September Photo Sale

I’ll leave this sale page up through the end of September. If you’d like an image that isn’t already there, send me an email and let me know and, chances are, I’ll get it added for you.

Share! Enjoy!

Every day I see Photographers making it big. And every day I see photographers loving the craft, doing what they can, and not even trying to make it. But I didn’t realize how many people there are out there in my exact same situation. And most of them aren’t photographers.

I like looking to musicians when thinking about photography because like the public’s taste in music, taste in photography is subjective and attracting people to it is way more complicated than just creating the best image.

– Rob Haggart // where are all the goddamn photos

Creating the “best image” is only a very small part of this. Yeah, Martin Prihoda is awesome. But as I watch him work behind the scenes with Delerium, aside from appreciating the results, which are fantastic, my single strongest thought is, “DUH!”. The lighting is simple. The framing, average. The location, obvious. Yes, it’s a fantastic shot. But it’s certainly not outside of the realm of what I’m completely capable of. But he’s getting paid, and I’m not. So, there’s something more to it than getting the “best image”. A lot more.

The photographer has got to stop thinking they deliver a product TO BE framed. Rather, they need to deliver a product that is already framed. Build the story, build the frame and you can grow the revenue.

Here’s the real kicker, though. You have to have to have something to say. And it’s a hell of lot more work to build that frame.

– Sean Cayton // comment

I’ve always considered this to be the case: in this crazy, overstuffed, digital age, being the best isn’t enough. Lots of people are the best. I’ve got to have a story, and a reason, and a drive. I’ve got to be different. I’ve got to be special. I’ve got to have someone as interested in looking at the subject I’ve selected as I am in photographing it. And it helps a lot if I bring a few people with me.

But if I’m passionate about a subject, and I’m following a particular photographer who distributes (for free) a work-in-progress on that subject, and once it’s finished she asks me to pony up for the book?

It’s a no-brainer. Of course I’m going to, ’cause I’m a true fan.

– Sean Cayton // comment

Regardless of your choice of art form, if you leave out the “big break” effect, the True Fan is the key. For every head-over-heels, stark-raving-mad, TRUE fan you have, there is a circle of friends that surrounds him wishing he’d just shut up about you. And that’s they key.

Anyone producing works of art needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.

A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can’t wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans.

[...] Assume conservatively that your True Fans will each spend one day’s wages per year in support of what you do. That “one-day-wage” is an average, because of course your truest fans will spend a lot more than that. Let’s peg that per diem each True Fan spends at $100 per year. If you have 1,000 fans that sums up to $100,000 per year, which minus some modest expenses, is a living for most folks.

– Kevin Kelly // 1,000 True Fans

I used to think that finding True Fans began with my friends. I thought that if I could impress them with my work, gain their interest, acceptance, and word of mouth, that it would spread like wildfire. What I’m starting to realize is that people aren’t generally stark-raving-mad about their friends. Not publicly, anyway. Not to strangers. And if you’re good friends, then you already know all the people they know, which rules them all out too. I have an example of this exact situation.

I met a girl once at a party. I had only a very vague idea of who she was, but she knew me. The minute she realized I was me she became giddy and star-struck. The whole thing was surreal and amazing. I was high from it for weeks. I wanted more. I thought that the best way to nurture that fanatic was to befriend them. I don’t regret that for even one second as she is a fantastic friend to me. But that whole giddy star-struck thing went away as soon as I became real and human to her.

Friends are often willing to say, “I know a guy who take photos. You should talk to him” when the conversation is directed that way. But friends aren’t the people who post a new blog entry that says “Have you seen Daniel’s newest photo?! OMG, I want to have like 10,000 of his babies!”

Friends are great. They fuel my work, they support its creation, they offer ideas, and subjects, and sounding boards, and shoulders. They are incredible, and amazing, and beautiful, and necessary. But they don’t pay the bills.

I need to attract some fans to my work — some true, stark raving lunatics. Thankfully, I’ve got an excellent, inside source of information on them: I just happen to be one.

So which service is better suited to me? The short version: Zenfolio. Read on for the full report.

(If you decide to use Zenfolio, drop in Referral Code CVY-6UZ-T5M and you’ll save $5 and I will too)

Out of the box look. Zenfolio. As mentioned above.

Ease of use for Customers. Zenfolio.

Ease of use for Photographers. Zenfolio.

Suitable as more than just a print gallery. Zenfolio. With all of it’s advanced features, Zenfolio can quite easily be the ONLY service you’ll need for hosting your portfolio, your fine art images, custom work, portrature, and event photography. It’s feature set puts it up there with Flickr yet it still remains professional and utterly customizable to suit the photographer.

Templating. ExposureManager. The above mentioned templating feature. This allows for the ultimate in customization. Zenfolio claims this is coming soon to their service offering.

Monthly Cost. ExposureManager – kinda. Exposure manager runs $99.95/yr for their unlimited account. This is a mere $0.05 cheaper than Zenfolio and is essentially equal. However, ExposureManager does offer a $64.95/yr account with a 1GB storage limit. While Zenfolio has other product offering too, they do not allow for profits to be made on print sales and are therefore outside of the scope of this review. So, if you’re willing to deal with a 1GB storage limit, ExposureManager is cheaper. Otherwise, the cost is the same.

Commission. Zenfolio w/ Exceptions. ExposureManager charges 10% commission on the purchase price. Zenfolio charges 12% on profits only. For self-fulfillment orders, ExposureManager still charges 10% commission, however, ZenFolio drops the rate to 6% and still only charges commission on profit. If you do a lot of self-fulfillment, or if your profits are fairly low, ZenFolio will probably be significantly less expensive (but see the downside below on self-fulfillment). [Thanks to Phototouille for pointing out ExposureManager's change in policy and therefore tipping this item in Zenfolio's favor.]

Self-Fulfillment. ExposureManager. Both services operate in roughly the same fashion. While ZenFolio is a bit easier to use, the end result is the same. Custom Products and Custom Shipping methods are created and presented for purchase by the customer. ZenFolio gets an extra point for ease of use and for allowing product photos to accompany the items. Another extra point is awarded to ZenFolio for letting their cropping feature (see below) be used during self-fulfillment as well. But ExposureManager gets the gold star on this one for one reason alone. ZenFolio requires the Photographer to bill the customer outside of ZenFolio for Custom Products. ExposureManager handles these aspects as well.

Cropping. ZenFolio. Cropping is not an easy concept for a lot of print purchasers. They think “I want an 8×10″ so they buy an 8×10. They have no idea what that might do to the end result of the image being purchased didn’t happen to already be in 8×10 format. ExposureManager leaves you on your own to sort this out. I’ve opted for printing white borders on every image and requesting an email from the customer before placing an order if something else is needed. Not idea. ZenFolio has an interesting cropping module. It has a decent default and allows the customer to further specify exactly how they would like to see the image cropped. This feature is selectable on an image-to-image basis so the photographer can even turn it off on those images where he feels cropping should not be altered.

Image Quality. Zenfolio. ExposureManager used to use EZPrints. EZPrints isn’t bad, by any means, but, they also aren’t the first choice of photographers in the know who have a choice. ExposureManager doesn’t use EZPrints any longer, but I’m not sure who they are using now. But it isn’t MPix. MPix, is one of the leading online printing houses for photographers. Their quality and service is well known and quite dependable. This is a huge plus in the eyes of photographers still trying to get over the worry of NOT seeing the final product before it ships to their customers. You want someone you can trust. And lots of photographers trust MPix.

Zenfolio offers a free 14 day trial, so you’ve got nothing to lose. Use referral code CVY-6UZ-T5M and we’ll both save $5.

What are your thoughts? Do you use a hosted solution to sell your artwork online? If so, who do you recommend?

My father-in-law has been in town since last Tuesday. He leaves tomorrow. It’s been great having him around. However, with that comes a sense of obligation regarding how my time is spent. I know it isn’t required of me, but I do so anyway.

A friend/co-worker from NJ was in town for the week. We spent an evening at dinner with him.

There was also a Super-Bowl party at my Dad’s house on Sunday.

Made an impromptu trip to Oklahoma for some sunrise photography.

We bought a new car! This took 5 hours of one night, a few hours of phone calls one day, and another 3 hours on another day. But, it’s done. We got a 2007 Mitsubishi Outlander. Jess and I were using my pickup truck for 90% of our travel as a family and with Celeste we were just running out of room in it. This vehicle has a lot more room, gets much better gas mileage, and the little thises and thats that I needed out of a truck are mostly still there. But, for those of you in need of a free moving vehicle, I am no longer your friend with the truck.

