2024 05 20

The moon above my backyard bald cypress tree. Chicago, Illinois. April, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

My bald cypress tree… Can a tree really belong to someone? I think not. But I do love and care for this tree as if it was my own child. Watching Baldee grow up has brought joy to my life. I kid (a little) but being a man without a human kid or (currently) dog or cat or hampster to care for, you take the love where you can get it.

Anyway. It’s Life Update Monday!

Life Updates:

• Becoming a “portrait photographer” is way more challenging than I ever would’ve guessed. Convincing people to pay you money for them to come to your studio to stand in front of your camera is no easy task.

• That said, I’m learning and making progress and having some fun with it as well! Ted Talk coming soon…

• …actually, I’ve been kinda wanting to write more honest thoughts about the backside of the photography business. Numbers, paperwork, production, etc. Is this something anyone wants to see? Am I just opening up a can of worms I will regret? Leave a comment!

• Blog comments: nobody leaves them and it’s making me feel like I’m speaking into the void. I understand why nobody blogs anymore and everyone tweets or X’es or whatever-you-call-it-now. Instant gratification is a nasty beast.

• I’m photographing two projects this week that should be both challenging and interesting. One is motion! One is studio cocktails in a style I’ve not previously explored. I’m also exploring different lighting approaches in both (namely, continuous lights vs strobes).

• The studio is a full-time job and something I should also write a bit more about. Lots of lessons learned over the last 2-3 years. The last few months it has been cashflow positive, which is obviously nice but is not always the case (nor was I expecting it to be, however, I was expecting it to be easier in almost every other way than it has been).

• Weather is nice. I’m jinxing it but why haven’t there been mosquitos yet??? Did we bioengineer them away? The last few years in Chicago they’ve been terrible and so far this year I’m not sure I’ve even seen one. I’m sure they are coming, but damn, it’s been real nice.

• Printing! I haven’t had time to get too into it yet, but, damn! The first few prints I’ve made (I’ve only been testing paper samples so far with the same image) have really lit a fire under my ass. I’m optimistic it will unlock a whole new perspective on what photography even is, to me. More on that soon.

-Clayton