Well I've certainly been following this bit of advice lately, starting last week when I saw a job advertised for somewhere I've wanted to work for as long as I've known the place existed.
A few days later I had to do another scary thing and go for an interview for the job. I was very close to cancelling as I convinced myself that, though I was the right person for the job, it was really bad timing due to various factors.
By the end of this same day I was having to carry out my second scary act of the day. I had to make a decision about leaving a current job and starting a new one...
A day later and I had to do possibly the scariest task in all of this and hand in my notice. This did not go well.
Only a day later and I was starting my first shift with my new company, terrified of meeting the new work colleagues and equally scared that I would mess up.
It's a wonder I hadn't scared myself to death by the end of the week but I'm still here to tell the tale and move on to bigger and better things. No doubt facing more fears along the way and celebrating with cake...
And boy too as we have just had our engagement photo shoot. Only eighteen months late but hey ho.
Technically it wasn't meant to be an engagement shoot as the photographer was initially hired to photograph our wedding. An event that was later cancelled in favour of us skipping the country and doing it to please us (or maybe just me). But I'm sure there will be more about that in a later post...
So we begin in one venue but don't actually leave our cars because we're not allowed to be there. Move to another venue that's over run with kids and families but is actually a really nice little park that I'm sure will throw out some great snaps of us. Then we move to another venue that is actually a busy high street where the groom-to-be is really not comfortable being seen. And then onto a final venue where the light is failing and the temperature is dropping but I'm sure would have looked fab earlier in the day.
I had so much fun being a part of somebody else's creativity and ideas and thinking how I would do it if I was in charge. I had so many ideas and spotted so many different locations but sadly didn't quite have the confidence to push these forward.
So whilst I'm feeling wedding photography isn't my thing - let's face it, it's way too stressful and too much responsibility of only having one day and one or two locations - I can really see myself doing the engagement photo shoot route. I also quite like the idea of doing the whole parents-to-be-maternity-style photo shoots.
Now, to build on that confidence and get myself out there...
I'm on a roll with this blogging malarkey but I'm struggling to think what the actual purpose of my musings are.
As I mentioned in my first post the point was for it to be a photography blog that I would update each day with a picture and some wisdom about the day. Eight weeks in and it is clear to see that it hasn't and isn't going that way.
It's difficult to take one picture that encapsulates your day. It is difficult to take a picture when you are working. And it isn't often that something outstanding happens worthy of a picture and a blog.
Whilst I do have the time to post a blog each day I don't really have the imagination at the moment to create something I feel would be of interest to others on a daily basis for now I am being quite erratic with the content.
However, I am finding that as I post these random little tit-bits my mind is beginning to stir a bit more and I am thinking of more topics and photo opportunities that could just make this work. In particular I am developing ideas from a lot of things I enjoy doing in my spare time. This has led me to think of developing this as a music blog or even a travel blog.
But then I think, why limit it to one of those topics and not just develop a blog about me and my experiences and thoughts in life. Fair enough, nobody knows me so nobody would be interested in me but they may like to know about places I have been and bands I have seen. And the more I babble on about these things, the more people may want to know me. Possibly. It's worked for other folk.
Let's give it a try and see...
...Were heavily present at The Cribs gig in Preston the other night. As were one too many jaded old folk desperately trying to recapture their long lost youth.
Particularly jaded was the middle-aged bruiser who arrived with his middle-aged trophy wife and needlessly pushed his way through the twenty alcohol infused kiddies waiting patiently in a little huddle in front of the stage.
As if this pointless act of defiance wasn't funny enough, half an hour from the end, whilst security were dealing with one of the many prolific crowd surfing youngsters, he launched himself over the barrier towards the basin-haired guitarist. It then took five of the security staff to drag him away and eject him from the venue.
Anyway, back to The Cribs. I'm not really a fan but this is the third time I've been dragged along to see them. I got bored a third of the way in but I believe these are some of the songs that they played.
Come on, be a no-one
Cheat on me
Back to the bolthole
Glitters like gold
Mirror kissers
City of bugs
I'll be honest. I only vaguely know two of these songs. Which isn't too good considering the band have been "on the scene" since 2002 and for three years featured Johnny Marr on guitar before replacing him with David Jones from Nine Black Alps (when he hasn't got better things to do with his own band.)
And in the case of Taylor Swift, it's a bloody strong drug.
This 23 year old country music starlet already has a list of celebrity ex-boyfriends as long as the list of awards she has won but so long as she has a music career to sustain I doubt she'll be stopping there.
Don't get me wrong, I don't mind this young lady. I'm sure having grown up on a Christmas tree farm she's had a very good and stable upbringing within a loving family unit but, blimey, that girl has serious relationship issues!
Glancing through her wikipedia page you can see that she's a very ambitious young lady who forced her family to relocate so she could live in the home of country music. A move which, you must admit, has definitely paid off.
However, being the kind of person who wears her heart firmly on her sleeve, odds are she'll have made it big even if she'd been raised on a council estate in the arse end of nowhere.
And, sadly, so long as there are little boys out there who's hunger for fame is powered by a well oiled publicity machine there will always the "next big thing" ready and waiting for a bit of the taylor-swift-lyric-treatment to boost their rating.
I still can't decide if she knows exactly what she is doing or if she is slightly psychotic and watching her perform wearing a wedding dress at an award ceremony where an ex-boyfriend is sitting in the audience isn't helping her cause.
At the weekend I finally made good on another one of my New Year resolutions and purchased a new camera that will hopefully turn me into a professional photographer!
I may not have sold a camera to buy a camera but thanks to money raised through Christmas and a birthday this is a minor technicality. The selling of an old camera will come in time.
So with my new camera in hand I took myself off for a weekend away to one of the country's most beautiful and historic city's and ended up at the zoo...
Six hours later I triumphantly emerged with a camera full of pictures to edit when I returned home.
A day later and I had to do possibly the scariest task in all of this and hand in my notice. This did not go well.
