Category: Business

Creative Redirection

Sadly to say, there always comes a time when you realize that the path you’re on is not really going anywhere. It’s difficult to put your finger on it, but you come to know that something is just not working. Maybe you’re doing too much, maybe you’re doing too little, but there’s a weak link in your chain and your work is suffering.

This great image is not my work

When that happens, you know it’s time to Step It Up! And the best way to do that is to browse the great work of great artists and breathe in the inspiration. No, you don’t copy their work. You see what can be done, you catch a spark and you find your own new style and look.

This great image is not my work

I want to limit my work to the studio, completely. And make portraits my specialty. Composition will range between tight face shots to just below the belt line. No legs. No knees. No feet. I will favor single subjects (maybe a couple, here or there) but no groups or family sessions.

This great image is not my work

I know. Radical and tightly structured. Maybe too tight, but it’s what I want to do. I have spent time (years?) shooting work that did not inspire or please me. Clicking my camera just for the money. Work that I wasn’t even proud of. “Can you shoot this?” a potential client would ask, and off I went, camera in hand. Never no more.

This great image is not my work

I want to return my images to the artful style I lived for in my crazy, “better get it right” film days, and add to it the ‘anything is possible’ digital times we live, work and play in today. I still need to market myself and my work but I would rather sell my artwork to a limited and very appreciative list of clientele than to push simple pictures to a mass market just wanting something… nice.

This great image is not my work

I have always heard the saying “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” I love photography, and now I am going to do it in a way that I love, also. Stay tuned.

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Saddle Up, Partner!

Yesterday, I texted a good friend and fellow photographer. We have known each other for a nice long time, fifteen years to be exact, having met in tech school. A mutual instructor felt we would make good photography team and not only chase success but catch it, leap on and ride. Over the years, we have worked together, on and off, endured the ups and downs of life, both professionally and personally, and occasionally lost touch. However, like true friends, we always reconnect and pick up right where we left off without missing a beat. That text prompted a 2 hour, 57 minute and 19 second phone call.

Photo by Brett Sayles on Pexels.com

In most businesses and professions, it is very difficult to go it alone. And admittedly, it is enjoyable and more fun to have someone to share the ride with. We all need support, encouragement and occasional correction, especially in our careers. So, here we are, about to gear up, mount up and ride the trail together, once again. Not missing a beat.

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Rusty

I hate to admit it, but I am not the photographer I once was. Last week I had a small portrait shoot with a friend, both for her as well as for myself. My skills at shooting and even adjusting my own equipment was way off. Unlike a bicycle, I guess you can and do forget how to shoot photography. After closing my studio, right before the pandemic, and then rarely touching the camera for over a year, I have lost my flow.

In order to get back into game, reclaim my mojo, I have to take pictures. Lots of pictures. Different pictures. People peoples. Thing pictures. Picture pictures. Any pictures. All pictures. Yeah, pictures.

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Trying Too Hard

Have you ever wanted something to be so perfect that you never actually started because you spent so much time over thinking it? You attack it from all angles in your mind, carefully planning and improving it yet never actually doing it. That is how my creative photography usual ends up. Never getting out the gate.

Tooth Picks

For every grand piece that I am proud of, there are quite a few that are still bouncing around in my head waiting for a green light. Sometimes I “see” a wonderful shot and jump right on it, but more often than not, I roll it around in my head for hours, days or even months figuring out how to get it out of my head and into the camera just as I imagined it.

Summer Slam

I have decided to go easy on myself and just get the shot done. Not perfect, just done. Perfect in my head is not perfect because it is not done. A less than perfect done is way better than a perfect idea.

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For the Love of Photography

I love photography. However, photography doesn’t seem to love anybody. Like a $20 bill laying in the street, anyone could “pick up” photography and “use it” without question. Now mark my words, I didn’t say everyone is good at it, successful at it or gains the love of millions practicing it. The words I stated were anybody can pick it up and use it.

It is truly heartbreaking to learn, study and practice photography, all the way from the film days, well before the age of digital, only to have a teen with a cell phone and an app stuffed with filters gain tens of thousands of followers just “playing around.”

Photography is a strange beast, both a beautiful hobby and a artful profession all at once. Unlike most professions, photography has little to no regulations, protections and industry rules other than the basic business rules. Now, before many of you jump up screaming about all the “rules” you follow, you have to admit this: a person can walk into a store and purchase a camera system, learn from a book, tutorial or video teacher and then go forth and do, create and sell photography. No license, no insurance, no apprenticed training. Weddings, portraits, landscape, etc. You can not legally do that as a plumber, electrician, mechanic, roofer, etc. Of course, there are people who have ventured to perform in those professions without real training, licensing or insurance. But, the average client wants to know that the person tearing apart their bathroom is part of a reputable company with a history of good service. Not so with photography. A “photographer” can show a beautiful portfolio and that is all that is needed.

Now, before you go to jump up again, I am speaking of general photography. Not news photographers, or forensic crime scene photographers or high end commercial photographers. Why is this important? Because general photography is often the bread and butter of more than a few neighborhood photography businesses. How can a professionally operating photographer make a living if retired Uncle Bob lays down a sizable amount of money and starts doing photography because it looks fun and can’t be all that difficult. He even does it free because he doesn’t need the money. And I haven’t even touched on the $400 wedding packages on a certain “list” a lot of people turn to because they “don’t want to spend all that money on some pictures.”

I love photography. I still do. I have a business license and file quarterly taxes, and have added insurance to jobs. I have no plans to stop practicing photography. However, I watch for every opportunity to level up beyond the general photography foundation. To the heights the Uncle Bobs of the world shouldn’t easily label “Can’t be all that difficult.”

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Snug as a Bug

I had observed this classically beautiful machine sitting at a local auto seller, week after week, and decided to photograph it before some lucky duck made a wise purchase. 

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