1:47am on New Year's Day. Still feels likes New Years Eve to me, I haven’t gone to bed yet. Elizabeth and I spent our New Year's Eve shooting a wedding. I finished importing my last wedding of the year, currently backing up to external hard drive while drinking a glass of Chianti Classico wine as I type this. Hope your holiday was a great one!
I have been writing and reading during my blog hiatus, felt good just to write. In this next year this blog will take on more of a diary style of writing to its format. No more “How-To” posts. Format is an odd word to use when blogging but I am going to use it.
Thinking about shutting off the comment option to this blog to keep my focus on generating a body of work and not to be influenced by what others think….not that I get many comments either way… It feels like the purity of creating and uploading for the sake of doing it should be enough. Not sure yet what, if anything, I will do.
For the past two years I have been community building, better yet, trying to community build in the photo community in Pittsburgh. I no longer will focus on that anymore. To my disappointment it seems more/most people (not all) are interested in opening a businesses than enjoying/learning the process of creating photographs. That's not a bad thing, unless the knowledge is being used to jump in with both feet while neglecting the process of gaining experience, being ethical to the professional community around you and the clients you are about to serve...which seemed to be the case.
Why? It could have been me; there is a good chance that I delivered the wrong message. So let me put it straight: Create something new, daily. Enjoy the creative process. If you have a passion to understand the craft of photography by all means go for it. It’s a great life.
With that said, teaching, consulting and workshops will continue but the open door policy that I have embraced will be no more.
Let me offer two apologies: one to the people with passion and effort who have a love for the creative process,. And two: to the established photo community at large, I meant no harm. I am sorry for the culture that arose.
Let me end with some good news…
I deeply believe that it is the working artist's duty to mentor and help the next generation of up and coming artist. I promise that I will figure out a way to help those who are truly passionate about there craft.
Do the least amount of harm possible and be aware of the harm that you cause.
