Hey Reader,
This week, while rebuilding my website, something became pretty clear.
A lot of travel work. Personal projects. Content. Behind the scenes.
Commercially, there's a level of photo and video I want to get to but here's the thing: that's not a gap.
That's just where the journey is at right now.
And the path forward doesn't start by scrapping everything that got you here. It starts by embracing it.
Which got me thinking about how often photographers treat their own approach as something to fix, rather than something to build from.
So this week, let's talk about that.
Let's dive in.
Your Approach Got You Here
Every photographer has a version of this.
Maybe travel led you into photography and shaped everything since (like me).
Maybe you've spent years building a portrait portfolio and commercial work feels like the next right step.
Maybe content has become a big part of what you do, but the business side hasn't kept up yet.
None of that means something went wrong.
It means you've been moving in a direction.
And direction is valuable, even when it doesn't look exactly like the journey of the photographers you admire online.
The mistake is assuming their journey is the benchmark for yours.
It isn't.
Their approach grew from their background, their access, their city, their early breaks and their specific set of experiences.
Just like yours have.
That's not a limitation. That's the whole point.
Comparison Will Cost You
There's a version of scrolling through incredible work that motivates you.
But there's also a version that somehow convinces you you're behind.
The second one is the one to watch out for.
Because when you're deep in someone else's portfolio, it's easy to forget that you're only seeing the output. Not the decade of:
They didn't get there by following someone else's path exactly. They got there by following theirs.
Comparison at its worst doesn't just steal your peace.
It pulls you away from the thing that actually moves you forward: your approach.
The photographers who end up where they want to be aren't the ones who found the perfect blueprint online, or recieved the 'perfect' system thanks to a ManyChat automation.
They're the ones who absorbed valuable information along the way, and most importantly, stayed aligned to their own approach long enough to see where it led.
The Gaps You're Seeing
When you look at your work honestly, you'll probably find something that feels underdeveloped.
A style you haven't fully explored. A genre you want to break into. A level of quality you're not quite at yet.
That gap is real. It's worth paying attention to.
If a new space is the next step, the answer isn't to start over. It's to bring your perspective into that space and build from there.
A personal project. A test shoot. A collaboration with someone whose work pushes you.
You don't need the perfect opportunity to start closing the gap.
You just need to point your existing approach in that new direction.
Bringing Your Approach with You
This leads me here...
There's a temptation, when moving into a new space, to start from scratch.
To study what's already working there and replicate it.
To change your editing style, to stop sharing what you used to, even tone down what makes your work yours, just to fit in.
It feels logical. Like you're meeting the space where it is.
That same instinct came up while rebuilding my website.
I felt the pull to cut the travel work, tidy it up and make it look more "commercial." But removing those pieces wouldn't have made it stronger. It would have made it someone else's.
The photographers who make an impression in a new space aren't usually the ones who blend in. They're the ones who showed up with a clear point of view and applied it somewhere new.
Your travel background changes how you shoot on location. Your content experience changes how you think about story. Your portrait background changes how you capture people.
Those aren't things to leave behind when you step into new territory.
They're the things that make your version of that work different from everyone else's.
So when the next opportunity comes, don't ask how to become what that space needs (too much).
Ask how your approach can bring something to it that isn't already there.
That's where the interesting work usually lives.
How to Apply This...
Get clear on what your approach actually is. Look at your best work and ask what it has in common. That thread is your foundation, and more useful than any framework you'll find online.
Name the Next Thing. Not a full rebrand. Just one area you want to develop. Naming it makes it easier to move toward.
Create for The Gap. Don't wait for the right brief or the right opportunity. Shoot it yourself. The portfolio you want is mostly built before anyone asks for it.
You've Already Got Motion
You don't need to know every step between here and where you're going.
You just need to trust that the approach you've built is worth developing, not abandoning.
The level you want to reach, whether it be commercially, creatively, or technically, is reachable.
But it won't come from copying someone else's path.
It'll come from doubling down on yours.
Catch you next week,
Matty 📷 🚀
