fear of taking pictures

So over the past few years photography has become one of my loves. I shot film as a kid and loved it also. This hobby which consists of mostly late night pictures to candids has caught the eye of family and friends and now they want me to photograph events and such for money. Problem is for some odd reason im afraid to take pictures when im being watched in fear of the end result not living up to expectations. I know others also have this fear and im curious as to what you do to get over it or do you just do it and hope for the best?

When I was studying commercial photography, one of the teachers told us two things.

Don't be a shrinking violet and take control,, and never prostitute yourself.

They want to hire and pay you to shoot their events? Or they THINK you should shoot for money??? They are 2 different things. If the former, I think it is a cool and easy way to build your portfolio. Just practice the shooting situation. If it is the latter, it is better you pretend you didn't hear them saying it....

TooManyShots wrote in post #12330217
They want to hire and pay you to shoot their events? Or they THINK you should shoot for money??? They are 2 different things. If the former, I think it is a cool and easy way to build your portfolio. Just practice the shooting situation. If it is the latter, it is better you pretend you didn't hear them saying it....

Lol both. Some suggest and sometimes the same offer to pay for an event. I can just never bring myself to do it out of fear

I suppose it's a confidence issue. Don't ask questions about technique or what lens to use, just post a few pics on the forums and get some critiques. That will probably help more than anything.

I agree wiith whuband - post some of your images and allow members to give you an opinion.

David

Second well third that

OP - after just skimming through a few pages on your flickr (which is very nice), you dont have too many 'event' or people type photographs. it may be different than what your normally photograph. but like others have said, if you have confidence in yourself and feel comfortable shooting an event of some kind, go for it!
if you went on a personal event of some kind, did you 'shoot' for yourself regularly?

"Practice" shooting an event and jump in. This is perfect if you're a guest at say... a birthday party. In your mind, pretend to be the event photographer (without being intrusive of course), but to others they see you as just an "enthusiastic" guest.

After the event, go through the motions of editing workflow and present a small set of photos/prints as a thank you. You garner the experience and you can see if you would even LIKE doing it.

Don't compare yourself to others. There will always be better AND worse photographers than yourself. And don't let negative critique bother you, it is meant to make you better. There's hardly a photograph taken by anybody, that can't be improved, as photography is a subjective art.

Blurr Cube wrote in post #12333230
"Practice" shooting an event and jump in. This is perfect if you're a guest at say... a birthday party. In your mind, pretend to be the event photographer (without being intrusive of course), but to others they see you as just an "enthusiastic" guest.

After the event, go through the motions of editing workflow and present a small set of photos/prints as a thank you. You garner the experience and you can see if you would even LIKE doing it.

That is a great idea! I recently was at a picnic, and snapped a few. I will do this and send it to the organizer.

Thanks!

Thanx for all the great advice. So far all o can post is a gallery link since I'm at work.
http://focalpointnyc.c​om …0gallery/tiltga​llery.html
As far as events I've never really shot one. People see the pictures and I guess assume I could do it because they like most of my pictures. As you can see most of my pics are at night when no one is around or just sharing a family moment. None at events, and the few times I have tried I just get scared and end up pitting the camera away

1ruffryder wrote in post #12334637
Thanx for all the great advice. So far all o can post is a gallery link since I'm at work.
http://focalpointnyc.c​om …0gallery/tiltga​llery.html
As far as events I've never really shot one. People see the pictures and I guess assume I could do it because they like most of my pictures. As you can see most of my pics are at night when no one is around or just sharing a family moment. None at events, and the few times I have tried I just get scared and end up pitting the camera away

That's a bit of a shame... putting the camera away MEANS you are not taking pictures with it.

If you aren't comfortable making money doing it, do it for free to build your portfolio. They can't have high expectations if they aren't paying you, now can they?

Isn't there anyone left that's in photography just for the hobby? It seems every new photographer wants to turn it into a career...

Your family and friends may think you are good enough to start shooting for money, but, believe me, they have no concept of what's involved.

I've been a photographer since before most of the participants on this forum were born and on those occasions where I tried to make money shooting it was a massively stressful undertaking. Wedding photography was the worst. I'll never do that again... Aviation photojournalism was good for a couple of years until the economy destroyed the market. And I never made enough money to survive on.