Changing Perspectives

My photography website is finally launched. In my last post, I posed the question of “what took me so long?” just to see what some of my friends would say. One friend in particularly, one who knows me pretty well, suggested that my hesitation was out of fear of “opening myself up to the critique of strangers” and that “opening the creative parts of [oneself] is scary, and real, and emotional.” I don’t think that’s really it, though I can see how that could definitely be the case in general.

But now it’s launched, and I'm in the process of getting up and fully-running. And it’s been a process. Launching a website to sell photography (or probably anything) isn’t as simple as doing so…which shouldn’t be (and isn’t) a surprise. My site has been up for a week now. I have a software package where I can organize caption, and edit my photos. I’ve kept my photos pretty organized over the years, just because I’m a pretty organized person. The software allows me to rate my photos on a scale of one to five stars, and I’ve always kept up with rating my photos after each upload batch.

The hosting webpage company I’m using has several pre-set website formats, so to make things easy I picked one of those formats. Each format allows photos to be uploaded to “galleries”, and galleries can be lumped into groups. In the first week, I’ve changed my mind about how I wanted to group my photos twice; fortunately, moving photos around within galleries is pretty easy.  Then, I started uploading, deciding to upload only my five-star rated photos. What I discovered pretty quickly is two things: first, my rating “system” didn’t take into consideration any outside points of view, or any technical aspects of my photos. Basically, I rated a photo as five stars if I really liked the scene, although the photo may have been grainy or slightly over-edited. Second, I didn’t have many photos that I determined were five stars.  Read differently…I’m somewhat hard on myself. Now, that isn’t unknown to me, but sometimes that fact comes up and smacks me upside the head when I least expect it.

So, as part of this process, I’ve decided to go through my entire collection of almost 5,000 photos and review their ratings, but this time with a different perspective. Yes, the rating will still be largely based on how much I like the scene and how much I like the photo; but I’ve tweaked my rating “system” to give a higher rating on a photo I think others may enjoy, and to give a lower rating on a photo I like that isn’t good technically. And in that thought process, the real first fear of doing this raised its hand: is this going to be more of a hassle than it’s worth? And if so, is it going to ruin the enjoyment I find in doing this purely as a hobby? See, I’m not as worried about what others think about my photos…that never crossed my mind. What I’ve been worried about is, by taking this public and by adding tasks to my photography, will photography for me become more of a task and less of an escape?

I’ve wrestled with this question throughout my life. In college, I thought about majoring in Music, or Psychology, or a field called Regional Planning/Urban Design, or even Civil Engineering, all of which I enjoy. But I never did, because I was afraid of the concept that maybe doing something I love as a career would somehow burn itself out. So, instead, I took something I was good at and chose that as my career – Accounting. I decided that I wanted my day job to be the support my hobbies, instead of merging my hobbies into my day job.  I made that decision at the age of 19.

And here I am…not sure how I would rate that decision. It wasn’t a disaster, so that counts for something. And my hobbies have remained my hobbies and I still enjoy them. And to some extent, happiness is what you make of it, so I’ve tried to make the best of being in the Corporate World…but that isn’t the point here…

…so I’ve decided to review and update my rating system. I’ve also decided to upload any photos that I’ve rated four or five stars…I’m going out on a limb and not being so hard on myself. And so far, in the first week, I’ve probably reviewed half of my photos, and I’ve uploaded 750 of them.

But…building the website is far from complete. One thing that I didn’t do in my organization of my photos is to assign keywords to my photos, which I just realized last night. So…now, I have to stop my review of my ratings, and start thinking about adding keywords into my photo organization, so that those keywords can be included in the uploads to the website.  Once I do that, I can go back to revising my ratings, and then once that is finished, I can go back to the 750 that I have already uploaded and add keywords there.

