It has been a long time (months) since I have scheduled a photo shoot. I feel like I have been really creative lately and have written down a lot of great ideas but I just can’t seem to pull the trigger. It bothered me, why wasn’t I going and shooting these great concepts I was coming up with? One reason, FEAR!

 

I’m Afraid to Schedule a Photo Shoot

As my shoot concepts get larger and more complex, fear starts creeping in. I am constantly afraid that I am going to spend all this time planning a shoot and that I’m not going to be able to pull it off. This fear of failure is pervasive and happens at every shoot. After all of the planning and sometime weeks of preparation, the fear that I will come away with nothing useful from the shoot paralyzes me and causes me to put off the shoot.
 
There is a valid reason for this fear of failure. I have failed before. I have had several shoots were I got a shoot, but am unhappy with the result. The ones that come to mind are the Mermaid playing chess, and the girl dining in the river.
 
 
 Mermaid Chess
 
Dinner in the River 
 
The concept was great but the I failed the execution. I do use these as learning experiences, but the fear of creating yet another “learning experience” often prevents me from working on my next big shoot idea.
 
I stupidly tell myself you can’t fail if you don’t try. But not trying is just another type of failure.
 

My Solution

 
I don’t have one. Just plow through it. It helps to realize that a lot of my paralysis is caused by fear of failure. I just have to do my best, plan as best as I can, and then go do it. I might fail, or I might come back with the best photograph I have ever taken! I won’t know sitting here at my computer.
 
So I’ve just scheduled 2 large concept shoots over the next 3 weeks. I still have a lot of planning to do and recruiting of assistants and models, but they are on the calender and going to happen. I’m not going to fail from lack of trying.
 

How Do You Overcome Your Fear of Failure?

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