2024 05 20

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

My bald cypress treeā€¦ 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. Itā€™s Life Update Monday!

Life Updates:

  • Becoming a ā€œportrait photographerā€ is way more challenging than I ever wouldā€™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, Iā€™m learning and making progress and having some fun with it as well! Ted Talk coming soonā€¦

  • ā€¦actually, Iā€™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 itā€™s making me feel like Iā€™m speaking into the void. I understand why nobody blogs anymore and everyone tweets or Xā€™es or whatever-you-call-it-now. Instant gratification is a nasty beast.

  • Iā€™m photographing two projects this week that should be both challenging and interesting. One is motion! One is studio cocktails in a style Iā€™ve not previously explored. Iā€™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. Iā€™m jinxing it but why havenā€™t there been mosquitos yet??? Did we bioengineer them away? The last few years in Chicago theyā€™ve been terrible and so far this year Iā€™m not sure Iā€™ve even seen one. Iā€™m sure they are coming, but damn, itā€™s been real nice.

  • Printing! I havenā€™t had time to get too into it yet, but, damn! The first few prints Iā€™ve made (Iā€™ve only been testing paper samples so far with the same image) have really lit a fire under my ass. Iā€™m optimistic it will unlock a whole new perspective on what photography even is, to me. More on that soon.

-Clayton

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