I completely understand this part, most times, I always hide my phone camera when taking shots. I can only take shots comfortably when I am in the company of my friends. They have a way of creating distractions for me.
Wow that's good for you, well, I do my shoots independently, most of my friends now live away from my city, plus, I have had college commitments for a long time so because of that I use to hurriedly do shoots without proper brainstorming and timing, but from January I'll probably take a trip to go to many states and cities to explore better, I actually love photography, I've been limited in equipments, I guess, I'll do better this year.
I am hoping that somehow you will make great connections and take that photography skill of yours to the next level
Hoping so too, actually I have been using my images for 8 months now, this year, I hope to make it even better, sweet photos are bae.
I noticed them especially those ones you had your image edited in
Please, do get those good equipment and run this photography race to the next level... Cheers.