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It has been now almost 16 months that I embarked on this adventure called photography and more importantly found myself, the photographer Feuza. When I started I had so many questions, I was so lost and I looked up to Paula Leme, a fellow Brazilian Photographer and I asked for some advice, some tips, anything she could tell me. She told me the most 2 important pieces of advice which helped really launch my business. She nicely replied, #1 Take control of your camera, your camera can not do what it wants but needs to do what you want it to do, tip #2 find other photographers you like and follow them, read their blog because they tend to give out lots of info and she listed 3 photographers but there was one that stood out, there was one that silence struck and everything stopped and I could hear a pin drop and it was the one and only Jasmine Star Blog. After reading the first few lines I was hooked as so many of us are and I soaked up her words like a sponge and there perhaps at that point I knew it, I knew it but I hid it, even tried to hide it from myself, a little secret, a little voice I heard inside saying “I want to be the East Coast Jasmine Star”. I never said those words out loud until recently when my photography mentor David Toth ( all newbies need mentors and David has made my year by second shooting with me on my first destination wedding next month  ) asked me who inspired me, who did I want to be like and I began throwing names left and right saying things like  I dig so and so’s style and so and so’s sharp no action images and recently found such and such blog and then I said it, I mean I wrote it and it was just the answer David was waiting to hear, all the other ones were not good enough, were not right and he knew it!  I took a deep breath, I said, my goal is to be the East Coast Jasmine Star.

Now you might be thinking , um I don’t think so Feuza, how can you compare your self to her? Don’t worry, I don’t have a dog named pollo and  my husband does not second shoot my weddings and I do not write beautifully and have amazing sharp images but hear me out for a minute, I do not want to be Jasmine, you see there is only one Jasmine Star and not even her identical twin Bianca who looks a lot like her can be her. I am not trying to copy Jasmine, nor copy her work or poses but I do want to follow her business model, have her organization, not be in debt to fully launch my business, outsource some things, improve my images, improve my writing , spend quality time with God and with my family, and perhaps make up my own words here and there. You see we are very differant, only similarities are from Latino background, married, woman, and a photographer, she is not in her thirties nor has kids, and it is quite differant background and story but  I would say pay attention to successful people because they have something in common, something to teach and your ears should listen. I know where I want to go, I see it, I smell and I taste it and I want to have the freedom and the good life Jasmine and other well known photographers have.  I want to dicatate my schedule, I want car rides on sunny days to beautiful shores, I want simple things that make me smile, I want to give my boys the best,  I want to work less and play more, I want the good life and what is wrong with that? There is a road to success, how fast will you get there? You see if you want to be good at something, you must look at the people who are great at, it,success leaves clues they say and Jasmine leaves us readers every week many clues on what we need to move forward, examples, ideas, smug meetings and more. My goal is to be an East Coast Jasmine in the sense of a sucess photography story in short amount of time. I do not have time to waste and I will say it again, I know where I want to go and I know who I am, do you? Do you write down your goals? Did you know that people who wrote down their goals succeed far more than people who did not? Have you written down how much money you want to earn a week, a year? You see because as Mile Sings it, it is about the climb but if you do not know what you want on the other side, how do you know which mountain or ladder to even start that climb? or will you just sit there at the foothills or steps waiting for something miraculous to happen? What do you want? Tonight’s meeting with Lawrence from Tofurious started out by Lawrence showing us their new t-shirt and he said, who wants to get this t-shirt? almost no one said yes afraid of having to play some game but the person who said I do, he just handed it to her. Ask and you shall receive! Are we asking? My mother the other day was telling me of all great men and women from the Bible that received great things and victories and they all had 1 thing in common, they or someone else declared that such a thing would happen and I am declaring my success right now, not fame and not such fortune, but success, oh yes success and a good life for me and my family because they deserve it. Life has already so many trials, bumps, rocks, detours, is it not even worse not to know where you are going? Define it, define you because it is about you.

There is only one Feuza, actually right now perhaps there are 3 in the world, use to be one more but my grandma passed away two years ago, so there is a friend of a friend and a cousin of someone and a girl from Malaysia which I saw on My Space once but there is only one Feuza Reis Photographer, only one Feuza Reis mother of Josh and Lucas, wife of Max, only one Feuza daughter of Jorge and Jaira, Brazilian Immigrant who was raised by her mom, only one Rutgers graduate who did nothing with her degree except acquire college loans, only one and that is me and I am determined to rise, with bumps and bruises but to move forward even against strong winds. My goal is to be the East Coast Jasmine Star and maybe you wanted that as well but never had the courage to say it. Now it is out! I want to succeed and to be free and I want people to say who the heck is that girl and where did she come from so fast and I am sure some will criticize this blog post or think negative things of me, but I do not care, when I first started, I cared, I cared which other photographer was starting out, who was better than me and now I have gone passed those things because than the focus is the work and not the photographer.

Why do people love Jasmine so much? Because her images are perfect, out of this world, unique blow your mind away every time? No, not at all but because she is. Jasmine brings it on every single time and there is only one her, there is only one me and there is only one you and as you improve your photography or any other business, think about who that you is, where does that you want to go and what does that you bring to the table and since  pictures make blog posts so much better, here are a few more of me on my Brazilian Day Canada adventures.

The Afro-Brazilian Legend composer and singer Carlinhos Brown signing autographs

My favorite Brazilian TV presenter Luciano Huck

The one and only Elba Ramalho- MPB music LegendCarol from DigitallyBlonde.com

FIND ME- fusioncreations@hotmail.com