We found some time to visit with our good friends, their three girls, and their brand new baby boy! Very exciting.

At work I facilitated the development of a new ticketing system and rolled out a trial of that system in one of our centers. I also completed my self-appraisal for 2007 (you’ll be happy to know, I did wonderfully. Especially since it was a self-appraisal) and completed my objectives for 2008. Of course there were lots of other smaller work stuffs too, but those are the ones that managed to cut into my non-work time.

Jess and I also partially planned a trip to the Texas Bayou for this weekend. Will finish planning today and tomorrow. We leave Friday morning.

Of course, there were lots of things I didn’t get done too.

My mom’s birthday present is still late. But it’s 99% done and Jess is saying it’ll be in the mail today. That’s a relief.

The following photographs are in some state of “not edited” from “almost finished” to “I haven’t even looked at them”: DITL photos from Jan 19th, DITL photos from Jan 23th, photos taken at Zion Cemetery, January family photoshoot, photos taken at sunrise on Lake Ray Roberts, sunset photos from Bear Creek park, hiking photos from Isle Du Bois state park, and the above mentioned photos from Oklahoma. Not to mention all the random photos taken here and there.

I need to do my taxes. My records from last year are in bad shape, so this will be quite time consuming. I’ve got a thick stack of papers in an envelope on my desk, and a giant virtual stack of bank statements to comb through. Not fun.

I missed the Super-Bowl party at Mike’s place, a friend’s birthday party on Friday, and a business meeting last Thursday. I would have loved to have attended all three, but I just ran out of time.

I didn’t manage to find time to set up an SVN server or work with some sample code for the business either. Thankfully, we’re still working on the foundation so actual code is less important than architecture and design decisions at this point.

My father-in-law cleaned the garage, washed Jess’ car, and hung shelves in Celeste’s room. These are things that I should have done but also didn’t have time to do. I’m very grateful for the help.

I’ve found myself utterly exhausted lately. Yesterday I woke up at 4:30am and went to bed at 9:15pm. While that’s only 7 hours of sleep and perfectly acceptable in most people’s worlds, that’s unlike me. I’m fairly used to making it on 5 or 6 hours at most. Despite the fact that it feels impossible to squeeze any more time or energy out of me, I need to find the time to get a short walk/run in after dinner each day. It’ll help a lot with my energy levels.

Despite the fact that I make a point to hold her and spend some quality time with her several times each day, I feel like I haven’t really had a chance to just relax and enjoy Celeste. Most of the time I do spend with her is spent changing diapers, trying to keep her from crying, or trying to put her to sleep.

So, if you haven’t heard from me in a while and you’ve been wondering why, this should serve as a small glimpse at that answer. More later… ha ha.

1. Make Photographs
2. ???
3. Live happily ever after.

In this installment I’m trying to gauge what a reasonable price might be for my work. Not the price I’d charge in a gallery, or even the price I’d charge from an online store containing my best work. I’ll get to that. Right now, I’m looking for a reasonable price to charge for the images I put in Arranging Light on a slightly-regular basis. Once that’s going, I’ll start arranging my work into a set of galleries that will sell for a bit more.

The thought is I’ll offer most of the images there at low price for a limited time after publication. Right now, I’m thinking I’ll leave them for sale at this price for roughly one month after the first copy of an image sells. I’m also planning on computing my exact profit and offering a download only version of the image at that price for those that prefer to print themselves and save a bit on shipping.

So, I’m wondering… what do you think a fair price is? Not what I deserve for my work, or what you’d talk someone else into paying for my work, but what you, yourself, would consider a fair enough price to convince you to purchase an image you liked on impulse.

(Having some trouble with the Poll? Click here to take it for now.)

Thanks for your input. It means a lot.

In order to keep this confusion from happening again, I’ve set some preliminary prices for the images on “Arranging Light”:http://djamesphoto.com/arranginglight/. Feel free to click around the photoblog and order whatever you’d like. You can also go straight to the “Ordering Gallery”:http://danieljames.exposuremanager.com/g/arranginglight, though it is much less interesting to look at in my opinion. As I continue to work on the site, more images will be added. I hope to have two images for every day in August and every day that has elapsed in September before I’m done.

To encourage you to check out the new site and offer your feedback on the site and the ordering process, I’ve created a coupon code you can use to get 50% off of any of the products offered. The code is: *ENTHUSIASM*. Just enter it at checkout time for 50% off. Once the site has its grand opening, I’ll disable the coupon.

