Failure.

Earlier this week I took pictures for the the district officials and the office staff (from our denomination) for Christmas. This picture goes in the Christmas cards that they send out to all the ministers in our district. After I had taken the pictures and viewed them at home, I was very concerned. (the dreadful picture is below) I didn't like the pictures at all. I should have rearranged who stood where, one person had glare in her glasses (I put her face in the correct position to avoid glare originally, but somehow that didn't translate to the pictures), I should have raised the camera to a higher level when I shot the photos, and on top of all of those conflicts, the lighting was horrible. Originally I thought the lighting would be fine, but what I failed to realize was that the wall of glass windows behind me provided too much light and washed everyone out, plus two additional people could not wear their glasses because of the glare provided by all the windows. So I was pretty nervous about these pictures and I spent three days editing the photos. But despite all my efforts to salvage the pictures, when I showed them to the office, they hated them. Hated them. I don't blame them, I really understand. I do. But I'm disappointed to have done such a bad job on such important people that I know, especially since my husband and I are on staff at on of the churches within the district (they are our leaders over us), and I hold my minister credentials too. It would have been so much better if I had messed up the photos of a client that I did not have a personal relationship with. It really sucks to fail so severely in front of the people you know...and want to impress. I was really hoping to get a good reference out of the deal. I was hoping that it would help me to get my name out as a photographer and get more clients within the churches around the district, especially weddings. But I'm pretty sure that is not going to happen at this point. I'm disappointed. This isn't the first time I've failed to please a client. That would happen from time to time when I worked at the studio. It just happens. I can handle it. I've had to before. I just hate the fact that I messed up so badly on this particular sitting. Boo. But I know that I'm still a good photographer. I know I have a good eye. I know I can do a good job, and a large majority of the people that I've photographed are incredibly pleased with my work. So I'm not giving up. And I've definitely learned a lot from this particular failure. Somehow sharing my dreadful experience makes me feel better. I'm not sure why....