Speaking at this years Elevate Conference was such a huge achievement as a photographer. Being amongst professionals such as Latxina, Bring Me Somewhere Nice and Lily Red as well as sharing a stage with them, was the next level in terms of my career goals. I’m still processing the two days I spent with all the speakers.
Mick and Ash from Miki Photography, the hosts of the event, have done an incredible job of building Elevate in just three years. This year they completely sold out, which made speaking all the difficult to a room of well lit faces.
However it’s not just the speakers which inspired me and I know I can say ‘us’ as photographers. Meeting such a huge mix of photographers at the event, ones I speak to on social media all the time and haven’t yet met, has to be my favourite part. Photography can be such a lonely job and it often leaves us with our only communication to the outside world online. It’s important as humans that we have these corporeal interactions with our peers, it’s one of the reasons I started my education business, Miles of Grain.
Being inspired at Elevate has given me the opportunity to reflect on my work, not only after listening to all the speakers but also after reviewing my own talk and the visuals I used to showcase my work. I’ve been caught up on what instagram wants me to show, on likes and what visually looks good on my own grid. I of course want to curate my section process, one point Dani Rodriguez mentioned, however I’ve got myself caught up in my own algorithm of what to post next and lost my reason, why I do this.
So right now I’m remembering all the incredible work I’m immensely proud of, the pieces that feed my soul, which encapsulate why I became a photographer…and I’m planning a fresh new look to my brand. And that’s all because of Elevate.
I loved speaking publicly…I haven’t done it for quite some time…the nerves do get the better of you. However I’ve got the bug and I want to do it again soon! In fact I spoke on a podcast yesterday with Tom Wright…that was fun and we pretty much spoke about everything I didn’t have time to say at Elevate. I’ll be sending out dates for the release of this soon…it’s a little controversial. It would be boring otherwise!
Tom has been a huge source of knowledge during the process where I changed from Pentax to the Canon system (sorry Sony). When changing my colours back in 2022, he assisted me in creating the colours I have today and the fact that yellow has been a huge part of my branding. I encourage anyone stuck with their workflow/editing/colours/brand to get in touch. My business couldn’t be what it is today without his.
So to conclude, Elevate has done it’s job…I know I can’t be the only one who feels this way.
And yes, I bought a ticket for next year. See you there!
