I've slowed down on my photography lately, and I hate it. I got myself all excited in the first half of the year after I figured out that I wanted to be Artist and Homemaker, and I took the first steps to make that into an eventual reality. I opened a store! I put my work out there! Progress! Exciting!
...then no one bought anything.
I know that I can't expect to take off like a rocket, and just instantly start making enough to quit my day job and do what I love instead. But it still knocked me down a couple of pegs. I let myself dream too much, as I tend to do, and when it didn't come true immediately I panicked. I started thinking that if I took a million pictures, of the things that got the most responses on Facebook and Tumblr (aka pretty pretty flowers), maybe the exposure and attention would happen, and sales would follow. I even submitted my photoblog to a couple of directories and collections on Tumblr, hoping for a little bit of exposure that way.
But neither worked. I didn't get more attention, I didn't get "showcased"...if anything, response has dropped off. And I let it get to me, I let myself translate it into I'm Not Good Enough and I Should Keep Doing Flowers Eventually It HAS To Work! I've gotten ultra-critical (and I'm already my own worst critic) and afraid to try new or weird subjects.
You know what?
Fuck. That.
The 30 Day Photography Challenge has helped a bit (even when I'm behind a few days, like now), and I've been forcing myself to move from "That might be a cool picture" to "I'm going to try and capture that even though I'm in public and will get strange looks :D!" What with being a gentle weirdo and my recent penchant for dressing like a little kid, I think I can embrace the Eccentric Artist persona and be okay with the odd looks. It means I'm Doing It Right...right? ;)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment