In The Frame: Sunday, December 17, 2023 A Potpourri of Stuff, Because Who Doesn't Love Stuff?
I am growing apart from my stuff, and finding that I don't need so much of it.
Good Sunday Morning!!!!
I hope you are having as good a day as I am.
I just got in from a walk around the neighborhood where I was introduced to a steer named “Ollie”, got chased by a couple of ducks looking for a handout, and discovered a tiny Saguaro cactus just getting its footing on a part of the property I don’t visit that often.
Cool. As you know, I love me some Saguaros.
I don’t have anything deep to share this week. I have been knee-deep in making videos for a project I am working on with Selina Maitreya.
I made several, reviewed them, and realized I had lost the plot and they had to be redone. I hate when that happens, but I have to make it as best I can or it doesn’t count.
I finished a second musical composition and started a trio for Oboe, Cello, and Piano (my wife’s favorite instruments), so I have something to do when I don’t have something to do… Wait, there’s always something to do.
I want to talk about looking back to see if we are in the present we want, and using that information to guide us to looking forward.
Did you get that?
We look back to see if our life today matches what we did, and then we plan ahead to keep to that vision by making changes and being aware of the differences.
Here is what I am talking about:
The Thirty-Day Awareness Challenge.
Write these questions and answers down on a piece of paper.
No, do not grab the laptop; grab a pencil and paper.
Here are the questions:
Who am I?
What do I do?
Who do I want to be?
Now look at the last 30 days of your calendar.
Being critically judgmental, can you look at your life for the last 30 days and say that your answers to the questions are correct?
If I write down that I am a happy and engaged artist, does my past 30 days back me up?
If I say I am a photographer, was I actually acting as a photographer for the last 30 days?
If I say I want to be more comfortable financially and spend more time with my wife and my art, does that match the last 30 days of living?
And, if you find - as I did - that there are a few mismatches, what are you (and me) going to do about it for the next 30 days.
December 17, 2023, to January 16, 2024.
And on that Tuesday, when we write down who we are, what we do, and who we want to be, will our actions in the next 30 days bear that out?
If not, well, we call that disconnect.
Huge disconnect.
We are saying we are a happy guy but we spent too much time being worried. We say we are a photographer, but the previous 30 days say we were more of a writer. We want to be more financially successful, but the previous 30 days show we have done little to make that happen.
Yeah. A gut punch.
If we cannot live up to the self-view that we hold, we will be miserable and wonder why.
And ain’t nobody got no time for that, my friends.
I have been so preoccupied with the sale of our home, that I have let a lot of other things that are important to me slide. Driving 85 miles round-trip for every little realtor demand, watering the plants, keeping the vagrants out, and I realize that I have spent nearly three weeks of life in transit back and forth.
Sigh.
Thank goodness for Audible.
But my plan will help, and I will be making far more photographs in the next thirty days.
Potpourri
Wesley Verhoeve posted about making a photo journal for 2022 using those little single-use Kodak Tri-X cameras. Some wonderful stuff there, check it out.
I have been learning Figma and Webflow, but just found another website builder that I may like even better, Framer. I have a lot of plans for next year, and building websites for a diverse set of clients is part of that mix. I built my first three websites for AOL, so I have been doing it for a while. I’ll see where I land in the early part of next year.
If you are not aware of the great Rodney Smith, I would suggest you go to his blog and read it before it gets taken down. Rodney was one of my favorite photographers, and his blog telling stories of his adventures, shoots with supermodels, and the aesthetic of being a fashion photographer in the 80s is compelling as hell. Rodney passed before he finished the blog, so “The End Starts Here” has a tremendous meaning.
A few images I like.
The big, beautiful plant on the porch was dying. The heat was too much for it, but I loved those huge leaves so I grabbed a shot of the structure and design of the leaf.
The huge sunflower plant was in the middle of an asphalt parking lot. Getting down low put them against the sky giving me a context-free image that brings more focus to the design of the flowers.
The dried earth along the banks of the myriad of washes along the slope of the mountain is fascinating to me. I have quite a few images of the earth in its more mundane state - and that makes them more interesting.
A little sliver of light sneaked into the room. It remained very quiet as it slipped along the wall and finally vanished.
The Client Acquisition Sprint happened this week and the response was amazing. The photographers all felt they got more information than they expected, and a couple of them said they had learned more in my five day sprint than they had learned in any other workshop.
Cool.
I always want to over-deliver.
Coming next year:
Designing and building a website.
A Portfolio Sprint.
When you are ready, here is how I can help you succeed.
Group Mentorship: a small group of photographers who meet to show images, work on their portfolio, and build their businesses with help from a wonderful group. Lifetime membership for one fee.
One-on-one Mentorship: You and me - working together in an intense 6-month push to get you on the way to over $30K in additional revenue. The work we lay down will help you increase and scale your business for years ahead.
The Creative Class: Expand your toolset and become a one-person visual agency capable of pulling in steady and repeated income. If you have questions, let me know, and I will answer them as fast as possible.
Discount codes for In the Framers:
Cohort Discount $197: $1000 | A23CD7E72E
Creator Discount: $100: $197 | 2BA98E4053