Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Maria West. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Maria , appreciate you joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I have a background in the arts I went to college for art. And I feel like that has helped me a lot with knowing how to edit and have an eye for Photography and modeling as well. And learning what to do comes from trial and error I have looked at my older work and have seen things that I would do differently now, 4 to 5 years later after modeling and doing and photography. I feel like to speed up the learning process. There really is no speeding it up. It really is just taking your time and learning from your mistakes and learning from others as well. I have a great community of photographers and friends that have helped me with my creative process in learning new things. I think the most essential skills to have as a photographer is learning how to edit learning how to edit, orange and reds out of skin and how that a preset is not a fix All solution to your Photos. And as a model the skills that I’ve learned is practicing in the mirror and knowing how to style myself and do my make up and like how to pose and like know which angles look good on me, those are all learned skills like some people naturally can do it, but others like myself have to figure those things out. The biggest obstacles are myself, doubting myself feeling like I’m not good enough. Those are my biggest obstacles that I have faced and I just have to realize that I am my own worst enemy, but I’m also my biggest fan.

Maria , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Maria. I’m a model and a photographer in the Nashville area. I’ve been doing this for five years and I am a creative, editorial, portrait photographer. I got into this industry because I was looking for someone to take professional photos of me and a cosplay that my friend had bought me and I just ended up reaching out to I wanna say 20 photographers on Instagram and was like hey, I am looking to work with new people. Can I work with you and that’s kind of how it started for me as a model. I was just reaching out to other people on social media and it kind of just took off from there. Since then I’ve easily worked with over 100 photographers as a model. As a photographer, I had already made friends with some of the models, so I just asked if they could model for me and then that’s kind of how my photography business started. It was me taking photos of friends which I still do to this day. As a photographer, I offer creative portrait, editorial photos for established and new models. What sets me apart from others is that I take time to get the photos that you want. it could be a 30 minute shoot. It could be a two hour shoot and I always like to have fun. I’m the most un serious person on a shoot and sometimes I think it kind of bites me in the butt, but I’d rather be myself and have fun on the shoot and have people returning because they know that I’m down to earth.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I think in the community, there’s a lot of people that want to see you fail and at the end of the day you have to realize that you are you and you can’t appease everyone in the community, and there have been a couple situations where I’ve had to block people and just unfollowed people and leave it be. I just want to create art and share my work and hopefully other people get inspired by my work.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I definitely had to unlearn that everything is a competition, because it’s not. Treating this community/ industry like everyone is competition around you is not how it should be and it is a hard thing to unlearn, especially when you are trying to make money from doing photography. But at the end of the day, you realize that everybody has a different editing style, everybody has a different eye and there really is no competition. There is enough space for everyone.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://fodderphotography.mypixieset.com/?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAdGRleAQK9hpleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA8xMjQwMjQ1NzQyODc0MTQAAae0gIfCbs7GUI23yVM98Rc7ElX4sX4EB3aZBsK3AqYq5SRBdsiiB58zQMB9qw_aem_QGtGrMEHD-tLxr61xBti4g
• Instagram: https://Www.instagram.com/muhsuga

Image Credits

Fomo photo- main image
Fodder.photography- first four images
Caity.captures
Smbphotographics
Wtz photography
Your secret photo