2024 08 08
Lollapalooza just wrapped up. I havenāt stepped foot in a music festival in many years. Today is my ten year anniversary with Allison (!!), who I met while we were both photographing a music festival (Pitchfork). I used to be young and somewhat cool but these days Iām more concerned about the weather and crime. The news anchor made a comment that my old brain found amusing: during the weather report, they were discussing Lollapalooza and she mentioned that if you knew any of the names of the bands, you were cool. Chappell Roan performed to what has been reported to be the largest-ever crowd at Lollapalooza. I have no idea who Chappell Roan is. My first though was to wonder if she is somehow related to my friend Matt Roan. I am old, and not cool.
This whole getting old thing isnāt so bad, though. Sure I miss out an making photos of all the cool, young people. But I also have time to sit in my office and write blogs and watch the skateboarders down below me doing cool things without breaking a wrist or getting beer spilled on me. Yes I miss getting a front row view of the best bands in the world, but I recall ten years back writing a scathing blog about how I was DONE with music photography because it had become so over-saturated and demoralizing. I went looking for that text, which Iām sure is massively embarrassing, entitled and self-important, and thankfully couldnāt find it. I did, however, find a gallery of images from my final fest assignment, the one I met my future wife at, and many of the images hold up! And yes, it does make me miss the days of concert photography, but Iām also sitting on my couch chilling while watching another buddy do what I did fifteen years ago and I see how damn time consuming it is! The endless grind for little to no money. Late nights and early morning. Getting paid in social media mentions, if at all. Itās definitely a job of passion and I used it as a spring board to get myself to another place.
While I may no longer be cool, I now have a ten-year relationship with a girl I love dearly and am about to tie the knot with. So I think it was a fair trade.
-Clayton
Watching the cool kids from my office. Slappy Curb. Chicago, Illinois. June, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck
Lollapalooza just wrapped up. I havenāt stepped foot in a music festival in many years. Today is my ten year anniversary with Allison (!!), who I met while we were both photographing a music festival (Pitchfork). I used to be young and somewhat cool but these days Iām more concerned about the weather and crime. The news anchor made a comment that my old brain found amusing: during the weather report, they were discussing Lollapalooza and she mentioned that if you knew any of the names of the bands, you were cool. Chappell Roan performed to what has been reported to be the largest-ever crowd at Lollapalooza. I have no idea who Chappell Roan is. My first though was to wonder if she is somehow related to my friend Matt Roan (or local sports anchor Dan Roan). I am old, and not cool.
This whole getting old thing isnāt so bad, though. Sure I miss out an making photos of all the cool, young people. But I also have time to sit in my office and write blogs and watch the skateboarders down below me doing cool things without breaking a wrist or getting beer spilled on me. Yes I miss getting a front row view of the best bands in the world, but I recall ten years back writing a scathing blog about how I was DONE with music photography because it had become so over-saturated and demoralizing. I went looking for that text, which Iām sure is massively embarrassing, entitled and self-important, and thankfully couldnāt find it. I did, however, find a gallery of images from my final fest assignment, the one I met my future wife at, and many of the images hold up! And yes, it does make me miss the days of concert photography, but Iām also sitting on my couch chilling while watching another buddy do what I did fifteen years ago and I see how damn time consuming it is! The endless grind for little to no money. Late nights and early mornings. Getting paid in social media mentions, if at all. Itās definitely a job of passion and I used it as a spring board to get myself to another place. There are days I regret this decision and wish Iād stuck it out and continued focusing on the young, the cool, and the culture instead of chasing the financially-stable path.
While I may no longer be cool, I now have a ten-year relationship with a girl I love dearly and am about to tie the knot with. So I think it was a fair trade.
-Clayton
2024 07 09
Too busy to blog. Relearning how to be a photographer. Busy drinking all the worldās best coffees. Busy planning a wedding; relearning how to make film photos; learning how to make all of the cocktails; thinking of opening a bar. