Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Shelly Peterson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Shelly, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.
I think that people feel confident when they feel skilled in a particular area. Whenever, I want to gain confidence somewhere in my life, I ask myself “What would it look like to be really good at this?” and I set that vision as my ultimate goal. Then I establish smaller tasks that will lead to my larger vision. A good analogy is the skill of walking. Most of us are very confident in our ability to walk but we forget about the journey we went through to accomplish this skill set. We started as newborns observing our parents and siblings walking and thought, “I want to do that too”. So we learned to hold up our heads, how to sit up, how to crawl, and how to stand. Then finally we take our first baby steps with the help and encouragement from those who love us. It’s not perfect in the beginning and we fall a thousand times, yet with grit and lots of practice, we become fluid in our movements and eventually add flair to that walk…dancing, running, skipping. I keep this analogy in mind as I learn and grow toward a goal.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I’m a family photographer living with my family in the Pacific Northwest. My favorite thing to do as a photographer is to capture tender and authentic moments between family members. I’ve lost a lot of people in my life lately, and it reminds me how very short our time together on this planet is. Treasured moments come and go so quickly. When I’m in the moment, I always think I will remember all the details but sadly, I don’t. Then when I come across images of my family and friends, it all comes flooding back. I’m so grateful to have those images. That’s why I’ve been working really hard to help people record special moments with their family. I like to make my photo sessions more of an outdoor adventure in a beautiful location so that family members can forgot about the camera, have some playtime together, and just have fun. I like to watch people relax, forget about their ’to-do’ lists, and sink into this time they have with one another. It’s simply magical.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Taking In Information – I consider myself a life-long learner and I don’t feel like I’ll ever be finished with collecting knowledge and experiences. I think it’s really important to try a lot of different things both in and outside of your area of expertise because you never know when those varying experiences will come together to create a unique skill set. I think its also extremely important to find mentors because they can save you huge amounts of time by accelerating your learning and helping you to avoid pitfalls. I was struggling along with my business for years, trying to teach myself everything, when I finally invested in several mentorships. My work took a quantum leap forward after each one.
Creative Fluency – We can all feel stuck from time to time and I feel its because we have distanced ourselves from our childhood process of creativity. When we were children, we would constantly say…”let’s pretend….” and then the craziest stuff would come out of our brains. We didn’t limit ourselves to principles of physics or logic. Our imaginations were free. I feel like traditional education takes those skills away from us. I got back in touch with my childhood sense of play by taking improv classes. I knew I was in trouble when, on my first class, we had to put our hand in our pocket and pull out something imaginary. The first thing I “pulled out of my pocket” was a ball of lint, something that could logically have been there. My more experienced classmates, on the other hand, pulled out tennis rackets and pet elephants. The possibilities were endless. Today, I make creative fluency a daily practice by asking myself, “What if I try this?” “What would happen if I do that?”. I allow myself to daydream and frequently new ideas or solutions to problems will flood in.
People Skills – As a kid, I was a super introvert…just painfully shy. As you can imagine, being shy as a professional portrait photographer doesn’t quite work. I read an article somewhere on the topic and the writer said that clients need to feel that you know what you are doing so that they can relax in front of the camera. I took that to heart and decided to “fake it till I made it”. As I mentioned before, I had taken a lot of acting classes so I adopted a confident character. I also observed extraverted people that I admired to see how they made me feel comfortable. Eventually the nerves and butterflies I had with every session disappeared and I grew confident in my skills. I discovered that I love getting to know people and that I’m not afraid to start up a conversation with people who cross my path in daily life. It has made my life so much richer.
Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?
My parents have always been a source of love and encouragement. If I told them I wanted to accomplish something, they never told me that it was impossible. Instead they have been my biggest cheerleaders. There is so much negative messaging out there, platforms where you only see people’s best work and none of their mistakes, people who feel that they have to tear others down in order to build themselves up…it’s so important to have people in your corner to help you see through all of that murky water. People that help you stand back up after you have fallen, that give you a hug and say, “now get back out there”. I’m so grateful to have parents who have done that for me…who love and believe in me. They are my root core of strength.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.shellypetersonphotography.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shellypetersonphotography/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shellypetersonphotography
Image Credits
All images taken by Shelly Peterson Photography
