2024 11 11

To be great it takes years of consistent dedication. Cubs pitcher Shota Imanaga photographed during a portrait shoot for Chicago Magazine at Wrigley Field. Chicago, Illinois. June, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

It’s been a minute since I’ve done a proper Life Update and this week will be no different, however, the topic loosely applies. I’m in the early phase of a Pivot to Video, largely spurred by a collapse in demand for commercial photography, but also aided by a lifelong love of video and filmmaking (it’s complicated why I’m not already more focused on it). In this phase, I’m spending a lot of time watching youtube videos. I swear, it’s productive… at least to an extent. Film school is what I keep calling it. Realistically, there’s just a lot of new shit that I need to get up to speed on. Of course, I’m well aware that the only way to be successful at this new venture is not by watching videos but by doing it. Every damn day.

Most, if not all, of the credit to my success in commercial photography can be summed up by putting in the work. Spending the time. Consistent focus and dedication.

In my recent film schooling sessions, I came across a channel by DP Luc Forsyth because he did some camera tests I was curious about. Digging deeper into his channel, I watched this video linked below, which so brilliantly summed up these ideas on success within the industry, ideas I already fully agree with and believe in, but ideas I found interesting specifically because he put them in terms of growing his youtube channel as a working DP. This idea of starting a channel is one I’ve been dwelling on for years now, without taking the leap, mostly because I fully understand the challenges involved. It’s frustrating when I post some photos on Threads and they get zero likes. It’s frustrating when I post a blog to give away a print and get zero engagement. It’s likely far more frustrating to spend hours or your life painstakingly crafting and posting videos for them to go completely ignored by the eight or so billion people living in this world.

Luc summed up his growth projections so well and accurately:

1 year of weekly posting = 1,000 subscribers
2 years of weekly posting = 10,000 subscribers
3 years of weekly posting = 100,000 subscribers

This chart is the sole reason I don’t yet have a youtube channel. I know in my bones it’s accurate, if not optimistic, and the sheer amount of time, energy, effort and focus required to put towards making a new video each and every week, without fail, is daunting. The idea that committing to this for a full year, after which you may get you a thousand subs is almost comical. But that’s not the reason to do it. It’s for year three. Year ten. Year twenty.

I’m already in my forties so the feeling that it’s now or never, the feeling that I’m running short on time is very real and the biggest thing holding me back from going all-in on video. I still love still photography as well and not yet fully convinced I can’t make it work for another twenty years. Anyway, these are the things I am spending a lot of time thinking about lately.

-Clayton

2024 11 10

Another busted car (this one’s a big one!). Chicago, Illinois. July, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

As I sit on my couch this beautiful summer fall afternoon (it’s sixty-two degrees today!), I find it appropriate to post yet another Busted Car image. While Trump and his crew of Elites (wait I thought they hated elites?) figure out how to best pillage this nation’s fine institutions in the name of tax breaks for themselves (that we voted for!), I think to myself, it could be worse; I could be a Bears fan.Wait, fuck.

-Clayton

2024 11 07

The Thompson Center, undergoing a transformation. Chicago, Illinois. July 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Things change. When I was a kid, my dad brought us downtown and I vividly remember the awe inspired by this building as we entered its public atrium. This, in part, made me want to become an architect when I got older. Instead, I eventually became obsessed with video shooting and ended up pursuing that as a career as I entered my young adult years. The video obsession eventually morphed into a still photography obsession, largely because it was easier for me to make work by myself, and didn’t need to rely on others to get things done. Candidly, I was an introverted shy kid and navigating the necessity of forming a big crew to make video productions happen seemed daunting to me at the time. When I found some traction as a photographer, it was a no brainer to shift my attention to that.

Now, I find myself an older guy and the Thompson Center is underground a tech-funded transformation (along with our country, it turns out). This morning, I woke up excited about video for the first time in a long time. It was an interesting observation and one that has gotten me excited! I’ve never lost my love for video and filmmaking, however, it’s been firmly in the back seat for my entire adult life. New cameras and accessories are now being released, which are making me giddy to get my hands on them. I’m in the early days of a documentary project that is getting me excited, and I’m planning on collaborating on a bunch of test shoots this winter with a talented DP friend to showcase what we can do with beverage and food.

More to come as I make steps towards a new and exciting pivot in my professional career.

-Clayton

2024 11 06

Today, we stare into the void. Chicago, Illinois. September, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Here we go again. Hold on to your butts. Last night was a gut punch for many of us, but here we are. Lots of people will have lots to say, with hindsight on their side, but I think my biggest takeaway is that we don’t have an effective opposition to Trump populism. The Democratic party is run by a largely-senile president who was pushed out of office against his own wishes and was nowhere to be seen throughout the election; along with a former president who is nowhere to be seen until it’s time to campaign for a few weeks leading up to the vote; along with a former Speaker who, while smart, is an 84-year old millionaire none of us can relate to or connect with. This isn’t the kind of leadership that wins elections and unless something changes, it will continue to happen over and over again.

Kamala was not a perfect candidate, but she ran a decent campaign, all things considered. Sure, she could’ve done many things differently, but I don’t think it would’ve changed the outcome one bit. It was an impossible task and now we live in a world where the only two female presidential candidates in our countries’ history have both been defeated by Donald Trump. It stings, bad. It’s a grim reality, but it is our reality and if we want it to change, we’ll need to stay engaged, stay focused, and stick together.

-Clayton

PS - I think Jon sums it up well here, and Jonathan does a pretty entertaining job as well, below that:

2024 11 03

Another Mr Peepers. Chicago, Illinois. September, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Yesterday, Sunday, I took my day off so seriously that I forgot to post anything at all. I blame the Bears, who so demoralized me, I lost the will to do anything at all. Chicago sports is remarkable, really. Our teams experience occasional brilliant glory and then spend the next decade or two toiling away among the worst and most poorly-run organizations in all of sports. We’ll get ‘em next year, I’ll say again next year!

-Clayton

2024 11 01

Hyde Park and downtown through the trees of South Shore, Chicago. September, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Another one of Paulie B’s great Walkie Talkie videos dropped and it’s Chicago street photographer Amando de Leon so I have to shout it out! Peep the video below… a few fun standout moments for me were:

• Amando says: 35mm in Chicago, 28mm in NYC are the perfect focal lengths and that feels so right. I love the sentiment.

• “I love flash. You look like you’re just having a party!" Being out here [photographing on the street] is like being at a party”

• He wants to publish more DIY zines and get a website up to sell them to fund his photo projects … I’m aiming to create a lil web shop on my see you soon site for this exact kind of thing. Hopefully early next year it’ll be a reality. It’s been stewing in my brain for a long time now, it’s just finding the time to make it a reality that has been the challenge. Ideally, I would love to help in my own tiny way to support these photographers who are out there putting in the time making their art. I’d also love to be out there myself more but know that realistically it will probably never happen, at least as much as I’d like it to.

• Amando likes to photograph in bars. This was my life for a while! I think Amado and I need to meet and I need to buy the guy a couple beers! Hit me up, Amado!

• Gary Stochl and Vivian Maier doing it themselves without a community or social media to keep pushing them.

• Why do you take photos? “because it makes me feel like I’m here, I’m present.”

-Clayton

2024 10 27

It’s me. Chicago, Illinois. July, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Proof of life. Should I become a self-portrait photographer? Probably not. Nice to document the addition of grey hairs, though. Surely I will cherish these moments when all of my hairs are grey. Happy Sunday! Back soon with more… content.

-Clayton

2024 10 26

Behind the camera during a portrait session at my See You Soon studio. Chicago, Illinois. July, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

This weekend, at my studio we:

• Hosted a Creative Mornings event with 80 people in attendance

• Hosted a honky tonk show for The Bobcat Boys with fifty or so people in attendance

• Hosted a party for Show & Tell Me More, an early childhood development online course which films in our space

• Hosted a party for our neighbors to celebrate their child’s one-year birthday

I am tired. Good thing it’s almost Monday and I’m definitely not posting this a day late after just having watched the Bears lose an otherwise great game (second half, at least) on a bonehead hail mary defense. Having so much programming at the studio is fun but it’s very much a full-time job.

-Clayton

2024 10 24

Some filming going on at my studio space. Chicago, Illinois. May, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

I live at my studio now. I don’t sleep there, but I live there. It’s a nice space and people ask me all the time if I live there. I do, I just happen to leave late at night to go to my second home to sleep before waking up early and returning to the studio. It’s, perhaps, not the most economically-sensible approach to life, but it’s what I do.

See you at 7:30am (soon)!

