When Needing new headshots leads to self-publication..

I will admit... Shifting for model to photographer has come with some new experiences I did not expect.

One being the constant competition amongst photographers in general. As a model, we usually always found ways to work together. Plus..it made the shoots more enjoyable to be on the same projects together. I had girls where we traveled to several different countries together. It was always more like a sisterhood. A reuniting when we saw each other again. No competition or animosity. That was never on the menu.

I am seeing in real time how many in my area have a need to do things I truly have not seen since high school and it has caused a bit of stress for me. This has resulted in me blocking several companies I might have otherwise liked to work with, but the unsavory behavior even through business accounts lets me know the choices that I made, were made correctly.

I have had people attempt to smear my name after I cultivated multiple publications for them,  I once had a model attempt to relieve herself in public in the middle of downtown Salem, and had my name drug through the mud due to that model only telling part of the experience and not the full experience. (Seriously, Who does that?)

This seems to be normal behavior for the area and while I realize it is a bit smaller than Las Vegas or Los Angeles... I did believe there would be a modicum of professionalism within our creative sphere but i've been shown how I have to adjust.

One adjustment has been not simply shooting everyone I would like to shoot. People tend to mistake genuine kindness for weakness, especially if those of us do not look like the life we have grown through.

If I have learned anything it is that people will try you where they are and your reaction to that behavior will teach them how to treat you.

If you choose boundaries for your own peace you will find many will dislike you and even find ways to attempt and pull others into their cycle of hatred, with you as the target simply because you did not cower to their toxic and normalized ways of abusing people they work with.

As someone who has been a target her entire life.

I can promise you.

Turning down your light and dimming your soul will do nothing but break you and it will start from the inside out.

If you want to truly live a life of happiness and authentic peace, you must first choose your own truth above the expectations of others k n o w i n g that it will most likely shift the way they choose to connect to you.

It is not until you can choose your own truth, standing fully alone without anyone else to support you that you truly see who you are and what you are made of.

In life we have so many opportunities to be more than just someone who earns an income.

We can choose to create in a way that tells our truth while also inspiring others to do the same .

If nothing else, I hope my own work can show you that nobody even really cares what you do. I

f you are weird and loud and just don't add up to the status quo.. It probably means you are meant to stand tall in that.

To create something our world has never seen and to do that so honestly nothing else can compare.

To get lost in this world simply means that we are that much closer to finding out who we truly are, and that is the point of it all.

Model & Photographer : LP
Published in Approved Magazine

October 2025

I hope you chase your dreams.. delusionally, faithfully...unwaveringly.

You deserve it.