We were sitting at a white-clothed table one evening last week, enjoying another dinner under the rafters at the Pursuit 31 conference, when my new friend Amanda startled me away from my crab cakes.

“You know, you should start another blog. For photographers.”

Amanda wasn’t the only person who said something like that to me during the conference. She was one of quite a few, actually. Admittedly, it’s an idea Danny and I had been toying with, but I had always had plenty of reasons to shoot it down. There are literally thousands and thousands of photographers in this industry who know more than we do and have been honing their craft longer than we have. We don’t have a very big following on the internet compared to the photographers we turn to for advice. Our work hasn’t been very widely published and has never been in print. We’re not well known in photography circles. We don’t want to sound like we’re tooting out own horns and saying that we’re so great that other photographers should ask us for tips.

But what I heard at the conference made me face the truth I had always swatted away like an inconvenient wisp of bangs: It doesn’t matter if other photographers know more than I do or have tens of thousands more followers on Facebook. If Danny and I simply share what we know, it might help another photographer, just as countless other photographers’ blogs have helped us as we’ve developed our skills and built our business.

You see, there were some things I heard over and over at this conference that made me think maybe my prepackaged excuses were showing signs of wear and tear. Make sure you’re listening for God’s plan for your life, not just your own, one speaker told us. Fear can hold us back from the life we’re supposed to lead, other speakers echoed. A simple blog series is hardly what I’d call God’s grand plan for my life, or the life I’m “supposed” to lead. But then again, that might just be another well-worn excuse.

So Fridays will be for photographers from now on. I can’t promise that you’ll always walk away with some marvelous new insights — but I promise you that someone, at some time, will. I can’t adequately thank all the photographers who have unknowingly helped me develop my camera skills and business strategies through their blogs. Now it’s time to pay it forward.

“I don’t think it’s that I know more than a lot of other photographers,” I told Amanda when she suggested I needed to blog for photographers because I gave good advice. “I think it’s just that I articulate it clearly.”

She just gave me a smile that said, “Isn’t that the point?”

Well, I’ll try. See you next Friday.

PS: Amanda was kind enough to take this photo of me — and a whole bunch more — that last evening at the conference. Thanks for the photos and the push to write the new blog feature, Amanda.

~ Laura