Decorate your living room, spruce up the outhouse, spread the word, tell your friends, tell your family, tell a stranger, sing it on the streets, keep it to your self, write on a piece of paper and use it in the bathroom. Whatever makes you happy.

Thanks for your interest in my work. And thanks to Robert for placing and order to get me off my butt in getting some of the administrative work done around here.

I just placed an order for all of the pre-sold copies of the book. The Pre-Sale is officially over.

For those of you that didn’t Pre-Order, when you finally realize how badly you want a copy you can “order one yourself”:http://www.lulu.com/content/233962 directly from the printer for $60. Otherwise, email me and barter your way into one.

I sent out an email to those of you that purchased it. But, just in case you didn’t get it, please email me with your mailing address. Since some of you pre-ordered a long time ago, I want to ensure that your address hasn’t changed before I go off mailing something to you.

I’m glad it’s over. I enjoyed making it. Then I regretting getting started. Then you, my friends, supporters, and patrons, convinced me that it was a good thing. So I continued on. Three trial copies later and I finally got it.

All in all, not counting what may sell from this point forward, I made $152.12. I wont even tell you how many hours I spent on the book alone, let alone the images in it. That’s just depressing. What important is that it’s done, I’m happy I did it, and it’s absolutely beautiful.

Thank you, again, to all of you wonderful people who supported me through this and believed in me, even when I didn’t believe in myself. You mean a lot to me.

If you’re interested, PayPal $20 to me (daniel AT djamesphoto DOT com) or use the button below.

Thank you for your consideration and support.

* 1) Unused Railway
* 2) Fragile
* 2) Road With Many Exits
* 4) Free or Best Offer
* 5) Waiting For a Ride
* 5) Neon Bordered Triangle
* 7) Stay Behind the Fence
* 7) Looking out into the Bayou
* 9) A Thoughtful Side
* 10) Pretend We Were Never Here
* 11) Softer Lines

You’ll notice there are only 11 here. That’s because the 12th image, “I’ll build tomorrow” didn’t receive any votes. I should add, just to show how terrible I am at selecting images that other people will like, that it was in my personal top 3 (along with “Stay Behind the Fence” and “Pretend We Were Never Here” with “Unused Railway” as a runner up).

However, just because an image is popular, does not mean it is the best candidate for display. First of all, I know how these images print and some look better printed than others. Additionally, I want to show variety in my work, as well as include images that may look different than the images of the other exhibitors. Therefore, using your selections as a guide, I made these choices.

I sent “Unused Railway” in for the “KERA ArtMug”:http://kera.org/artmug/ competition. I think that the image is artsy enough to be considered less common, will look good displayed at a relatively small size, uses wide tonal range which will make it stand out, presents a distinct mood for a somewhat common theme, and the subject matter is quite indicative of Texas. Additionally, it was taken here in Dallas / Fort Worth, the very Metropolitan area served by KERA.

For the exhibit I’ve decided to show the following three images.

First, “Unused Railway” for all of the reasons listed above. Additionally, this is an example of some of the very dramatic hand-blended work that I enjoy creating. This process adds even more art to the photography and really shows what is possible in today’s digital darkroom.

Secondly, I’ve chosen “Fragile”. This image contains a human element without being a portrait showing my ability to work in a studio environment. Additionally, it is a highly conceptual piece with a statement to make. Furthermore, this image is personally important to me and I am deeply moved that so many of you selected it. It is important because the concept behind this photograph was something I created entirely without a model in mind and then set out to find someone interested in posing for it. I got a lot of funny looks and odd questions regarding how and why I would do it. I am grateful that “Bonnie”:http://empurple.com/ (and her lovely legs) shared in my vision for this image and that she had faith in me to carry it out. I am even more grateful that she (reluctantly) agreed to prance around in her underwear in order to make it happen. I owe a large portion of the success of this image to her.

Finally, I’ve chosen “Neon Bordered Triangle”. This abstract image shows yet another facet of my work: using lines, color, and textures to present shape and form without context. Additionally, taken on the streets of Downtown Fort Worth, it has hints of my love for Urban Landscapes and City Photography.

I was almost inclined to include, instead of “Neon Bordered Triangle”, either “Pretend We Were Never Here”, because it really shows off my talent in landscape work, or “Stay Behind The Fence”, because of its theme of Urban Decay and City Life. But, I think the selections I’ve made show a well rounded face to my work, offer something for all tastes, and are all images that will look good on display.