-Clayton

2024 10 22

An alley tree. Chicago, Illinois. July, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Here is another film image made this summer. I must say, film does have a little way with making mundane images just that much better. This same angle as seen from a digital camera would likely not make it to this here blog. The on-camera flash also adds an interesting element while mixed with the nice end-of-day light in the background.

I wish I hadn’t fully given up on film a decade ago and only now re-started shooting some film, now that it is a trendy and expensive way to make mundane images just a smidge more interesting.

-Clayton

2024 10 21

Eve of Funeral Potatoes in the kitchen at Moonflower. Chicago, Illinois. July, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Lately I’ve been doing too much. Or, better put, I’ve been trying to do too much. Spreading myself too thin. The blog has suffered as a result, nearly missing some days and putting in bare minimum effort others. I’ve missed writing my Morning Pages more days than not. I find I’m most successful in life when I focus my attention into one or two things. This blog isn’t a thing because I’m trying to make it into a business, but it is a thing because I’m using it to focus my attention on something. Get my thoughts down onto digital paper. And to keep me motivated to make and share new images. It has been successful at times and less so at others.

There are a few more in-depth posts I will make a priority to share this week when I’m not busy doing my “real” jobs. Today, we are filming a documentary project as part of my slow and reluctant pivot towards video. Wednesday I am photographing a different project. Otherwise I am printing, working on art, working on a book shop, a bar, a creative studio, studio managing, event planning, life planning, invoicing, catching up on my personal life. It’s all too much, really. I’m starting to get the sense that if I continue to try and carry all of these bags, I’m going to drop them.

We recently lost a few photography jobs because we were too expensive. Today, we took a call with a prospective client who is looking for someone cheaper than their existing long-term photographer partner. It all feels a bit too on the nose. It’s like life is delivering me a clear choice and I need to decide which path I will go down. Work for less or work less.

Allison & I had a very nice dinner at Houndstooth last week. While the food was delicious, my biggest takeaway was how calm and orderly the kitchen prepared our food while we sat and watched at the chef’s counter. It was inspiring! It made me dream of a life so structured and orderly… being able to do something you’re passionate about in a calm and sustaining manner. But as is always the case in life, there’s so much more going on behind the scenes, for the better and for the worse, in order to be able to get to a place of such stability.

-Clayton

2024 10 19

Photographers wear many hats. See You Soon. Chicago, Illinois. July, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

While out on a short getaway this week, I came to a realization that in the near future, everyone will be have a bed & breakfast. It’s really the perfect job for participants in today’s manic economy. You have not one measly job but quite literally all of the jobs, while being fully responsible for participating in them twenty-four hours a day, three-hundred and sixty-five days a year (you get one day off every four years on February 29th).

I joke, but the joke is deeply rooted in my own reality. Photographers first and foremost need to be skilled not in the act of making nice images but in sales and marketing (along with client relations, finance, studio managing, tax accounting, law, etc). They don’t teach you this in art school, of course. The fun stuff (making photos) is a shockingly small portion of the time you spend being a photographer. If you are good enough at sales, you can get enough paid jobs to save up enough money, buy a dilapidated building in a small but charming midwest town, and then live the good life as full-time inn operator.

-Clayton

2024 10 18

Cool ride, bro. Chicago, Illinois. July, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Missed another post yesterday. The excuse is that my wife and I were out and about all dang day! We started the morning in Douglas, Michigan where we had a fabulous dinner the night before. This was followed by Saugatuck, Benton Harbor, St Joseph, Sawyer, and rural destinations in between. I’ve always been more of a Wisconsin guy, largely because my family is from there, however we both loved and kinda fell for Michigan. The sunset over the lake is an added bonus that is hard to beat for someone used to living across the pond. Silly analogies aside, the natural landscapes and charming towns in the Saugatuck area really had me feeling like we have a little slice of Europe right here in America.

-Clayton

2024 10 17

Two people pose for a portrait in Pilsen. Chicago, Illinois. June, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

I like this image but hadn’t posted it, mostly because there was a sliver of a person’s head poking out behind the woman and it really annoyed me. Figuring I would scrap it, I gave Photoshop’s generative fill a chance to remove the face, thinking it wouldn’t do a great job because of all the hair and building texture involved. It was nearly perfectly removed on the first try.

