Nervous before a shoot? Try this quick and easy technique! • ShootZilla

Updated content June 2018

Have you ever had a thought like the following, or experienced any of the things mentioned below:

“I have nightmares about forgetting my CF cards, forgetting to charge my batteries, that my camera breaks and I don’t even act on it, that I am too late for the ceremony, etc. etc.”

“I’m always quite restless at home. If I have to start in the afternoon, I can’t really do anything else, and sometimes I even leave way too early.”

“I am super uptight before a wedding. I am exhausted before I even begin shooting!”

“I almost worry myself sick, leading up to it.”

“There is no room for others during the hours before a wedding, I am very agitated, snappy and restless.”

“I lay awake the night before a wedding… reviewing my checklist in my head 10 more times.”

“I check everything a gazillion times, and on the day itself I have to go to the bathroom more often than usual. Just to prevent me from having to go during the ceremony!”

“I regularly question myself: why I am doing this again? And whether I really want to do this ten more years, if I am always this nervous beforehand.”

“I quit weddings altogether. I nearly got sick to my stomach and extremely anxious and it takes the joy out of it.”

Any of these thoughts sound familiar? Then this blog is for you.

Imagine being totally relaxed before a shoot, and not even remembering having nerves. That’s what I want your end result to be!

Hope you can stand a bit of the woo woo-land ;-) and are willing to open up to the possibilities of taking a different approach to learning, growing & performing.

Side tip: When you don’t have a workflow yet, creating one will considerably increase your peace of mind. You will be better prepared and know that all your clients are taken care of will make it easier to let go of any worries prior to a shoot. Start today by checking out ShootZilla or download the free workflow chart template below!

Pre-shoot anxiety

A bit of tension or excitement before a shoot or a wedding is a very normal experience for every photographer. It makes us perform to the best of our abilities.

And usually these nerves can be controlled by keeping to a regular routine and workflow, so you know you are as prepared as possible.

But sometimes those pre-wedding or pre-shoot jitters can get out of control.

Like you read in the above quotes, they even make people quit doing weddings altogether.

I read a book which gave me so much freedom and happiness because it solves exactly these kinds of feelings. That is why I just had to share it as quickly as possible.

Many photographers relate to the pre-shoot nerves

I reached out to some Facebook groups for photographers and asked if more people suffered from pre-wedding stress or pre-shoot nerves, just like I used to. I got quite a lot of comments on those questions. And digging further, I found even more threads discussing this topic.

If none of this sounds familiar, feel free to stick around anyway. The ideas in this book are so powerful, you can only benefit from them.

And if you wonder about these crazy photographers, getting so worked up about doing a shoot? It IS a big deal!

The images that are shot during a wedding day are cherished as memories of one of the most beautiful days of people’s lives.

We self-sabotage

Knowing that, makes us eager to perform at our best, to achieve the best. Sometimes, that means we get so worked up, we do in fact perform worse.

How that happens and what you can do about it, is easiest to explain with the help of Maltz’s Book Psycho Cybernetics.

Maxwell Maltz was a world-renowned plastic surgeon, who discovered that your self-image (not what you see of yourself in the mirror but the image you have of yourself in your MIND) is the primary differentiating factor between successful/happy persons and not so successful or maybe even unhappy persons.

He discovered this because when he changed peoples appearance through plastic surgery, some people’s lives changed immensely (which was expected) and some people’s lives just didn’t (which was weird, because it was the reason they changed their appearance)!

Fascinating, right? So even when you are well prepared and have all the gear and technical experience in the world, you could still be nervous before a shoot. It depends on your self-image as well!

Limiting thoughts produce limited results

There are a few basic ideas you need to understand before you can figure out how this will help you.

“A human being always acts and feels and performs in accordance with what he imagines to be true about himself and his environment.”

So if you have limiting thoughts about yourself, you will produce limited results.

If you picture yourself failing during a wedding, or prior to a wedding, you create an image that is true to you, even if you don’t consciously believe it.

You are in effect creating a goal, and your unconscious mind will work towards that goal. Even though it is a goal you want to stay far far away from!!

The more often you imagine this, the more real this goal will be to your unconscious mind.

Whatever happens next, how we act, what we do and say (or don’t do and don’t say) is not because of ‘will’, but because we set this ‘image’, this goal for ourselves.

Waaaah! That’s not what we want right? Our worrying may bring us closer to failure! Even though that is exactly what we wanted to prevent!

Luckily there is a way out. So, let’s continue…

Maltz also says in his book: “Your nervous system cannot tell the difference between an imagined experience and a ‘real’ experience.”

For example, your heart will start racing when you see something that you perceive as a danger (you walk in the woods and see something that resembles a bear) even if it is someone dressed up as a bear.

When you are afraid of heights, your heart will start beating faster, even when you are only imagining being on top of a tall building without a safety rail.

So Maltz’s recommendation is simple: If you can imagine being successful, you can solve your problem right there.

He advises spending 30 minutes every day imagining yourself being totally successful at whatever you want to be successful at.

For you, that could mean to imagine being totally confident and relaxed before a wedding. Here is a little visualization for you. Read it first, and when you get the feel of it, close your eyes and imagine your own success story.

