2025 08 09
Stop (the negativity)! Chicago, Illinois. May, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
Nobody visited This Here Blog yesterday. While it’s always sad when people don’t resonate with the things you put your time into, instead of being sad and negative about it, let’s turn the tables and write some positive things (about photography) that are happening right now!
Nobody visited yesterday but I also didn’t post anything yesterday because I was busy working on a big project. The job is, realistically, larger than most professional photographers will book in their entire career. Okay, now we’re just bragging…
Nobody visited yesterday but usually a few people do, and that’s pretty cool! Anyone taking the time to look at what you are up to is amazing. I think social media has largely skewed our views towards engagement. If we are not putting up numbers in the thousands or millions, we are somehow failing. Yet if fifteen people stopped us on the street one day to say hello, we’d be shocked and amazed.
This blog, even on days I fail, has been teaching me lessons about myself and how I manage and edit my images. I still have a long way to go, but I’m figuring out new systems to help me better organize my insane amounts of photos.
Sure it’s been a challenge and perhaps won’t be around forever, but the fact that I currently have an amazing studio that people really enjoy being in makes me happy.
I’m having more fun making images now than quite possibly at any other time in my career (not a negative thought, per se, but: my concern is that there is a correlation in this observation in that I am also the slowest I’ve ever been in my career from a paid assignments perspective. Maybe we’ll dig more into this another day).
I’m exploring new things within the world of photography that I am really enjoying, namely: printing and learning all about the world of photobooks and publishing.
My list of ideas on projects I could be working on is growing so large it’s overwhelming (maybe this isn’t good??). I guess it makes me feel good to continually have the inspiration to do things, despite the reality that time is always the limiting factor.
Anytime I’m on Instagram, I see many people using my images as their profile photo. As I get more into offering portrait shoots, this is a nice little thing that helps keep me motivated.
Not photo related but: I’ve cut out most news and politics from my life and have put much more time into reading books and watching movies, which very much helps my creativity.
Thanks for stopping by!
-Clayton
2025 08 07
Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. Wilmington, Illinois. June, 2024. © Clayton Hauck
While we’ve long ago rid our land of all of it’s natural habitat, it’s nice that we’re at least putting minimal effort into restoring a few scraps back to what it kinda sorta once was. Directly behind me in this image is a bomb bunker (see: 2025 05 19).
-Clayton
2025 08 06
Haley and the barn. Kingdom, Illinois. July, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
I’ve always been fascinated by how people exteeeeend words audibly while saying a list of things they want to feel more impactful. “I’m so busy! I have to waaaaalk the dooooog, cleeeean the baaaathroom; there’s just no time!” When I was a kid, I recall being in the kitchen with my mom and her friend. The woman did this while listing off some things in mundane conversation and I called her out on it. Not in a judgy way, but more so asking if they’d ever noticed how everyone does this. I remember her reaction being quite lackluster, to my astonishment. “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” she said, most likely.
Anyway, back to work. I have a loooot of important things to do today.
-Clayton
2025 08 04
Salt Shed. Chicago, Illinois. April, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
Sometimes you leave the house and realize there’s a whole world of things happening. Often, when out, I get the sense that I really should be getting out more. But then I quickly rediscover my house and stay there for weeks or months on end.
I used to leave the house all of the time! This year, Lollapalooza came and went and I hardly even noticed it happening. I’d get more into this, from a photographer-that-used-to-be-there-every-year’s perspective, but I honestly don’t think it’s worth my time or yours.
See you out there!
-Clayton
2025 08 03
Meijer in an unknown location, but likely Indiana. November, 2022. © Clayton Hauck
If you’re paying attention, you might’ve noticed some images in recent days which were made back in late 2022. I’ve been digging through work made with my Ricoh (most of the images on this here blog are from one of my two Ricohs) in an effort to print some kind of zine/booklet situation. What, exactly, it will be is still unclear, however, it will definitely be a showcase of my personal photography and writing.
Unrelatedly, today my sister texted me a photo of the two booklets I made a decade prior. Those were less-so my own work and instead featured various things I’d read over the past year, which I wanted to share with friends. This time, I’ll be sharing my own work instead of stealing things from others and reproducing them. One regret is not doing this sooner. Another regret is not continuing the tradition of printing things, whatever they may be, and sharing them with friends. I guess I’ve got some time to make up for and friends to make.
