Sydney Opera House at Sunset-#September Wallpaper #Sydney

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The Opera House is glorious in every light and its sails change with it.  A beautiful icon from a wonderful city.  You can also find the wallpaper on flickr.

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What a Ride!

Has your last year been a roller coaster ride?  Certainly mine has been!  I certainly could go back a few more years but one is more than enough!  I became unemployed in April 2010 just before my life was due to change with other events taking place.  What a conundrum!  I knew my life was not going to be easy nor my future determined quickly.  I have a wonderful family, I couldn’t ask for better actually, who have helped me this last year with housing and so many things so that I could try to concentrate on building a business and still pay my bills with my unemployment, even with that help it has not been easy.  But, as I said in my last post, I felt stalled, unable to focus, unable to put it all together.  It simply felt impossible and I was doomed to find myself going ever downward in a spiral that would leave me feeling that life was so unforgiving. 

Then about two weeks ago I decided I was going to begin to use one of the consultants to help me get the start I needed to make this photography business successful.  I have already gained focus and a more positive outlook on my future, even in the short term, although that hasn’t yet materialized, but attitude is everything as they say.  I now have some steps to help me move in the right direction.  I am generally and most people, who know me, think I am rather optimistic and always buoyed.  I hid it well, but now, I actually find that I am more often than I am not!  Sometimes thinking one day at a time helps you to survive but to change your life and create a business means you have to think into the future to know where you want to be and how you plan to get there.

The consultants I mentioned here are all so different and you could actually find a way to use each one at a different time in your career.  To help me get my initial start in business, I decided to use Judy Herrmann.  She has been instrumental in helping me to focus and explore what it is I REALLY want to do and where I would like to be a number of years down the road.  She helps you suss it out quite well.  If you don’t know where you are going, then how in the world are you going to get there?  Some of her exercises are found on her blog at 2 Good Things. 

Working with Judy has helped me to see the steps to begin to realize a dream and success in a business that has been only a dream for many years.  A few more things to get ready, then I will roll.  I’ll keep new progress posted here as I realize it more fully.  Right now I just have to take the plunge and do it, while there is of course apprehension; you can’t make your life different if it remains a dream. It’s time to put feet on the dream.  To realize that your future is all yours if you want to take it is both daunting and freeing; scary and thrilling.  Once I have just one small success it will seem more real, but for now, I reserve the right to be apprehensively scared skinless!  I really have nothing to lose and everything to gain. 

If any of you live in the Sevierville, TN area near Knoxville and the Great Smoky Mountain National Park entrance and would like to be introduced to more creative uses of your camera, please let me know, I’ll get you more information!  I’m looking for about 4-5 people to get started!

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Can you do it alone? #photog

I’m tired of feeling like a wandering soul in the desert thirsty for water but finding the oasis is but a mirage, unclear and unfocused on the horizon.  I need focus and clarity.  I need the help of someone who can assist me in reaching that cup of water that will help to satisfy the longing for a place for my creativity in this world. 

I have come to a crossroads in my photography and the decision to make it a business about a year ago.  I have reached a number of crossroads in the last year trying to decide how to get from point A to point B.  Some pertained to genre (and I experienced several), some to what I needed in equipment, some on how I saw my photography and what I loved to do the most.  In October, I bought a new camera and one lens that I thought would be best for my work at the first real juncture and at another, sold my old camera and bought another lens (I’d love just one more I’ve had my eye on but…) and it was the first best leap I’ve made…equipment does make a difference. 

Now I am at another juncture.  Marketing.  I thought by reading and embracing some of the things I have read online I might have a way to get myself going, but it just becomes too overwhelming when you are trying to still produce new work and edit other work so…I decided to contact a few photography marketing consultants.  Oh my!  It is definitely a very difficult decision.  First be prepared, it is not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, but then that is just life, sometimes the risks and investments have much greater payback than being stagnant in the position you are fledging about wondering where you are headed.

I have spoken to three people as of today, all of them offering something different and from different perspectives.   Can this really be figured out with a 15-30 minute conversation?  Hmmm…it isn’t easy.  Their fees are all very similar so that is not even weighed in the decision for me.  It comes down to connection.  Who do you feel will help you accomplish what seems by yourself to be the insurmountable and impossible?  Do I want to start making money now?  If I do, I have to decide within the next few weeks what I am going to do.  To be leaps and bounds ahead of where I find myself today I will employ the services of one of these three people.  One or more of these people I am convinced, with a lot of hard work and busy days ahead for me, will help to jettison my career as a pro photographer forward.  Stay tuned, I’m ready for take-off!

May I suggest you speak with Rodney Washington, Selina Maitreya or Judy Herrmann.  See if one of these good folks and excellent people might be the right person for you to work with to make your living as a professional photographer.