How Vulnerability Helps Me To Take Portraits That Count

Dear Folks,

So many of the questions that arrive in my inbox are about how I take photos full of emotions.

How do I get people to laugh or jump, forget about me, or blow me a kiss?

Well, here’s my secret. It is my willingness to be vulnerable.

When we are in a vulnerable state we are wide open, we have our hearts on the line and we are willing to let people see it. We show them we are not perfect and don’t have answers all the time and that is OK.

For many of us, it feels dangerous but as the beautiful Brene Brown says ‘I believe that vulnerability – the willingness to be “all in” even when you know it can mean failing and hurting – is brave.”

When I am taking photos, I dare to show people that I am as vulnerable as they are even though they are the one in front of the camera.

In 2016, I was given the biggest compliment by a niece who I worked with for a whole year in Paris. She told me, ‘You don’t care what people think of you!’

For a minute, I was almost offended and then she explained, “No matter who you are with on a shoot, (including some famous folk) you goof around and make a fool of yourself and you don’t decide things based on what other people think of you.”

I loved her point of view. I will be discussing vulnerability along with other wonderful topics in the Heartland Workshop this October in Puglia and sharing all my photography secrets.

If you would like to take photos with more emotion and do it with confidence, I would love to teach you how. I have had one cancellation and would love to help you take your portraits and interiors to a new level.

You can read all about the workshop HERE.

If you have any questions, please send us a note to workshops@carlacoulson.com

P.S. You check out Brene Brown’s TED Talk HERE.

“You can choose courage or you can choose comfort. You cannot have both.” – Brene Brown

 

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