I continue to have complicated feelings towards Ai, however, it is clear it’s not going away. It’s also clear many jobs will be going away as a result (I still think, while the creative job losses are most obvious now, it will be the non-creative job losses that will really change society in ways we can’t yet imagine). I’m not making any profound statements here. Everyone knows this, but figured I’d post it as a quiet little reminder that I need to get my ass some better Ai training to help me “fix” my commercial photos.

-Clayton

2024 10 14

Another busted car. Chicago, Illinois. May, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Lee Friedlander is a favorite of mine. I stumbled upon this nice video, linked below, while avoiding watching football on Sunday afternoon. While I’ve always been attracted to Friendlander’s images, I haven’t put much effort into getting to know the man. That’s the case for me, generally, when it comes to historic photographer figures. I think a part of it is a worry that getting to know them as people will take away a bit of the magic. Perhaps it’s that I’m lazy and making excuses.

“Art is too big a word for me. It has too many letters in it.”

— Lee Friedlander

Lee was a bit of a rascal, it seems, which shows in his work and gives it personality. I often wonder what it is that gives talented photographers an edge and makes their work stand out. I also often wonder if my special skills aren’t accidental and knowing more about the craft and its masters will only reveal me as a fraud. As I get older, I’m coming to realize this is self-sabotage and I would be better served knowing, learning from, and embracing the people I am most impressed with.

“It seems to me if you had the answer why ask the question? The thing is there are so many questions. I wonder what it is going to look like if I stand here or if I stand there.  I don’t know. If fifty years of doing it meant that every time you picked up the camera you made a good one you wouldn’t have to take many. I make a lot of stupid pictures. Most of them are stupid because I’m trying to figure where to be or where to focus. I don’t think the problems area any different now. I grow wiser as time passes only because I know a little bit more about what is possible, only because I’ve done it for so long. I am used to being a craftsman. But maybe it’s not that. Maybe it’s infatuation. Age has no patent on infatuation.”

— Lee Friedlander

It would be smart of me to start a casual little series of posts investigating works of other photographers. This youtube channel is a great starting point, as Graeme is clearly full of knowledge and has a great eye for strong images. I previously wrote about his video covering another favorite, Nadav Kander (see: 2024 04 01). Now I just need to make some better images to go along with these posts about the all-time greats.

Additionally, this interview was where I pulled the two quotes and is worth a read.

-Clayton

2024 10 12

It's all business. Chicago, Illinois. August, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

What does the porn industry tell us about the current state of commercial photography? Well, quite a lot it turns out! Oftentimes while editing photos, I’ll play youtube videos in the background to keep me entertained. Former commercial photogrpaher turned youtuber Mark Laita (trend alert!) runs a channel called Soft White Underbelly where he interviews a steady stream of interesting and flawed people on the fringes of American society. This particular episode was a good one, in which a male porn actor talked with Mark about his career in adult film.

The part that got me thinking was how, when he talked about the industry currently being in a state of change and decline, it was remarkably relatable to the industry I participate in. Sure, we may have somewhat less sexually transmitted diseases in commercial photography, but the general sense that everything has changed rapidly and definitively is there. In Alex Jett’s career, the rise of OnlyFans has allowed porn to go from the actor straight to consumer, thus cutting out all of the middle men. There’s no longer a need for production companies and distribution companies, which has made porn cheaper and more plentiful as anyone brave enough to bare it all on the internet can now do so from the comfort of their own home and without the need of anyone else even being involved.

production company > actor > distribution company > store > viewer

actor > tech company > viewer

This is when I started to think about commercial photography. Massive systems and businesses have been in place for decades to help companies manage their marketing and advertising. If a company wanted content of any form made, sure, they could do it themselves but usually it’s far easier and far more effective to outsource the process and let professionals execute it for them. This is where I come in! Clayton Hauck, at your service, ready and able to drop everything and help you produce high quality photos and videos to help you move your companies image forward! You want me to cancel my vacation to shoot an ad campaign for you? No problem! You need me to travel across the country to photograph farms in Wisconsin or furniture stores in Utah? Sounds great! I’ll do it all. For money, of course. That is the catch. The money part. (seriously, though, hire me!)