Then, there is the business side of things:  the website has a “contact me” section where customers can contact me for questions, issues, or whatever. Hmmm…do I want to put my home phone number and address out there? Fortunately, I rarely use my real home phone number for anything; in fact, I had been considering getting rid of my landline and strictly using my cell phone. So, first question answered…my “home” phone number is now my “business” phone number. E-mail addresses are easy…I’ve already created a “business” e-mail.  Finally, I’m currently debating whether I want to spend the money on renting a P.O. Box, and I haven’t come to a conclusion yet.

After that comes the decision of setting prices. I haven’t even started to think about that. This site I have has partnered with several providers that can create products, such as coffee mugs, photo books, framed prints, which can be ordered through my site. So, I need to come up with a price list for all of those, and determine how much profit I want to attempt to make on this. Hmmm…profit…getting close to my Accounting world…let me put the car in neutral and think for a little bit…do I really….yes, I am going to push myself forward.

Its 2014…I’m 41…time to think bold. (Not that 41 has anything to do with anything…) I’m a simple man in this respect…I don’t like things to be complicated, and I tend to shy away from complicated things. And this, too, is one of those personality traits that I know about myself but tends to jump out from behind the bushes at times. So I have to keep telling myself to keep pushing through the complications. And, in reality, this really isn’t THAT complicated. The website hosting company that I’ve picked is really making this process relatively easy compared to what it could be. So, I push forward...

…but I’ve found a pleasant surprise out of this, one that I didn’t see coming (which I guess is what makes it a surprise, huh?). In selecting the various groups that I’ve selected to compile my photos, I’ve realized that I’ve missed out on some photo opportunities of places where I’ve been before but haven’t been to in a while.  My first digital camera was a present in 2001, and it was a 1MP (megapixel) camera, and it was more of a point-and-shoot camera. The camera I bought myself in 2003 was a 4MP camera, which had manual options for aperture and shutter speed, and I also was able to buy a telephoto converter and a wide-angle converter as well. There is a definite difference in my photos from the first camera to the second, just from a technical perspective. But also, in my buying this camera in 2003, I also bought some how-to books, so there is also a definite difference in the types of photos I’ve taken pre- and post- 2003.

I moved to Western New York in 2007. My camera was my inspiration to go out and explore my new surroundings, and Western New York has a lot of beautiful scenery.  But last year, I started to feel like I’ve explored a lot of what’s out there. This past summer, as a gift, I was given a used by very good quality 12MP camera. This camera has the same manual options, but the ranges within those options are much greater, and an entire new set of photographic parameters have opened up.   My 2003 4MP camera still works, so when I am out taking photos, I can be found using both cameras, depending on the type of shots I want to take.

Winter tends to be down time for me as an outdoor photographer. I don’t enjoy cloudy, grey winter days when the snow is piled up, from a photographic standpoint, and it’s rare to get a sunny winter day in Western New York, so over the past couple of years, I’ve used the winter months to organize my photos, and to think about where I may want to visit (within driving distance) in the coming weekends of the new year.

So, as I said, part of this reviewing and uploading process has made me realize that there are a lot of places I could re-visit, where there are plenty of new or improved photos waiting to be taken. And in that discovery, there is a little bit of excitement. But also, as an additional bonus, I’ve started thinking about outdoor photography from the perspective of my “customers” in the abstract, instead of the perspective of what I want to find, and that has actually opened up a few new doors of creativity and inspiration. The concept of this is…going out to familiar places, where I’ve already found a perspective that I’ve enjoyed, and re-reviewing those places to see if other perspectives exist.

So…coming into 2014 from a photography standpoint, I was at a standstill.

…the answer, as is the case sometimes, it right in front of my eyes (pun intended)…it’s not always about finding something new…sometimes it’s about revisiting the old and taking a new look at it. IN my case, that means both visiting places I haven’t been to in a while, and also visiting everyday places, this with with a new angle.

It’s all about the perspective. 

“And when they have enough trust in you to take the chance, with no net, no parachute, it's a little scary and maybe a little painful, but that's when the good stuff happens. “

- Quincy Jones