It's been awhile since I last checked in. The last post was about the new year and new goals and they are still the same goals now as they were then. The eBay store really quieted down, but for a period it did help to pay off my previously mentioned new camera and a new lens. With that I now have what I guess would be considered a pro setup: OM-1, 12-40 2.8 Pro, and 40-150 2.8 Pro. The lenses have Pro in the name so that means I'm ready to go pro right?....whatever that means.
So where have I been, and what have I been doing other than neglecting this blog? I did some hibernating over a cold winter. Then I did some traveling to Florida to breifly escape said cold winter and visit family. Along the way I've have been doing some shooting, as well as planning and studying to achieve the other photography related goals for the year I mentioned in that post form the long ago time of January.
Honestly though it's been a struggle, and a lot of feeling like I'm stuck spinning my wheels. There have been some difficuly mental health challenges this year which has been working against me. A lot of feeling like I can't achieve my goals, accompanied by alot of feeling like my work isn't good enough and that I don't know what I'm doing. But I have been dworking hard to break throught that(as difficult as it can be). At one point when I was feeling pretty low, my wife asked me what are somethings that have been making me happy lately, and it came out that whenever I'm shooting and focusing on something photography adjacent, I'm happiest. Which has lead to me trying to do regular photo walks, mostly just taking pictures of birds. It's been nice, and something that I once found kind of boring back in my photo store days I finally get understand the simple joy of.
While in the midst of one of these periods of being down on myself, a quote from a recent podcast interview with John Cena suddenly popped into my head. Try as I might, I can't find the quote without listening to the full interview again, but it was something along the lines of "planning is the enemy of doing". It wasn't something he came up with, but he said it. While I may not remember it exactly, the message stuck with me and finally broke though to me. In that moment, I pulled out my phone and contacted a local business owner who is putting together and holiday art market that I had been planning to get a table at to try my hand at selling my prints. He got back to me right away with an enthusiastic "Fuck yeah!"
I took a first step to achiving one of my goals this year and honestly it's energized me. I've put in an order for prints, started inventorying what I've sent in, and tracking my costs. What I'm going to sell is a mix of my toy photography, and what we'll just classify as "fine art" prints. Amongst that I plan on advertising services for portraiture and headshots. That last one gives me anxiety but I'm going for it. I told my wife that I don't want to get to the end of the year and look back and beat myself up for not giving it a shot. I spent years working in a camera store watching people who had no idea what they were doing put themselves out there and make a career or at the least a side gig. There's no reason I can't do it too.
No comments:
Post a Comment