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Imagine making your preparations without increased stress levels.

Imagine driving to the wedding and purely enjoying the ride, listening to your favorite music or an audiobook.
Imagine shooting the wedding and having lovely conversations with the guests, while catching the most creative shots and precious moments.

Imagine what you will be wearing, how you will walk, talk, shoot, eat, drink, feel and be merry.

If you tend to be on the shy side at weddings, imagine yourself being confident and moving among the guests with ease and poise.

If you normally dread doing the formals, imagine yourself making them laugh, while you are also getting better and more creative at taking shots as ever before.

If you would normally have nightmares before a wedding day, imagine sleeping like a baby, confident you will rock it.

And also imagine rocking it.

See yourself culling through the most amazing images one by one.

See yourself writing big invoices for extra spreads in the albums, because all your images are just too wonderful to order a selection only.

Also imagine how you feel when you are being both successful and calm, making people happy with your images and work.

See yourself acting calmly and decisive, instead of fearful and anxious.

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Maltz continues: “This exercise builds new ‘memories’ or stored data into your mid-brain and central nervous system. It builds a new image of self. After practicing it for a time, you will be surprised to find yourself ‘acting differently,’ more or less automatically and spontaneously— ‘without trying.’”

Sounds simple enough, right?

From my personal experience, I can only tell you that it works!

Do you create failures in your head?

After reading this book I suddenly became aware of how many times I created doom scenarios or failures in my head.

And, being aware of that now, I am replacing those thoughts with the imagination or visualization of me doing something with confidence and ease and getting wonderful results.

The key is, to be very vivid in your imagination.

Imagine all the details, what you will wear, how you will look, what your surroundings look like, the people you interact with and most importantly: how you feel, what it sounds like, what it tastes like, what it smells like.

The more details, the more realistic your imagination will be, and so will the stored memories and the automatic behavior that result from it.

If you do this consistently over a period of time, you will find your self-image shifting and your actions more and more effortlessly aligning with this new and improved image of yourself.

Also thanks to this training in visualization and practice, you will become able to turn off your conscious brain during the wedding day.

So while you perform you can let your subconscious “success mechanism” do the work.

You will be able to simply recall that feeling of success, while you are preparing for and going to your next wedding. And when you feel successful and confident, you will also act like it.

As Maltz says: “Simply define your goal or end result.

Picture it to yourself clearly and vividly.

Then simply capture the feeling you would experience if the desirable goal were already an accomplished fact.

Then you are acting spontaneously and creatively.

Then you are using the powers of your subconscious mind.

Then your internal machinery is geared for success: To guide you in making the correct muscular motions and adjustments; To supply you with creative ideas, and to do whatever else is necessary in order to make the goal an accomplished fact.”

Isn’t this exciting? Can’t wait for you to try it out.

21-day challenge

I am doing regular visualizations since I started reading this book 4 weeks ago, especially when I wake up in the morning, and I can tell you about a happy side effect.

Instead of feeling a bit down after unconsciously thinking unhappy thoughts (usually this happens without me even being aware of it), the conscious visualizations lift me up emotionally.

They make me do the stuff that is needed to go towards my goals, but instead of being a “must-do” it becomes more effortless. More automatic.

Well, I hope I explained it well enough, so it works for everyone who reads this and might benefit from this.

If you are intrigued and want to know more, I highly recommend getting the book yourself.

It is absolutely packed with great ideas and I can’t even count all the a-ha moments I got out of it.

If you are up for the challenge of changing your pre-shoot feelings, commit to doing the visualization exercise at least 3 weeks and let me know in the comments how you feel!

Maxwell Maltz – Psycho Cybernetics

5 thoughts on “Nervous before a shoot? Try this quick and easy technique!”

Jarg Woldhuis
December 17, 2014 at 9:38 pm

This is a great principle which is not just about shooting a wedding, but about everything in your life.

1. Wish it
2. Feel it and live it even though you don’t have it
3. Receive it

Great stuff Esther!

1. Esther de Boer
  December 17, 2014 at 10:55 pm
  
  Absolutely agree, it is not just for pre shoot anxiety, it works wonders on everything in your life. Thanks Jarg!
  
Mel
July 26, 2017 at 3:37 pm

Hi, read your post and its really something useful!
A teacher once told me, if you say you can’t do it very often, in the end you really can’t do it, its either a psychological issue or just luck perhaps? I started experimenting it myself too, it does work! If you think you can do it, most probably you can! Same goes to what Maxwell Maltz wrote in this book, “if you can imagine being successful, you can solve your problem right there.” Because fear is something your heart and mind created, its not real, and by your own will you can change and overcome it, which will bring surprising results.
Hope you have a nice day, and to whoever is reading this, YOU CAN DO THIS!

1. shootzilla
  July 26, 2017 at 6:13 pm
  
  Thanks for your awesome reply Mel!
  
ARV & CO Bruidsfotografie
March 11, 2020 at 5:49 pm

Thanks for sharing, love those tips. Even that I’m not nervous anymore, there are some nice ones.