Again, thank you all very much, and I hope to see you in Grapevine on Saturday, September the 16th where you can see these images for yourself.

I’ve told you that “I quit”:http://revjim.net/2006/08/25/out-of-business/ and mentioned some of the good things that will come from doing so. I’ve listed in detail all of “the dreams that are going away with it”:http://revjim.net/2006/08/28/whats-really-lost/. I even gave a small display of my “recovered joy”:http://revjim.net/2006/08/29/the-good-side-of-a-bad-thing/ that comes from no longer spending so much time and energy on the potentially money making aspects of Photography, and just doing what I love.

So now the hard part.

My reasons for quitting all boil down to time, money, and support. I work a full time, 40+ hour a week job. I spend 2+ hours each day commuting. I have a house to maintain and a wife to spend time with. With all of this and more, free time is scarce.

In this very limited free time there’s a lot to be done. Even if the work was rolling in by the carload, I still have to work the sessions I’ve scheduled and prepare new images to place online in hopes of selling. Unfortunately, the work isn’t rolling in, so I lower my prices a bit to give myself a small advantage and I spend a lot of time advertising. I scour the Internet for new potential customers. I post images and commentary in multiple local message boards, photography forums, modelling hubs, parenting sites, and community portals looking for work and trying to keep my name out there. I spend time conversing with small business owners and people selling products in hopes of finding scraps of potential commercial work. I create advertising material, and dream up new products and services to advertise. I consider new projects and write compelling descriptions and announcements in order to find support for my effort. I look for local art shows and photography contests that I can join. And much, much, much more.

I accept that my free time will be a scarcity until I can get big enough to quit my day-job. But, I spend so much time, money, and effort advertising and so little of it actually taking and editing photographs that it begins to feel utterly fruitless. And, when I finally do get a job or two, I can’t perform them, keep up with advertising, and maintain my day-job without gasping for air.

I’ve tried raising my prices, I’ve tried lowering my prices, I’ve tried offering different types of products. My prices are not the problem. In a world full of cheap digital cameras where everyone and their dog is a “photographer”, it’s easy to get lost in a sea of wanna-be photogs. EXPOSURE is the problem, and I just can’t seem to do enough to get the exposure I need on my own.

I’ve suggested, asked, pleaded, begged, and offered compensation to my friends, family, acquaintances, and past subjects to help advertise both my prints and my services through their word-of-mouth. I’ve undertaken countless hours of rather boring portrait sessions with no payment and, in some cases, free prints being offered because I think that subject will bring more paying business. I’ve managed to get a handful of referrals from various people for which I am eternally grateful. Sometimes those referrals even manage to turn into paying sessions. But, that is a very rare case indeed. I’ve booked very few paying sessions.

With the exception of a small group of friends and my dad, I’ve gotten very little support, encouragement, or advertising from my friends and family, the people I would expect to get the most from. In fact, on the whole, I’ve gotten more support and respect from the people that I’ve met through photography and my endeavors than I have from those that I knew before I started this. If I can’t get my friends, my family, or my wife to take me and my business seriously, how am I ever going to find enough clients to make a living doing this?

Now, don’t misread what I’ve said. I don’t in any way feel that my friends and family are obligated in any way to advertise for me. If I offer you free or discounted services, then a small tip, website credit, or bit of advertising is certainly appreciated and often expected. But, I don’t believe that the majority of my friends and family are in any way obligated to support me in any fashion. However, if I do happen to manage to actually make it through all of this, you better believe that I will shower my appreciation on those that helped me get there. But please don’t feel like I’m accusing anyone because I was unable to get my business where I wanted it. I put the blame on only myself, fate, and good old-fashioned luck.

So, I talked with the people that would listen (some of whom continued to use the word “hobby” even though I continued to use the word “business”) and came to a conclusion. It just isn’t worth it to pour more hard-earned money and limited free-time into dealing with the business aspects of it all and advertising myself when I don’t have the support I need to actually get a foot hold. Instead, I can put that time into doing what I enjoy, and put that money toward travelling the world, equipment to make it easier to enjoy this art form, and savings for the future of my family.

I think it’s best to move on with life, relegate myself to staying put for the time being, and get back to enjoying photography and meeting new people. In the future, if our progressing life happens to leave a hole and an opportunity to get started again and the conditions seem right, then I’ll go for it.

