set the hook.  Jessica’s post brought the word to the surface.  Authenticity.  I can’t write about it if it isn’t authentic.

I started putting together my blog and website because it was a class assignment.  This was my introduction of me to potential customers.  I got stuck when it came to doing the “about me” page.  I looked at other people’s blogs to see how they had written their “about pages” to see if that would give me some ideas or inspiration.  That didn’t work out very well.  I haven’t loved taking pictures since I was a little kid, I don’t have any really cute and clever anecdotes about my life I am willing to share,  I am not romantic by nature, and those few times I have been, I really don’t believe are anyone else’s business.    My favorite food is edible.  I hate yard work.  I no longer do what fueled and motivated me most of my waking hours for the last 31 years.  I have always been reluctant to “toot my own horn” about the many things I have achieved.   I will be the first person to tell you that passion is most critical to a person’s success, but the word is used by so many people to describe their feelings towards their photography that I have a hard time using the word myself when I talk about my work.

Nevertheless, I put together the required statement.  After a week or so, I went back and read my page.  It was like reading a bad used car salesman’s manifesto.  Double yuck.  I revised them immediately, trying to simplify what I had written with the idea I would go back and revise them again at a later date when I had more of a handle on where I was in the pursuit of my new career.  I couldn’t tell you what I wrote, because I have not had any desire to revisit writing that I am pretty sure is boring and trite.

It’s all about authenticity.

Trying to write an introduction to myself with my information plugged into someone else’s template is just not being very authentic.  And that is why the results were so lame.

As I said in yesterday’s post that I am revising and re-tweaking my business model and my brand.  It is time to solidify and even upgrade what Poole Photography is all about.  Time to open up the old “about page”, get the initial cringing over, and come up with a better page.

I do have a question, should I put down that I have two cats?  Does that mean dog lovers and cat haters won’t consider hiring me to photograph their wedding?  Hey, I worry about things like that, OK?

Thanks again, Jessica, for reminding me about authenticity.  Best of luck and God’s blessings on you as you embark on a new journey of your own.