Friday, August 12, 2011

What's The Plan? ~ Floral Friday!

"The Peony And I"

I find myself wondering what my next direction is in my pursuit of photography as a vocation. Sure I have some small projects on the go, and some sessions coming up. But as the fall season approaches and the lazy days of summer dwindle, I feel compelled to have a game plan. And so far? I don't mind being honest...I'm stumped.

The social connections around the Internet have made it very easy for folks starting out to find information, support, education... everything that can jump start your career. But sometimes all I see are very talented people with cameras spending every waking moment maintaining profiles, threads, and streams, and I wonder - All these photos, all this talent... is anyone actually printing them? Selling them? Pursuing something more? Is anyone venturing out of web land long enough to really be a photographer? Am I?

Not easy answers to find, and never the same answer for everyone. All I know is I need a plan, a road map. And then I need to supply myself with everything I need to endure the journey. I have the feeling I need to seriously up my game. The question becomes how?

I posted this image today and thought about the simple act of getting a great peony photo. It wasn't that simple. It was actually a process. I must have wandered around getting shots of every peony I owned, started with simple compositions, typical close-ups with the bursts of petals only, and then the approach evolved. I had to watch my perspective, get creative with the composition, and be aware more of my gear possibilities. Wait for light to soften, time things well, and change how I saw the blossoms all together. And when I got the above shot, I knew.

I guess I just answered my personal "how". I need to change my perspective, try a new approach, be ready with my gear, and use what I already know. Timing will be important, wait for conditions to be right, and stop thinking inside the box when it comes to my pursuit of photography. Huh. A good starting point anyways. After that? Who knows.... I'll keep you posted.

Thanks for the thoughtful ramble gang. Have a good one. 

2 comments:

  1. Very true what you say about how many of us photographers are actually active working photographers and producing product offline, and not just online on our blogs! I want to be a 'professional' photographer too, and by 'pro' I mean someone that is actually making their living by photography. The 'how' always seems to be the hardest. I try not to look at other people's time frames, cause then I think, 'why aren't I progressing as fast?!'. My focus now has to be just to shoot {people} as much as possible, paid or un-paid. I just need to get a lot more experience under my belt, so I can start to be able to confidently say, I'm a photographer and then, I believe I'll start seeing more of the 'pro' {paid} gigs start to come in :D

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  2. Fabulous comment Ardean! You hit the nail on the head. The how is the hardest part. The best thing I ever heard from a big time professional photoger was this; "call yourself a photographer now! Whether you think you're ready or not. Once you believe you are one - you'll grow, you won't be able to help it." I've never forgotten that... now I just need to decide what direction I want to grow in, lol....

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