As content creation (whether it’s porn or not) has become remarkably easy for anyone to do (do well, is another debate), the entire industry which has grown up in support of it is now struggling to stay afloat. A business needs some photos made so they hire an ad agency, who then goes out and hires a production company, who then goes out and finds a photographer, through their agent, to make the work. There are a lot of layers and steps, some of which are good and some of which wasteful and unnecessary, but they are all there for a reason. The problem is nobody wants to pay for any of the middlemen any more when it’s so easy to make images, good ones even, yourself or through your cousin who works at a law firm but likes to make photos and will happily do it for free because it takes her mind away from looking at legal documents all day long.

company needing content > ad agency > production company > photo agent > photographer

company needing content > content creator or hobbyist

Everyone is a photographer now (thanks, iPhone). Those of us who try to use photography as a way to make a living will continue to have a much harder time doing so. Companies want quick, easy, and cheap. It’s hard to blame them, it’s literally the point of a corporation to maximize profits. I lost two projects this month because we are more expensive than whoever else was hired to do the jobs. I’m up for another project but they are asking me to cut my rate by half of what I’d normally charge. On the flip side, I also was hired for a job recently because the client was burned from this approach and the images they tried to get made cheap turned out to be garbage. This is why I still have a job, however, it’s only going to continue to become harder to make a good living through taking photos, as companies continue to try to figure out ways to remove the layers of support which they no longer deem necessary.

It’s probably time I finally start that youtube channel I’ve been meaning to start!

I’m not giving up that easy, though. We’re planning on producing a bunch of high end spec projects this winter, while things are slow. I’m still oddly confident that the best of the best image creators will forever be in high demand and companies will continue to advertise as long as we have a functioning economy. The ability to make a living through making images, while increasingly difficult, is still an honor and joy and worth fighting for. Plus, I don’t have what it takes to make it on OnlyFans so I’m kind of stuck.

-Clayton

2024 10 11

Buddy the dog. Chicago, Illinois. Summer, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Oops, I did it again. I missed a day. I’m going to blame Buddy for this one. He’s a dog, yes, and it’s his fault that I forgot to post yesterday. It’s not my fault. Seriously, though, we are watching Buddy and he distracted me with cuteness. This whole daily blogging thing is really starting to become problematic for me! I have so many things I want to write about but lately it’s just post after post of me explaining why I’m not posting anything.

-Clayton

2024 10 10

Urinal out of order. Chicago, Illinois. August, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Blog out of order. Today was one of those days the content just wasn’t there. Like listening to a rap song on the radio when a stretch of bad words are silenced, today it was illegal to post good content on the internet for free, therefore we had to skip a day in order to be compliant with the law. Don’t blame me, blame the government. Much like they control the weather, they have infiltrated our creative hobbies, as well. Fuck.

-Clayton

2024 09 30

Shōta Imanaga photographed for the cover of Chicago Magazine. Chicago, Illinois. June, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Finally made it to a Cubs game this year. The last game of the season. During a lull (0-0 game into the 10th) I saw Shota Imanaga, their star pitcher from Japan, hanging out in the dugout and made a run for it, dodging the ever-present ushers.

I got down real close and shouted his name and his interpreter’s name, hoping they’d turn around and recognize me from our cover shoot a few months back. I wanted to ask if he liked the image!

They did not recognize me. Turns out I’m still just an obnoxious fan who the Wrigley ushers do not like.

See you next season.

-Clayton

2024 09 28

Bare trees (and the moon). Chicago, Illinois. May, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

It’s just bare trees (and the moon), I know, but I really like this image. It’s been sitting in the folder, waiting to get picked, and today is the day. It looks best when not massively compressed for the web, of course, but here we are on the world wide web. Speaking of the web, while editing images today, The Almighty Algorithm served me yet another documentary on Chicago house music which I digested and enjoyed in similar fashion to this post from 2024 07 21.

I was never a big house head and don’t know the history as well as I should, having lived in Chicago my entire life, but I enjoy electronic music (esp classic disco), and also love history, so it’s fascinating to watch these videos on youtube which clearly have a ton of time and energy put into them with little to no fanfare. That’s sort of the thing with house music. That’s sort of the thing with Chicago. We’re out here putting in the time and effort and making things for the love of the game, and all too often are rewarded with the gift of not being discovered and not being turned into a product, remaining human (downside: not getting the cash). There’s a reason many leave Chicago in search of fame and fortune (and trying to get to the moon). And there’s a reason some of us stay here and pursue their art via blogs like this here blog.

Yes, dad, I’ll get back to photographing people again soon.

Check out the video if you have a chance. Back to work, I go. Always be grinding, if you love the grind.

-Clayton