Jake Garn Workshop

So lately...I guess it's a consequence of my greatest dream being smashed into a billion pieces, but I've just been feeling kind of like, "...photography...meh..." or in other words, just kind of burnt out of it all. Very uninspired.

  Well a few weeks ago I found out that I'd won a free workshop with Jake Garn, a great photographer here in Utah. 

The workshop was tonight and, to be honest, I debated going all day today. I don't know why. And then on the way there I thought my car was going to break down and I started talking myself out of it again. 

Holy cow, I am SO SO glad I went! SO GLAD! 

I learned so much, but these are the things that have me excited about photography again!

1. When the class started, Jake talked about having made the decision to quit photography a few months back. His reasons are much different than mine, but I realized that even the big shots get turned away from something they love sometimes. 

2. Only about 1/3 of the people who tried to get in to the class actually got in. We were told this was a random selection but Jake told us tonight that wasn't quite true. Apparently, when he sent out the email telling us that he was going to randomly select who got into the class, there was a link on the bottom of the page, which he was able to track. The ones who got in the class were the ones who clicked on that link, "the curious ones" he called us. He said that proved to him that we were curious, hungry to know more. At first I didn't remember clicking on this link, but then I remembered how desperate I was to get into the class when I got that email and how I wanted to know any bit of information that might get me in. Apparently it worked because that's how I spent my evening :) I guess it just reaffirmed to me my desire to learn more. 

3. This one is my favorite :) In the class he talked, among many other things, what to do to gain inspiration. The steps were 1. learn the basics, 2. find a niche, 3. find a muse, and 4. gain an audience.

YOU GUYS!! THIS IS WHAT I NEED TO DO! I won't pretend even for a second that I've mastered the basics, but the basics are done giving me inspiration. I'm done with that. It's time for me to find my niche, the thing to take pictures of that inspires me to take more and more pictures. It could be portraits, street, documentary, lifestyle, landscape...

I don't know, but I'm excited to find out :)