Just Spinning Wheels

[PixelRabbit]

You're nuts, cool your heels.

Finally something familiar that I can comfortably relate to, took you long enough!

 

[Vik880]

You're heels. Cool your nuts. . . Wait wut?

 

[KenC]

I can't give advice on selling because I've never really sold anything, except to echo Lew's comment, i.e., be careful what you wish for. One of the (many) reasons I never had a desire to make money from this is that I didn't want my photography influenced by commercial considerations. It's difficult enough to prevent negative comments from doing that, although I'm sufficiently stubborn to manage pretty well with that.

As for the rest, try to think of the song "Mama told me there'd be days like this" and just smile and get on with things. This gets easier, I'm not sure from age or length of time doing photography, but in any case you can get yourself to a point of blowing off the frustration and just doing what you want. I have a lot of stuff that I've shot and wanted to do something with, but other things took precedence, so they just sit there. I figure if they were important, I'll find myself doing them again. You can't follow every trail and make something of every image you process or even every one you post somewhere.

 

[amolitor]

I have a small set of very specific ultimate targets:

To include my remote family in the day to day life of my immediate family, specifically my daughter:

- pictures of my family, mostly my daughter, to share with remote family. These go online on a photo sharing service.
- a small subset of the previous which are printed out at Walgreens or similar, and mailed to the very same remote family, for the same reasons.

To make prints which I stick on my walls. I print these myself in the darkroom for film, and use a local custom printer for digital:

- straight up Art, usually but not always with some personal connection
- the very best pictures of my family

Very very very occasionally I will make a framed print for someone else.

All of these processes involve a lot of editing and sifting. The framed prints involve a lot more sifting and editing. A great deal more.

It's definitely very easy to get into a pattern of shooting, editing, sifting, and laboriously getting down to the few flakes of pure gold and then wonder "well, now what?" and I get the sense that you're looking for the answer. Mine is: print it, frame it, hang it on the wall. That is my end point. Yours may differ, but I do think some sort of an end point is a good idea.

Yours might be "print it out and then ritually burn all those prints as an offering to Baal every midsummer midnight" for all it matters, but an endpoint toward which you're heading is a good idea. If you're just archiving endless pictures on flickr or whatever, you might be someone who likes cameras but not photographs.

As an aside, I have more prints than frames. Prints get matted out into a format that will fit in a frame, but I have a stack of matted prints lying around and periodically pull some things out of a frame and replace it with something else.

 

[PixelRabbit]

Ok, after reading all of your great responses and feeling even more overwhelmed than when I started I went out and spent the day in my garden doing manual labour and getting my hands dirty, it is a great way to just lose yourself in the day and think freely and as a bonus my whole garden is finally planted! woot!

First and foremost I want to thank all of you for taking the time to think around this with me and responding, you all gave me good things to think about even if they did send me to places I really don't like to go.

John, thanks, when I first wrote the thread I thought it was just about what to do next, but I realize that it is a bit of both in a way, I'll elaborate more as I go along.

C, thank you for that hug, I needed it!!

Derrel, still just wow, speechless and thank you <3
As I said in my pm I thought this was just about what to do next but I'm also finding challenges and frustration with trying to convey emotion in my photographs. After reading your reply I feel a bit more at peace with that at this point but I'm sure the perfectionist in me will continue to be frustrated but that will also continue to drive me to learn and get better.

Deeky, thanks, I'm sorry I wasn't more clear in my OP, that is a great suggestion and one that I actually often use, I'm sure it will help people and be a reminder to me when I look back on this thread time to time.

Runnah, this is one place that I don't like to go, I will say that the validation and appreciation of what I do is important to me as shallow as that may sound to some and I'm ok with that (un)fortunately money is more often than not tied to that validation and appreciation and it clouds things for me because it's not about the money, the money is just a nice side effect of the whole.

Gavjenkins, good post, and good information. I have thought around most of it in the non portrait section (I'm not into portraits at this point) but one thing I didn't consider was approaching someone to piggyback with, there are a couple possibilities locally that I may check out.

Lew, I'm sure our situations are different but I do have the same fear, how will this drive what I'm doing and will I feel the same passion and drive around it when I have added other expectations.
It's not about the money per se, it is more about this being a very transitional time in my life, kids are grown and self sufficient, our dear old dog just passed away freeing me up from being tied to home to care for her as I was before and I'm looking at where I go from here in general as well as in photography.
For various reasons I had to give up my career and working life 12 years ago and I find myself in a unique situation now where I have the opportunity to give this a go as a "job" for lack of a better term. I always wanted to be an artist in some capacity and have looked for years for the medium that is right for me and I believe I have found that in photography. So like I said I do have the fear that this may change things for me and I may resent the added responsibilities and requirements that don't involve being behind the camera but I may not and I can't answer that for myself unless I at least try.