-Clayton
2025 08 02
Wilson. Wilmette, Illinois. November, 2022. © Clayton Hauck
“Hauck shares similarities with photographers like Alec Soth, whose work blends documentary with personal storytelling, though Hauck's style is less polished and more improvisational.” -Grok
I asked ai to analyze this here blog, which I’ve sunk a pretty significant amount of my time into over the last two years. In about two seconds, Grok got back to me with a thorough and quite accurate analysis, including many quotes and examples, from the five-hundred or so blog entries I’ve made. I’m not quite sure what to think of this, however, I do now have a fun tool to help me write flattering quotes about myself and my work to help make me look cool.
-Clayton “Soth-Like But Less Polished” Hauck
2025 07 31
Neighborhood cat. Chicago, Illinois. June, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
…or maybe I’m still a cat person, after all.
-Clayton
2025 07 30
Am I a dog person? Buddy the dog. Chicago, Illinois. June, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
It was while listening to a Photo Banter podcast with guest Mark Mahaney (spurred by watching a youtube video from Bryan Birks) that it hit me: Am I not taking my photos seriously enough? Am I making too much work and focusing on the wrong things? Should I be shooting as much as I am or perhaps slow down and get more focused on what I am shooting? Should I then put far more time into sculpting the best images and thinking much deeper about how and where I am showing them? These are all great in practice, but my approach to making work has always been sort of the antithesis of this. This doesn’t mean I am doing things the wrong way, but this Winogrand-like approach has been weighing on me lately as I fill up hard drive after hard drive with images that, after being made, will usually never again see the light of day.
My goal here is not to turn this blog post into a decisive moment of reshaping my entire approach to photography, however, I'd like to encourage you first to check out the work of Mark Mahaney if you’re not already familiar, and then go into a bit more depth on a few of the notes I frantically made while listening to the podcast in the middle of editing a batch of thousands of photos.
NOTES FROM A PODCAST: these are some things Mark mentioned as being important to him, followed by some thoughts from me.
1) Give smaller edits to clients. There is not strength in merely showing you make more images.
This one hits me hard because I struggle with it and know it’s something I need to work harder on. Part of why I started this here blog was to improve my photo editing skills. I’m all-too-often guilty of falling in love with my babies and find it challenging to move things to the scrap pile. It’s the editorial mindset. The photojournalist’s approach. Maybe these other images, while weaker on their own, can be used to help sculpt the overall narrative, I tell myself, while spending tons of additional time adjusting and toning images that will never be seen again. “You’re only as strong as your weakest image,” they say. While I largely disagree with this sentiment, I am fully aware that giving a client a set of 20 selects rather than 120 selects will both help them in the process and make me look like I have stronger convictions in what it is I am aiming to achieve through my images.
2) Make myself happy, not them.
Here’s another one I am in strong agreement with. We’re not out here telling you to disregard your clients’ needs and desires. But only once you are fully engaged with what you — the artist being hired for your photography skills — are drawn towards will your images achieve a level of quality and uniqueness that you are capable of achieving. Clients and assistants often have great ideas on set (and terrible ones!). This is not to say you shouldn’t listen to anyone, but I know myself and I know that one of my weaknesses as a photographer is that I am a people pleaser who still has a production-assistant mentality much of the time. Only once I learn to fully engage with my photographic instincts will the images I am making be the strongest they can be. Oftentimes, I’m drawn to the work I made early in my career I think in large part because I was out there working for myself and only myself.
3) Only show the work you want to make it out into the world.
Does the world need to see the dog photo I used atop the page? No (Buddy may disagree). I give it a pass here because this blog is not strictly my platform for showing my strongest work, but a place to get out my thoughts and feelings about photography. That said, I know I could be a lot better about sharing far less weaker images online. It’s a similar point to number one, but me spraying my photos into the wild might do more disservice than good when it comes to wanting people to take me seriously as an artist.
4) Create my own voice in this cluttered industry — set myself apart.
This one ain’t easy. It’s what sets people apart from the pack. While I think I’ve done a relatively good job of this throughout my career, I do also think that as the quantity of great photographers increases dramatically (as is the case!), I’m sinking back down into the pack. Making consistent, strong work is the best way to achieve this, but it can help to be known for something. Like rappers shouting taglines through all of their songs, photographs will embrace one lil thing and claim it for themselves. Mark’s use of inverse vignettes is what originally made me take notice of his work, and it’s a style that I find myself using more (this is where things get tricky. It’s not like Mark owns this approach to editing images, but you can look like a copycat if you’re not careful). I aim to further explore some low-key signatures of my own which I am carefully guarding behind lock and key. Seriously, though, I think my bigger takeaway is that I need to invest far more time into the editing of my images if I want to stand out.
5) His two biggest pieces of advice to younger photographers: Learn Quickbooks and assist other photographers.
