Quit yer complaining
While the book boudoir photo quit yer complaining from Laurie Ruettimann’s book was a great asset for her to use in her marketing…
…it also resonated with me on a deeply personal level.
About a couple weeks after I launched the book boudoir service in early 2021, I got a random Instagram DM from Laurie, who I hadn’t met prior to this exchange.
She mentioned how she’d been following the book photo work I was sharing, and wanted to hire me to shoot photos to support the launch of her upcoming book, Betting On You.
Cool - looks like my marketing strategy worked, right?
During our strategy call, Laurie described the types of photos she wanted, but ultimately said that I had the creative freedom to photograph within those parameters as I saw fit.
Always music to my ears :)
One of the goals of the session was to isolate as many quotes and section headers as I could because that would afford her the chance to elaborate on those statements in the captions with her thought leadership and expertise, and then, insert a call-to-action to buy the book.
Since Laurie didn’t provide me with a comprehensive list of quotes or phrases to capture, I was on my own, hunting for content that popped out to me in a way that I know she can use to support compelling online content.
My process for selecting content within the book is simple: start from the beginning and fast scan each page to identify an element that immediately stands out.
Once I find something juicy, I place the book on a table, stage the book pages in a way that creates a unique visual to capture, adjust the lighting around it, and fire away.
Within the first 2 minutes of shooting Laurie’s book, I came across this Quit Yer Complaining section header.
This one immediately caught my attention and within seconds, the above photo was born.
This quote resonated because it reminded me of a past full of whining and complaining…
Back then, I would waste days bitching and moaning about how the way things weren’t going my way and life isn’t fair. I’d go online and stalk other photographer’s feeds and wonder why they were getting booked and why I was overlooked.
This would put me in a tailspin that led to wasted days filled with inactivity.
In hindsight, it still bothers me that I wasted so much time doing this, but that experience serves as a constant reminder to focus on myself and what I can control, and ignore the rest.
And not to bitch when things don’t go my way. Instead, learn from what happened and be better moving forward.
Which leads me back to this particular photo.
When I decided to create an image collage of book quotes that deeply resonate with me to place on a wall in my apartment, this one immediately jumped to the front of the line.
The ability to be able to move past unfavorable moments or experiences without wasting too much time bemoaning the result has been a game-changer in both my personal life and business.
I mean, I am a human being so I still have my moments, don’t get me wrong.
But, it’s one thing to get upset for a short amount of time and then move past it with a productive mindset - it’s another to spend days paralyzed while feeling like the world is against you.
Waking up every morning, walking by the book quote collage on my wall, and seeing the Quit yer complaining photo is a constant reminder to focus not only on what I can control in my life, but also to take ownership of my feelings in a way that prevents them from getting the best of me.
I’m very grateful for this daily reminder :)