Inspiring Photographers | Staying Positive

At the Adventures Always conference in CA last week, I had the privilege to listen to so many inspiring photographers! Over the course of those 3 days, we were able to encounter 27 speakers who were “creatives, artists, and troublemakers of all kinds who are producing meaningful work and living fascinating lives.” There was SO MUCH amazing information that at some points in the conference, I literally just had to sit and take in the overwhelmingness that they shared. Since there was so much that happened, I decided to break up my trip into (at least) two blog posts: one focusing on all of the inspiring photographers quotes, and one focusing on my personal experiences and thoughts.
So if you need a pick me up or are feeling like you are in a slump, it is my humble hope that you are uplifted and inspired by this post. 

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside of you.
~ Maya Angelou

We all come into this world with a story: with something to say, something to give, something to do.
~ Jesh de Rox

All children are artists, the problem is how to remain one.
~ Pablo Picasso

Photography is about focusing on the best parts of what it means to be alive!
~ Melissa Young

Photography is about displaying relationships to their fullest potential. We get to remind those whom we photograph about the best qualities in the people that they love!
~ Melissa Young

Photography is about seeing beauty in the mundane and translating it to those who never would have seen it there.
~ Melissa Young

Sometimes fear shows us what we shouldn’t do, but I think, more often than not, it shows us what we SHOULD do.
~ Melissa Young

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old… seek what they sought.
~ Matsuo Sometimes our light goes out, but is blown again into instant flame by an encounter with another human being.

~ Albert Schweitzer

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, but must be felt with the heart.
~ Helen Keller

If I have seen farther than other men, it is because I have been standing on the shoulders of giants.
~ Benjamin Franklin

Grab your camera and surprise yourself!
~ Fer Juaristi 

Ask yourself one question: what would be the most fun? Then ask what would be more fun than that? Then ask what would be more fun than that?
~ Kristen Kalp

Know what you’re not – knowing what you don’t want to be is just as important as knowing what you do.
~ Kristen Kalp

Fight Perfection – perfection means its going to be 100% perfect and 7 years too late. Be brave enough to say “I am no perfect, and that’s okay.”
~ Kristen Kalp

The world is but a canvas to our imagination.
~ Henry David Thoreau  Each of us is uniquely built and have a unique perspective on the world.
~ Christian Cannon 

What is your story and what will it cost you to tell it?
~ Calvina Nguyen 

Take the leap and fall, knowing that you will grow wings on the way down.
You were meant to do big things!
~ Julie Massie

When you know clearly what you want, you’ll wake up every morning excited about life.
~Mark Veber Hansen

We live in an absolutely extraordinary world.
Hold your kids, put your phone down, make love to the person you wake up next to, go fly a kite… live your life now.
~ The Parsons

Each person wants to be acknowledged, respected, appreciated, understood, valued and accepted. Thought we know we are all of the same human story, we each want our unique role in it to be recognized. We each want our voice to be heard.
~ Hugh Mackey

Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.
~ Mother Teresa

Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.
~ Robert Kennedy

Greatness is not what I thought it was. Greatness is quiet, it is simple and sometimes it is unnoticed.
~ Jesh de Rox