I’ll strongly agree with both here. Personal finances were something that I largely neglected through my younger successful years (luckily I’m not a big spender, but did a pretty bad job of tracking money generally). The second piece, assisting, is one regret that I have in my own career. I did a lot of it but mostly in the motion world, which has some carryover but is surprisingly different in many aspects. The thing I mentioned earlier about having a production assistant mentality was a learned skill from assisting on motion sets. I find myself being unable to tune out the production chatter, as my brain wants to immediately try to help solve problems I’m not even involved in, rather than lock in and focus on the art. Much of art is theft, and learning tricks from other photographers by watching what they do on set is something I didn’t get much access to. Maybe this is a good thing, actually?? Probably not.
While not quite on topic but an adjacent thought: I need to get much better about gaining and maintaining relationships with other photographers and photo editors, in an effort to help improve my own work. I’ve always been a bit of a loner and this mentality will usually only get you so far. Additionally, Mark talked a lot about his preparedness on set, which was rather impressive. It seems clear Mark has a personality type that helps him execute complicated shoots. While I don’t think I’m bad in this regard, I do think my personality is much different from his and I could benefit from additional focus on both pre-production and post-production. Clearly, the takeaway for me is that I really enjoy the act of shooting more than the other aspects of the job, which are also needed to round out and produce successful images.
Anyway. Those are some quick thoughts about my own career as it relates to a fellow Chicagoland native making amazing photos. I strongly encourage you to both check out that episode, linked below, and listen to Alex Gange’s other episodes as it’s one of the best out there for photo nerds like myself.
-Clayton
The imbed isn’t working for whatever reason so here is a direct Spotify link and here is a link to the Apple podcasts
2025 07 29
Haley, the cat lurer. Mineral Point, Wisconsin. April, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
My whole life I’ve been a cat person. Recently, however, I’ve found myself wondering if I’m actually more of a dog person (who also really loves cats). The reality is that I haven’t had a ton of exposure to dogs and when I was a kid, a few of my friends had dogs that scarred the shit out of me, which put a bad taste in my mouth towards them.
In a similar fashion, my entire career as a photographer, I’ve been a bulk shooter. Coming up in the digital era and doing work at events and photojournalism assignments, it was always beneficial to shoot more than you think you need. Then, as my career developed and I began doing mostly commercial assignments, the same approach applied — maximize the output! Lately, however, I’ve been wondering if there’s actually a better way to go about things; to slow it down and focus on just the best images.
More on this tomorrow…
-Clayton
2025 07 28
An image by Jack Garland. November, 2022. Easy Does It, Chicago, Illinois. © Clayton Hauck
Can a photo change your life? For me, a working photographer some two decades into my journey, the answer is a clear yes. Images have been shaping my path more than I’ve known for quite a while. I found my wife while making photos (she was, too!). I’ve bought a house and a few cars through making photos. But do the individual images actually have such an impact on things?
This image, displayed during a photo show at Easy Does It, got me out of my house one night and into the world, where I met my now friend Jack Garland. Since the meeting, we’re now running a photobook popup called Realm, with the aim of giving this operation a physical space of its own. I’m now sensing the possibility of this new path, formed at the head by a single image, becoming even wider and guiding me through the middle years of my life.
This message has been paid for by the Photography Corporation of America
-Clayton
2025 07 27
Another (really) Busted Car. Belleville, Wisconsin. May, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
-Clayton
2025 07 26
Lost shoe? Chicago, Illinois. November, 2022. © Clayton Hauck
It is quite remarkable how, in the blink of an eye, one missed day balloons into three.
-Clayton
2025 07 25
Lil house on the South Side, Chicago, Illinois. November, 2022. © Clayton Hauck
From the recent archives… working on the zine… which will realistically become more of a booklet. I have minimal expectations for how many of these I will actually sell, but much like this here blog, that’s not why I’m doing it. The process, so far, has been very enjoyable and motivating. It’s giving me purpose, which is nice. Printing and pairing images is exciting and I’m hoping to partner with some friends on the design portion, which is where I am weaker. It’s giving me grand ideas of doing all of this more and making it part of what I do. Becoming a publisher, an imprint, whatever it may be. Of course, dreaming is easy and things often change corse once the going gets tough.
-Clayton
2025 07 24
Jason Little during a Keep it 100 session at See You Soon, Chicago, Illinois. February, 2025.
