EP170 One Way? Nah. A Million Ways.

I’m back after a bit of a stop-start spell with the podcast, and I’m talking honestly about headspace, mojo, and how hard it can be to create when you’re just not feeling it. The main point I wanted to cover is this: there’s more than one way to do things in photography, and the “that’s wrong” comments (especially online) completely miss the point. I’m sharing why I try to frame everything as my way, not the way, and how clients, time, kit, and real-world constraints always shape what works. I also give you a quick update on upcoming workshops, where to find the new short-form video content, and what I’ll be covering next after a couple of judging days. Key links Mastering Portrait PhotographyOur Reels & ShortsMastering Portrait Photography on YouTube Workshops mentioned Mastering Dogs With Their Owners workshop (9 Feb 2026)Mastering Advanced Studio Lighting (16 Mar 2026)Mastering Portrait Photography Bootcamp (11–12 May 2026) Transcript [00:00:00] So hello one and all. This is the Mastering Portrait Photography podcast, which hasn't, hasn't been the most frequent in the past few months, one reason or another. Um, I just haven't managed to find either the time or if I'm more honest, I guess the headspace, the difficulty with doing anything creative is that if you don't feel it, if you're not right into it, and you know this as photographers, it's really hard to do it. And every time I've sat down, it's just been incredibly difficult to find, I suppose the words, I'm not sure that last year was the greatest year on earth. We got there, we grafted, but we got there, um, massively busy year, but I don't know if the positivity that we've had over the past years was quite, quite the same. And so in that context, it's been quite hard, I think. To, uh, be a photographer, to be a portrait [00:01:00] photographer, and also to record this podcast. So when I talk to people and they say they're not feeling it, I totally understand. Somebody in a workshop the other day, we always, at the beginning of every workshop we run here, we ask the people on it what they'd like to get out of it. And I think on every single one last year, and certainly the one we ran a couple of weeks ago, there is someone who will simply say. I've lost my mojo. What an interesting line given I think I've been feeling the same way about the podcast. Not that I haven't wanted to do it. I love doing it. I love sitting here and chatting. It's sort of like having my own personal counselor, you, but I just haven't really found the energy and the headspace, um, to do it. And for a million reasons, some of it to do with just the mood, the news. Politics, the weather. Um, and then just to compound everything over Christmas, I completely lost my voice [00:02:00] and I do mean, completely caused a lot of hilarity amongst my family and my team. But I had to do a couple of workshops at the convention. And they were quite squeaky. I literally sounded like squeaky from the toy story. Anyway, you'd be pleased to hear it's all back. It's all firing on all cylinders. 2026 is a new year. I'd like to say it's the start of a new year, but given it's February, I'm not even certain. I can say Happy New Year to all of you, but here we are. I'm Paul, and this is the return of the Mastering Portrait Photography podcast. So, hello one and all. I hope you're well. I hope the weather, I dunno what the weather's like all around the world. Of course I don't. But right here, right now in this bit of the world, it is miserable. We had to drive a Land Rover over to get, um, to. I think it's called an eyebrow repaired an odd, an odd phrase, but it's the bit of the wing that pro [00:03:00] protrudes over the wheel on the front, front driver's side. Because the other day as I was about to head out and do a job for the hearing dogs and with my client, my client's climbing into the car next to me and somebody decided the gap between my front driver's side wing and the wall next to him was sufficient to get a very big Mercedes-Benz through it. It turns out it wasn't. And the only damage, sadly for me was that it put a, put a hole in the, uh, wheel arch. It's called an eyebrow, this thing. So anyway, today we must have, find someone to get it repaired. The guy's paid, it's fine. It'll all get fixed. Um, so, uh, drove over, but the weather. The weather was horrific, and it's cold and it's gray and there's just water everywhere. It's a miserable state of affairs and trying to, trying to be a portrait photographer in this. I'm glad we have a warm studio that I will say. Uh, so here we are. [00:04:00] Here we are. It is, what time is it? It's, uh, 10 past eight on a Tuesday evening. I'm still in the studio and this time. I am recording video for it Now. I don't know whether you'll see the video. This is the first time I've tried to do, what do they call it, A visualized podcast? I'm not sure. It's a video podcast. That would be, um, over egging it a little bit. It's...