I recently invested in my photography by hiring a mentor - Tracy Moore. I found her through the fly fishing industry, believe it or not. She is an incredibly talented senior photographer and I figured, why not? I was accepted into her mentorship program that she calls her Mastermind program along with a few other women around the U.S.


To say that was an invaluable investment would be an understatement. I learned so much about the photography business and was able to narrow my niche down from, well, "a little bit of everything" to "nature guide and photographer for adventurous families."


Put quite simply, I have a broad range of interests and that niche combines all of them into one nice little package. Early childhood education, teaching, nature, hiking, fishing, anthropology, biology, geology, conservation, environmental science... all of that is my happy place. So Tracy helped me realize, why not? Why not combine all of those with photography and do with it what I really want to do.


I've spent some time updating my website to reflect this new niche, but it is still a work in progress (as we all are), so I am completely open to feedback right now. I've spent a few years as a photographer now and made a drastic change in careers in the meantime, while still attempting to pursue my anthropology degree. Fear is a powerful inhibitor, as I'm sure most people can attest to.


But, like the title of this post indicates, if not now... when?


Opening oneself up and accepting oneself for who they are can bring about enormous positive changes. I hope that by opening myself up to being true to myself and what I want to do with photography will resonate with "my people," and I hope you're one of them!