Stepping Back and Projects
I feel like it’s been forever since I’ve written any proper photography story for Full Frame, a photography publication on Medium (or anywhere on Medium, for that matter). Ok, a few weeks ago I posted my next Charmera Chronicles, two Six Word Photo Stories and a story in Picture This. In Full Frame, I posted my 52 Week Photography project story.
That is all a far cry from when I started writing regularly on Medium. Regularly as in every day. Yep, I burned myself out trying to keep up with that.
Along with not writing, I haven’t been taking photos much either. It is July 14th; I grabbed my camera and my 100–400mm lens to catch a bunny staying cool under our lilac bush. The last time I took my camera out of the bag was May 26th while we were on holiday. Before our vacation, it was mid-April. I’m quite sure my camera is feeling abandoned.
This doesn’t mean I haven’t been creating. There are still a few days of using the Kodak Charmera and, of course, my phone. In fact, on several days of vacation, I left my camera in the hotel.
So, what have I been doing with my photography? Even though it seems like not much, that’s not necessarily true. I’ve been delving into creating WITH my images instead of creating more images.
Making zines has been a fun project. There are three Kodak Charmera Chronicles in zine format, one from our trip to the Lake District and an idea that stemmed from a post on Substack is in the very early planning stages. These are quite fun to make. I even bought myself a saddle-stitch stapler. There will be more zines.
As for writing about photography, I feel like that has run its course for me. For six years, I wrote articles at least three times a week for a photography education website. When I started publishing on Medium, I updated and shared those stories. I’ve run out of photography stories- well, the educational/teaching type of stories anyway. I doubt I’ll ever run out of photo essay stories.
Through my photography life, I’ve always done the ‘shoulds’. You should sell your photos, you should write, you should mentor and you should lead photo tours. I’ve done all of that and enjoyed it. I was never forced into any of it. It felt like the thing to do at that particular time. Now it’s time for what’s next, whatever that may be. Most likely, that will entail going through my 26 years of digital archives, culling and editing images for projects: commercial sales, books, e-books, zines and handmade books. Of course, I’ll share photo essays here on my blog and various other places, including Medium.
In the thought process of all of this, I knew my website needed to be updated to lean toward selling to art agencies and commercially. I had the opportunity to have my site gone over by a company that inspires artists to build better businesses. They offered a free website review and I took advantage of that. I was pleasantly surprised with the review I received. It was mostly good and quite comprehensive. What worked and what could use updating, with suggestions given for improvement.
This is also something I’ve been working on. Slowly. I tend to work on such projects when the mood strikes and sometimes that’s not very often. It is on my list and a lot of the ideas are mulling around in my brain. I’m excited about this. Along with the website updates, I’m still putting out a PDF with new/themed work to agencies and designers once a quarter. I found a new-to-me list of agencies to compare with the list I have, along with some guidelines and templates for contacting agencies. This will help me up my game and update the information I’ve been sending.
I felt a little guilty for not posting much in Full Frame. When I started, I came out of the gate raring to go, two stories a week to help, inspire and educate readers. I’m not going anywhere. I will still be editing/publishing stories and submitting to the 52 Week Photography Project. I’ll try to be a little better at sharing what I’m working on. I do know many others who might be considering selling their work or creating zines and books. Hopefully, I can still help motivate and inspire in those areas.
All of this came from me going through my archives looking for automotive images for another project. I’m horrified at how many car photos I have that have never been culled/deleted/edited or posted, offered for sale or used in other projects. That’s just the car images. Imagine also the architecture and travel photos yet to go through.
What do you do with all those images? Sometimes it’s good enough to create them and let them be.
If you are enjoying my stories and would like to support my art and writing, you can choose one of the following ways to do so:
- Like, comment or share my stories. This is free to do. Sharing is caring, as they say.
- Have a cup of tea or a glass of wine with me.
- Go shopping. There are prints, limited edition prints, a book and handmade chapbooks and zines.
