Contextual Confidence

There is no doubt that tailoring your craft ultimately makes you better at whatever endeavour you choose to pursue. A lot of the time, I feel as if I can't concentrate on one particular life venture. I've looked into studying pathology, sexology, journalism, law, art and most recently: embalming. As I have so many different avenues of interest it becomes challenging to tie the loose ends together. To somehow make my life cohesive. Whilst I do consider myself lucky to find inspiration in almost every crevice, I love meeting people who are so passionate about their medium. So much so that you begin to feel like a particular area of expertise wouldn't exist properly in their absence. Meeting people who have so much direction and ambition make me writhe with jealousy. In enters the talented Jai Long from Free the Bird photography.

Jai and I have been spending some creative days together recently and I was fortunate enough to be the subject of some of his photos. Whilst he considers me outrageously forward and (too) honest, I happen to shrink in front of the camera, withering in a confused mess. This is what I have dubbed 'contextual confidence.' You may be a complete social butterfly only to freeze up when asked to sing a karaoke tune. My personal example: I'll confide extremely personal details upon a first meeting (without batting an eyelid), only to somehow manifest into insecurity and introversion when a lens comes my way. In saying all that, Jai is a genius and happened to make the best of a bad situation.

Jai is the type of person that could become homeless and look at you with a grin and say, "That's alright, at least we can go to sleep watching the stars now." I love him for that. An example of his work accompanies this article and serves to show that confidence is contextual. Its grainy quality and high contrast makes me look like a ghost and I am pretty excited about that. Ghosts and paranormality also happen to fall under my umbrella of interests. Surprise Surprise.



#life
#photography
#happiness
#confidence
#skills
#context
#skill

%selfavenue