It is time, I think, for another in my series of Becoming a Portrait Studio Updates. See, previously:
1) Becoming a Portrait Studio: 2025 03 24
2) Update Number One: 2025 05 13
I really dislike getting all negative on here but, to be candid, the momentum has stalled quite dramatically. I’m sure it’s a complicated mix of reasons as to why, and while it’s easy to blame myself I do think a lot of these things are out of your control, to an extent. Consistency is the only real solution, but with the drop in bookings I’ve seen this time around, it’s hard to want to keep pushing forward! All that said, I’m going to commit to carrying on, largely because some of the more exciting things I have planned for this setup haven’t been rolled out yet (namely, the everyoneisfamous.com website, which is admittedly stagnant currently, along with doing on-location versions of the setup).
Rambling aside, and before I get to the numbers for the previous run of dates, the big reason I hit a demoralizing snag is that for the first time my email blast had absolutely zero effect on bookings (I need the good leads — the Annie Leibovitz leads!). I had more people unsubscribe than I had book a session. Relentless social media posts also had basically zero effect on bookings. The only thing that somewhat saved me on the current run of dates that are happening now (nobody booked today, so I’m venting a bit here!), is that I had two families sign up for the higher price point. One of those families then reached out asking where they can get prints made, so I clearly need to work on communication, as I ofter prints myself! Perhaps that is the big takeaway overall: that in treating this like a side hustle and not like a proper business in itself, many things get lost in translation or never communicated to the people who need to hear them.
I won’t get into the numbers for this month but they are quite horrendous and not at all worth the time I set aside to offer this. When factoring in the cost of the space, I am losing money on the endeavor (and not at all covering my rent, which was the goal this month). But again, money is not the sole motivating force here! I’m still hoping to explore a related approach to the Keep it 100 setup in a small town later this summer — the idea is creative and interesting but will also likely require me to fund it myself to make it all happen. These things are only sustainable for so long. Being an artist is hard. But we knew that…
In May, I put some dates on the calendar and bookings were slow. I blamed the late notice I gave people and accidentally scheduling it between Mother’s Day and Memorial Day while people are likely busy with life stuff. Because of all that, I wasn’t too hard on myself, but I was bummed at the tepid turnout. Over six dates, we had nine sessions resulting in $1,400 in revenue plus $300 in tips (which came from one person), or $1,700 total income. This equals $283/day which is about what the space costs to rent. The general lack of tips also inspired me to increase the base fee from $150 to $175 per individual session. This is still a steal in my view but quite in line with what a lot of other local portrait photographers are charging for their sessions. Again, the economics of photography are borderline impossible these days!
The current run, which is still happening through the end of the week (book a session, why don’t you?!) had more dates, far more advanced notice, and has so far resulted in less revenue than May did. Basically, I’m only doing this for myself at this point and it’s not a viable business endeavor. That said, I’m not giving up just yet and want to try to crack the code. Nearly 40% of the few who did book this run are people who previously paid for a shoot, which is remarkable to me! It seems very clear people love these sessions and I generally love doing them (the time commitment for little money is a drag, obviously). This tells me the failure is largely in communication, which might be repairable. I’m also learning things and growing as a photographer, which is an intangible value but not one my landlord accepts as payment. The hard costs will eventually kill me at this rate, however. Eventually the camera will break down. Two strobe batteries just needed replacement and that alone set me back the cost of three sessions! And I haven’t even given a thought to taxes yanking away 40% of the gains. Grim economics.
All that said, I’m excited to get the companion website everyoneisfamous.com in a better place as it’s still in a sort of beta hibernation state. I just haven’t had the time for it yet. Once that happens and I get a few summer popups going, perhaps we’ll see more enthusiasm later this year. Also, while this setup is really fun for me, it’s admittedly not for everyone. I haven’t made an attempt (see: lack of time) to offer more conventional portrait sessions, which I think I’d both be really good at and enjoy, plus could command a higher price point. It’s something I plan to further explore as my entire photography career shifts in ways I am still navigating.
Thanks for reading and good luck shooting if you’re doing so to pay your bills!
-Clayton
PS- it’s fitting that, while writing this, we have WBEZ playing and it’s a constant fundraising plea after they just got their federal funding yanked. As someone who has always been a commercially-focused photographer, I am learning firsthand the economics of the arts and it’s wild.
2025 07 22
French fried potatoes. Chicago, Illinois. March, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
While yes, it’s true, I’m very busy with a lot of things (I’ll get you those photos soooooon, everyone!), the real reason I missed posting on time yesterday was because I discovered an amazing lil game (via youtube, where I learn about most things lately). It’s called Open Front and it’s free to play and quite addictive. I’d def recommend checking it out if you’re at all a Civ nerd like me (however — maybe don’t click that link if you have things to do).
-Clayton