Hey SG! 🖤

Last month SG encouraged us models to produce our own sets and submit a self shot photoset. I was really sad before this, because when I finally bought my DSLR camera and lens, quarantine started here in Brazil.

Quarantine is always being extended here and it’s been already 3 months at home. I felt it like throwing cold water on my photography plans. The photography course that I was planning to do was canceled due to pandemic and I was so demotivated. So I decided to start learning photography all by myself, through books I bought. I’m not good on concentrating in YouTube videos.

I was training with my puppy as a model - Thanks Nix 🖤 Here is a photo I took from her to test what I read on the books:

At this point, I didn’t had a PC/notebook at home. I was shooting with the camera and sending the pics in low quality to my cellphone and editing them on Lightroom mobile.

And then, SG announced the Self Shot Contest, and from the first time I decided to point the camera to myself and try a self portrait.

This was my first self portrait, and this day I thought I’d produce my self shot. But then, the battery of my camera was low and I didn’t paid attention to this (beginner things), and all I could do were 3 pics 🤣

I laughed about it with my friends telling this frustrating story but I didn’t gave up, and decided to try it again, this time shooting on my bathroom:

But...my bathroom was too small and I couldn’t have enough pics from a set. I was happy to see me producing detail pics like this one:

But I was noticing myself so insecure about what I was producing, in a technical way. I wanted to take a photo and have the certain that I was mastering the thing. I wanted to always improve.

So I sent a message to the Photography Teacher that I’d be my teacher on the presencial classes of that course that was canceled because of quarantine and said “Hey, how about online private classes?”. He said yes and I FINALLY was able to receive formal teachings 🤘🏻

It is not like being with a teacher in person, by your side, having models available for me to shoot, but...I was learning a lot more and was getting more confident!

Self Shot Contest had a deadline - I had to submit my set until the end of May - and of course I wouldn’t have time to take many classes so I had to shoot with all the things I already knew.

I am too hard on myself, and I had to let this go and accept my limitations if I wanted to join the contest. And guess what? 1 month and 20 days after taking my first pic with my DSLR camera I was there, producing a whole photoset all by myself.

And here it is! I was planning to study in order to start shooting the girls with a good quality, but what I couldn’t ever imagine that my first set submitted as a photographer would be my own set 🤣🤘🏻🖤

I’m so grateful to SG, because I wouldn’t even consider it without the Contest opportunity. I learned A LOT, in such a small time. Not only about photography. But about being confident, don’t pushing myself too hard and celebrate my little victories during these hard times.

I’m so grateful to all my friends that were always motivating me, and saying that I’d be capable of doing this set!

My self shot wasn’t selected to the contest, but it will still come into Member Review in 3 months, 1 week.

I’m sooooo damn happy, that not so soon, our community will be introduced to my work behind the cameras 🤘🏻

This was a big blogpost, but thanks for reading and for always being lovely with me.

Xo,

Infernum.

@missy @rambo @eirenne @lemon