My mom still reads my blogs (god bless you momma!), so I have to try and stay away from swearing. But you can gather from the title, I’m a bit up in arms. A recent incident with another photographer has made me question: Why are we being A**holes to each other?!

We’re all in this boat together.

So why are there still people who want to tear others in our industry down?

Why Are We Being A**Holes to Each Other?!

I’ve been working as a professional photographer since 2008, and I started my business in 2009. When I came into this industry, it was still largely male dominated, and an open community was unheard of.

In the last few years, we’ve seen the advent of The Rising Tide Society (who prompts #CommunityOverCompetition) and the Shoot and Share group, and many such similar ones. These groups allow open dialogue between creatives, sharing of ideas, and is a place where people can ask questions.

It’s a wonderful resource, and I am so happy to see this in our industry!

Fast forward to today….

Recently, I had an experience where I reached out to another (local) photographer.

This photographer did a session at a location my client was interested in.

I wasn’t familiar with that location, so I reached out to the photographer (who is a friend) and asked where it was.

The photographer responded back that they couldn’t share the location because they were “sworn to secrecy.”

…..

I’ll just give you a minute to let that sink in.

Keep in mind that this was a public park, it can easily be found by anyone looking for it. So It’s not like it really is some great big secret….

I’ll be honest, I was floored that there are (still) people who feel like they need to be this way.

The way I operate, I’m an open book.

If I have someone ask me a camera setting or location for where I shoot, I’m usually pretty open to sharing because – surprise – it’s probably not a big secret anyway.

And the irony is that the next day, I saw a photographer ask about the same location and someone else answered right away with where it was. THAT is the type of community I want to be a part of.

My whole point in sharing this blog is not to poo poo another photographer. (not in the least)

But I do just want to bring something up that affects us all.

The Hampton Roads photography community is actually pretty small, so word gets around.

Let’s all vow to try something new in the coming year: let’s be nice to each other!

Seriously! What’s the worst that can happen if we all practice kindness and compassion to one another?

And just in case you were wondering, here’s one of the adorable photos we got from that session! 

What has your experience been? Drop a comment below and let us know, we’d love to see what you are up to and offer you some encouragement! We offer one on one mentoring, and put together free events for photographers. You can always { Contact Us } for anything you need – even if it’s just a friendly face to say you’re on the right track!