Last Sunday I had a great Maternity session with some beautiful results. I’m still reminding myself that I don’t have to think about clients and sales any more and that I can spend a lot more time being personal and pushing my boundaries. I got some really artsy results. It was also the first time I edited the session with the subject in front of me. I was a bit skeptical about showing all of the good *and* bad images to my subject and worried about how it would be received, but it went really well. Well enough that, with a few more that I’m comfortable with, I may make it a policy for the future.

Next Friday night I’ll be doing a location shoot that I’m really excited about. Picture this “beautiful girl”:http://flickr.com/photos/revjim/47874006/ sitting on a 1938 Davenport sofa in the middle of a field of horses. Oh yeah.

I’ve got a very artsy couples session lined up for September that I’m also quite excited about. We’re still working out the details but I can guarantee it’ll be waaaay sexy.

I’ve got four more sessions waiting in the wings. One with “a very hot girl”:http://flickr.com/photos/revjim/118093887/ that I’ve known for a long time. For starters, she’ll be in panties and a tank top standing on a dusty dirt road. You like it already, don’t you? The other three I’ve never worked with before. Two are friends that I’m still trying to nail down a time with. The other is a new girl recommended by Liz that sounds utterly interesting.

I’ve also found an awesome bridge in Corinth waiting to be photographed either alone, or with a willing subject. And Erica directed me toward a bunch of decaying buildings in Sherman that I’ll visit one night to photograph with colored gels, again, with or without a human element.

On top of all that, I have lots of photo sessions and excursions waiting to be edited: some moody images with a good looking girl, cardboard boxes, and dead flowers; some images of Liz in panties and boots as well as in jeans and not much more; images from the East Texas Bayou (from a few months ago); some new light-hearted work with Gloria; a few from Lake Texoma; photos from West Texas; photos from Enchanted Rock; and some very strange experimental photographs featuring a blond and a bunch of raw eggs (though I’m not sure those will ever see the light of day). And, I’ve got a few images worth keeping from some initial sessions (which don’t always produce the best results) with a few new subjects that I really need to get into my studio for a second visit including a girl wearing nothing but a guitar, and my best take yet on a very gothic styled image that I’ve been wanting to do for some time now.

And… on the tippy-top of all that madness… I want more. Let me know if you want to make some art together.

So, why did I choose photography as a business to be in and, if I intend to continue to pursue photography as an art form, what have I really given up by not ? For me, this business was the promise of a new future for me and my family.

At my day-job alone, I make enough money to support Jess and I, our house, two cars, a vacation or two each year, and the moderate lifestyle we’ve chosen to live. While very few jobs are entirely secure, I have very little worry about losing my job any time in the near future, and even less worry about not having the ability to find a new job or remain employable if that should happen. With Jess working as well, we’re able to have more vacations, nicer things, and a bigger cushion for the future. So, photography as a business has never been about making ends meet, paying the bills, or supporting our current lives. It was about the future: something very different from what we have lined up now.

It allowed us a future of flexible living locations. Jess and I could live anywhere on this planet and still manage to make a few dollars each month from the Internet. While a brick-and-mortar store would certainly help to bring in even more money once established, it would not be a requirement. We could live closer to her family, closer to my family, or as far away from all of them as we wanted. Because travel is a natural part of certain types of photography, we could see friends and family more regularly, regardless of where we lived, on the company dime. Once we have children, this would be even more important, allowing them to see all of their extended family much more often than I did growing up 3,000 miles away.

It allowed a future away from the Dallas metroplex, which I’ve begun to consider one of the worst places to raise a children the way I want to raise my children. Aside from my family, friends, and occupation, this city offers me very little and, in many ways, actually makes things harder and more difficult.

It allowed Jess and I a future of working together. In other ventures there would be too many aspects of that business that one of us didn’t understand. Helping one another, and working to find new methods of advertising, new products, and new potential customers would have been more difficult. Photography is something that we both understand, and it’s customers are groups of people well within both of our grasps.

It allowed a future in which I would be able to spend time at home with our children. As an occupation in which a lot of time can be spent at home working, in a home studio, or at home in preparation of an event, it allows this freedom. It’s heartbreaking for me to consider having a beautiful child (or 3) at home with my wife and, because of my day-job and the hours I work, seeing them only 2 hours of each day just before their bedtime. I know, this is the reality a lot of families face, but if I have an alternative, I’d like to consider it.

