Saguaro Lake Trip

The first thing I think when I go anywhere these days is ‘Oh my gosh! I need to shoot here!” Well I realized that, as a result of the amazing place I live, I just need to take my camera everywhere with me.

This has been great because 1) I don’t feel like I’m missing anything 2) I truly truly LOVE photography 3) It puts me in situations I wouldn’t normally shoot in if I was doing a paid session- which I stick to safe, ideal conditions for, this has made me a WAY better photographer!

Speaking of always improving I think sometimes we don’t want to admit as professionals that we can get better. We want to stick to what we are doing because if we don’t it might mean that we weren’t professional before. This is an idea that so many hold onto. Thankfully, I threw it out long ago because I THRIVE off seeing change in my life. You should throw it out too! It’s ok to be better than you were yesterday. That doesn’t mean you were crappy back then it just means you’re even more awesome now!

Can you imagine if we had adopted this hindering mentality as children? We would never learn anything new!

Let’s learn new things and be able to admit that we can learn new things! You’d be suprized how fast you improve on things when you say outloud “I’m great but I want to be even better”.

Anyway on to this amazing place! Saguaro Lake <3 Details below:

We went with Trents youth group to Saguaro Lake. The boys went kayaking. Brighten didn’t have a life vest so I stayed on shore with her.

Apparently kayaks, or at least these ones, are made to be able to go in really shallow water so she still got to ride around a little bit on the shore line which has ankle deep! It looks so much deeper in the pictures haha so I’m telling you so you won’t be worried for her, she was fine.

Lastly, look at those amazing hills and mountain layers (*hearteye emoji*)!!

This lake is in Tonto National Forest so in order to come here you have to have a day pass. Or, like I’m constantly repping on my @hawsbeeshoney IG you can use a National Parks Pass here since it’s a National Preserve!

For my Phollowers (photographer followers):

Firstly, if you shoot or want to shoot here often then the National Parks Pass is a great investment! They’re only $80 a year. If you only used it to shoot in Tonto and didn’t visit any other National Park during the year it would pay itself off after just 10 uses. (A single day pass is $8). Just don’t forget to tell your clients to get a pass too!

Secondly here’s a little story for you: I was at a pool party a few weeks ago and there was an older gentleman taking photos. At first I thought boy he probably spent a lot of money on that camera he doesn’t know how to use. Then I stopped myself! THAT WAS A TERRIBLE THOUGHT! I shouldn’t assume he doesn’t know how to use his camera just because he chooses to shoot at a pool party for a church event for free rather than refuse to pull it out unless he’s paid! I stopped my though and struck up a conversation with him. He was literally the sweetest guy! He had so many years of knowledge and experience even if it wasn’t exactly my style or area of expertise. He offered to let me borrow any of his L-series lenses ANY.TIME. ?!?!? Humility pays off let me tell you. It was easy to tell that I knew more about the technical side of the camera and the artistic side of image creation but because I got over my self I just opened a doorway up to the access of more than $10,000 worth of equipment that I don’t own myself!

After talking to this gentleman I remembered a promise I had made to myself to not be one of those photographers who has to literally be paid to get their camera out of the bag.

So I brought it to an activity at a church that I was helping out with. I met another photographer there who proceeded to critique my lens choice and give me advice. I could have been like “Hey lady, I’m actually a Pro, ok. I know it doesn’t seem like it because I look like an over eager beginner who takes any opportunity to shoot, but I’m not. I’m like waaaay good. Probably better than you. Check out my website. I’m actually gonna write a blog about you!” Haha. Nope guys. Because I figured something like this would happen. I just said something to the effect of “Thanks for the insight, I’ve heard people have issues with that and I’m sorry you don’t like it”.

Also why should we care if people think we look like over eager beginners? Remember how much we improved so quickly when we did that?!? Also… I feel like I’m not out of that stage yet just because I did just start a little over a year ago. I don’t know where your average photographer would be at this point but I’m not your average photographer- I’m just me, and I’m not trying to compete with anybody but who I was yesterday and I encourage you to do the same. <3 XO Alyssa

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