to change a name

When I first started up my photography business approximately six years ago, I thought and thought about the name I would use.

LifeArtPhotos came to my mind because that's what photography is to me.  It is life in the form of art.  So what better name for me to use.  However, as time went by I was not happy with it.  It just didn't seem to resonate with my personality.  It seemed a little too stuffy and studioish.

I also didn't feel that it was something people could find easily should they be looking for a photographer or should they want to remember the name.  So I made a quick change to Suzie Bauman Photography.  Very original, I know :-)  I figured that there would be no question as to who the photographer was of this one-woman show.  I have had a name in mind for a while that I really wanted to use but was just not brave enough to use it.

I don't know why I was afraid.  I guess I've been afraid of a lot of things with this business.  Things like:  am I good enough, is my style too boring for people who want the latest fad editing, does my personality fit this business, will clients find me overbearing, etc.?

Well, I have finally figured out who I am in this photography-saturated world.  I am not afraid to be me or to un-edit my photos.  I am not afraid of raw, emotional, reality photography.  This is my theory; if I have to do a ton of editing and tweaking to my images before presenting them to the client, then I am not a very good photographer.  Photography is simply an extension of the photographer's personality and no amount of doctoring up the images will change that.

I tried photo challenges to be like all of the other popular photographers out there.  I didn't enjoy it and it wasn't me.  I tried to change my style to match what everyone else was doing because that is what the majority of the masses seemed to want.  I was beginning to lose my joy.  It was becoming a thorn rather than a beautiful flower.  I needed to come back to why I started in the first place.

As quoted by a great, well-known street photographer, Henri-Cartier Bresson, "It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera...they are made with the eye, heart and head."

I will never be well-known like Mr. Bresson, well-traveled or well-paid as a photographer.  I only want to be known as a photographer who loved ever moment of her work and who tried to share her clients' stories through her camera lens.

Putting all fears and potential judgments aside, I now choose to be ME in my photography.  I choose to share my love of photography and I choose to change my business name to suzie jane.  It's short, it's catchy and it's my name.