It allowed a future in which the harder I worked, the more I would be compensated. I’ve been working for the same company for 10 years now. I’ve gone through bouts of 70 hour work weeks. I’ve worked 60 hours in three days before. I’ve spent much of my own at-home time doing research that would be needed for the next day’s work. In the earlier days, we were sometimes given small monetary awards for our hard work. While they were certainly appreciated, it in no way compensated for the time and effort we put in. These days, even those awards are no longer seen. I’ve gone through other bouts where, tired of my job, I worked as little as possible to just barely get my job done. No matter how hard or how little I worked, my compensation was the same. In fact, if you considered the number of hours I spent working, I was actually paid more to do less.

It allowed me to have an occupation that I could share with and explain to my children. It is cool and glamorous. Being a project manager for a large corporation isn’t exactly an easy thing to explain to a child. I have a hard time getting my wife to understand what I do. I sometimes have a hard time understanding why there are so many people that do what I do in the corporate world. While it may be a silly thing to desire, being able to know that my children are proud of what I do and think that my job is “cool” makes me very happy. There are very few 5 year olds who say “I want to grow up to be in middle management”. Being a “Photographer” is exciting, even to a 5 year old. That may not sound important, but, I want my children to like me, respect me, look up to me, and want to be like me when they get older.

It allowed me a life long career. From these early years, through child bearing and rearing into the post-children age, and on through retirement, a Photography business can take many different courses and play as big or as small a role in the consumption of my time as I’d like. I can do portraits in a studio all day long while raising children. I can teach my children how to work a camera and get them involved when we take family trips and out door vacations. As our children grow older, if they are interested they could learn the ropes of the business, working together or branching off on their own. Even into retirement, as Jess and I travel the world and share in our families new families, photography remains accessible and profitable in any capacity that I desire.

It allows me a chance to be even more involved with my town and my community. Jess’ dad, for instance, because of what he does for a living, has always been so close to his community. He knows everyone and everyone knows and respects him. I think this has really helped him to raise a better family with strong values and a deep respect from those around him. It also gives me a chance to be even more involved in things that might not normally interest me so much, like our son’s high school football games or science fairs, and our daughters mock trial team or cheer-leading practice. With a camera and an innocent motive, you get to be closer to the action than most people, deeply involved in any aspect you desire, and you can make a few dollars while you do it.

It is these things and many more that I am giving up.

Yes, there will be other opportunities to pursue this and other interests as potential businesses in the future. But I’m 28 years old. It’s time to set down roots and start a family. Some would say that time was several years ago and now I’m running very late. If I were to have kids today I’d be 8 years older than my father was when he did. And once the dependents start piling up and the bills and obligations set in even deeper, leaving this place, spending more hours away from my family to get a business started, or taking the risk of throwing away the security of what I have now becomes more and more difficult to do.

Photography as an art form provides none of these things. It’s the business aspect of it all that gave me so many promises and filled me with so many hopes and dreams. And it is that which I have lost.

So, from this point forward, I am no longer in the Photography business. It is still a hobby, a passion, and an art form. However, I no longer aspire to use it to put food on our table, clothes on our backs, and smiles on the faces of our future children.

No, I’m not selling my equipment and of course I’m still going to be taking photographs just as often as I used to. I’ll still be selling prints of my work, starting new projects, seeking exhibits, holding photo sessions, posting photographs online, begging for donations, and looking for people willing to let me point my camera at them and turn it into art.

So what’s the difference, then? If you have to ask you probably won’t understand, but I’ll try anyway.

I won’t finish designing the pamphlet I was working on to advertise a new niche service I was going to provide for newborn babies and their mothers. While the work was very interesting to me, there’s no reason for me to run around in my free time taking the same 15 photographs of perfect strangers if I’m not trying to make money doing it.

I won’t spend my nights worrying about the next big thing and how to get in front of it so I can get my business out of the red. As a hobby, it is, by nature, something that costs money not something that makes money. It’s similar to motorcycle riding, golfing, fishing, boating, and playing music.

I won’t be spending any more of my free time trying to find new customers and new business ideas. I’m still looking for people to work with, of course. When I see someone I’m interested in doing something with, I’ll be sure to let them know. I’m always happy to be approached with new projects as well. However, it’s no longer a requirement for me to look for work. If I don’t have a session scheduled or a place that I want to photograph, then I get some free time for a change.

