In the Middle

When you're a photo student, workshops are the best way to meet people. To show your work. To get feedback. To get a job. And most students tend to put a lot of pressure on themselves to perform. I know I did.

It's nice to be in a different phase of my life now.

One of my friends said it best this weekend. She said: When I was younger, I was always so jealous of all those people having fun at workshops. Who were they? How could I do that? I always hated having to kiss ass, I wasn't good at it. I never really wanted to be a speaker or a judge or anything. I just wanted to be in the middle, having fun.

And, that's exactly what we did this weekend in Atlanta.

There was such a good group of people present. And the cool thing is that we're all at about the same point in our lives and careers. We have similar goals and equal amounts of drive and passion. We were still talking about work and showing work, but the difference is that nobody was looking for work, or to be discovered or to impress people.

So instead, there we were in the middle.

We'd sit in on the judging and listen to some speakers in search of inspiration and then we'd have these amazing conversations over beer and photography. Because the pressure was off, it became fun again.