Surfaces and Strategies-Workshops? This is getting scary

I keep telling myself I am embracing the course. Do as I am requested, and let go.

I never do workshops. There is huge competition in my area, and my only unique factor is my child portraiture. Do I really want to give away my secrets? So I thought long and hard about this one. In the end, I didn't think a refusal to get involved would go down very well so I set to designing a leaflet which I added to my facebook page. I decided I would aim at the beginner so that they would not impact my business. That said when I reflected, i do believe that it doesn't matter how good your camera skills are, you need to have creativity and imagination to do what I enjoy doing.

So I came across a small book Show your work! Austin Kleon and in it he talks about Aaron Franklin who became famous by teaching people how to BBQ and he says that Teaching doesn't mean instant competition. Just because you know the masters technique doesn't mean you are going to emulate it right away. Everyone starts out as a beginner and like the Franklins they feel an obligation to pass on knowledge by sharing recipes and techniques. The small little book actually showed me that teaching people doesnt subtract from what yu do, it actually adds to it. So one of my biggest things I feel I need to learn to do is take critique, that way I wont be as worried about what people think or do. I will be confident enough in my own work to want to share it.

So after going to all the trouble of working this through, planning dates, what I was going to teach and how. No one was interested. A few questions but no bookers. On reflection I see that it was all probably because of my fear of teaching. So I didn't actually promote the training day.

What I have found on the course is that we have so little time to actually make these things happen that it isnt so much about the act but learning how to act. I now know what I need to do next time to have some takers for a paid session. But then I felt I may even do some free beginner sessions, but that then brings up the subject of am I turning away business as most people have an iphone now and I am being asked less and less for child portraits. Which is why I got more into art and photoshop as it developed a style that was unique to me.

KLEON, A. (2014). Show your work!: 10 ways to share your creativity and get discovered.