Sleist, thank you, so true! I'm working on it

Steve, thank you, it is incredible how much power we let our inner voice have over us when it keeps us in our comfort zone and safe, I needed to hear that.

Ken, thanks for your thoughts, like I said in my response to Lew I have the same fears about what will drive and influence me if I take this step but if I don't try it I won't ever have the answers and will always wonder.

And finally Andrew, "well what now?" is the perfect simplification. At this point I'm just archiving because I don't know what to do now but I definitely need to make a plan, this loop is starting to drag on me but my daily shooting keeps me going like a hamster on a wheel. I'm not sure what the plan will be yet but I'm a little closer than I was yesterday thanks to you guys

So again, thanks so much everyone, this is far from how I expected this thread to go, deep down I think I was kinda counting on you all being arseholes, telling me to get real and come back down to earth so I could stick my head back up my butt and hide because to be honest this whole thing scares the snot out of me. If I choose to move forward I will have to confront some pretty ugly demons, the biggest one is actually being face to face with people to present my work for consideration and second is my serious lack of organization, the thought of it makes me sweat. I am trying to wrap my head around the whole and I keep telling myself that slaying those inner demons will only come to good things and if I want this bad enough I need to suck it up and get over it this time.

 

[deeky]

I always wanted to be an artist in some capacity

FWIW, I think you've got that covered.

I understand and agree on the validation - it is nice and even important in whatever form you get it. Money can be one nice way to get that.

Forgive me if I am misreading again, but I'm hearing some legit, diagnosed (or diagnosable) issues going on for you. There are a lot of different avenues to get your work out there. Find a local gallery/gift shop that will do it for you. Only a person or two for you to deal with and they deal with the others.

Do you have a website? Anymore most anyone can build and maintain their own (I'm working my way through WordPress right now, which is a free install on my web host). Use your Facebook, email, and everything else to drive people to your website. Everything from there can be done by email and mail.

I guess I'm saying be as creative with getting your work out there as you are with your photography, if that's what you want to do. It is just another artistic outlet. There are so many options and it seems those that are out of the box are the ones that are successful in the small business world.

SO JUST GET OFF YOUR DUFF AND DO IT!!!!!

 

[squirrels]

 

[snerd]

Find my thread "My First Photo". Sit back and enjoy how much better you are. :hail:

 

[PixelRabbit]

Hey Deeky, thank you for your kind words!

You definitely aren't misreading, I am not diagnosed but am challenged with handling interactions with people, it is amplified in situations like this, unfortunately it often manifests itself in stuttering etc.. so that just makes me more self conscious.

I'm making a list now of local galleries etc... and will add gift shops to the list. I'm lucky that we live in cottage country so despite being out of town we get a lot of city people up here in season.

I don't have a website yet just a badly organized FB so far and no watermark but I've sent a message out to an old dear friend who is in the website business for guidance. I figure I can get the online presence taken care of while I work on getting prints ready to approach the galleries and businesses and work on winding up my nerve to get out there face to face.

 

[PixelRabbit]

Find my thread "My First Photo". Sit back and enjoy how much better you are. :hail:

Please look up some of my oldest threads and feel good about your awesome cat!! I tried to find my first post of photos but alas I failed but anything early was honestly pretty brutal ! lol

Ha C, I'm doin' it I'm doin' it! I messaged my friend less than an hour ago and he already is working on getting my domain registred and wordpress set up for me ... holy fast batman!
Now a watermark... ugh .

 

[snerd]

Find my thread "My First Photo". Sit back and enjoy how much better you are. :hail:

Please look up some of my oldest threads and feel good about your awesome cat!! I tried to find my first post of photos but alas I failed but anything early was honestly pretty brutal ! lol

Ha C, I'm doin' it I'm doin' it! I messaged my friend less than an hour ago and he already is working on getting my domain registred and wordpress set up for me ... holy fast batman!
Now a watermark... ugh .

My wife has adult ADHD with some OCD Maximus thrown in for good measure. Her brain literally cannot get around what I mean when I tell her to relax and enjoy the ride of life. I'm just the opposite........ way too laid back and relaxed. My philosophy is that any day I wake up is a good day! So try to relax, because today could be our last. How would we act today if we knew that? Have fun and see you on the boards!