I won’t stress out over the amount of work I have to do. I won’t get upset when I don’t have enough free time to do the other things in life that I enjoy. I won’t trip over my own words when I feel like a customer is slipping through my hands.

I probably won’t be replacing the studio strobe that exploded last month or the Expan Paper Drive that cracked in my last session anytime soon. As a hobbyist, my subjects can wait as I deal with less than perfect equipment. If they’d rather not, then they can find a professional photographer to take their photographs.

Most importantly, I’ll be keeping my sights right here at ground level where it’s safe and sound and uneventful.

My heart is broken.

He notes that the Professional Photography market is in utter upheaval and makes this plea of his readers:

If you’re an amateur – learn all you can. Shoot for the love of shooting (“love” is the root of the word “amateur”) and have a lifetime full of enjoyment and great photos.

If you are a semi-pro, decide what side of the fence you want to be on. If that side is “professional”, then learn your craft. And charge a commensurate amount for your services. Otherwise, you are really kidding yourself about who you are and what you do.

While, I’m certainly not nearly as experienced or as well paid as he is, I couldn’t agree more. Photographers and artists who continue getting bumping the drug of being paid for their work (which I’ll admit is one hell of a ride) cheapen the market as a whole and bring down the collective value of the professional photographer.

The big dilemma for me, however, has to do with social tendencies, majority rule, and finding a place in a dirt cheap market. The royalty-free stock photography sites that David mentioned in his articles are certainly lowering both the quality and cost of stock photography by offering photographers a puny $0.20 per image sold. However, my question is, at this point, is there any way to stop it? With the more successful photographers making nearly $10,000 a month from various royalty-free stock photography sites, and the beginners jumping with excitement when they get paid $0.20 because a photograph of theirs was chosen, is there any likelihood that my not jumping on this bandwagon is going to cause it to stop? While I’m not even hoping for $10,000 a month in revenue from stock photography ventures, if it’s not my images that are being bought, it’ll be someone elses.

The same idea goes with my fine art prints and portrait services. While I’d like to place a high value on my work, my time, my craft, my equipment, and my experience, it’s a hell of a lot easier for me to sell 10 prints at $10 each than it is to sell one print at $100. And it’s a lot easier for me to stack up four $25 portrait sessions and try to make a few more bucks selling prints than it is for me to charge $100 and try to find just one.

That isn’t to say it doesn’t happen or that there aren’t people who find my work and my services worth my asking price. I’ve collected my $100 sitting fee and then sold $150 worth of prints in the past. I’ve sold an 8×10 for $100. It certainly happens. But, if I add up all the money I’ve made selling cheap, and all the money I’ve made selling right, cheap wins by a long shot.

It isn’t because I’m not good enough or because I don’t have the right equipment. It’s because I have a full-time day job that keeps me from being able to actively seek higher paying work and I lack the connections and network to help find it for me. At this point, I’m happy to have one more person in the world saying “I had my photograph taken by Daniel James and they look great”.

So I struggle with myself daily: do I do it for Love, or do I do it for the Money?

I really wanted to have some promotional cards made (with a nice little coupon code on the back) to hand out at the exhibit, and get my website and photoblog up and fully functioning before then so that the increased exposure I get from an event like this doesn’t just fall through the cracks. I had even thought there’d be a remote chance that “Skins”:http://revjim.net/2006/03/24/skins-three-apples-on-curved-back/ might be ready to view by then.

As “I mentioned”:http://razormaid.livejournal.com/143827.html?thread=968147#t968147 to Erica earlier today, there are so many things I want to get done, but I’m just so bogged down with things that I feel I have to do that I can’t even consider anything else. Sometimes it gets to the point where I feel like it might just be easier to throw away everything I have — friends, connections, photographs, writing, journals, *everything* — and start all over again with a new name and absolutely no obligations to anyone anywhere.

If I can manage to stop “wasting my time on the impossible”:http://revjim.net/2006/08/23/menial-tasks/, that’ll make a big difference in the amount of time I have to do what I have to do so I can get to what I want to do.

If you’re of the praying, finger-crossing, chanting, meditating, energy-sending, or star wishing types, I could really use some focus, confidence, clear-thought and determination over the next few weeks. And encouragement — written, verbal, physical or otherwise — is always helpful.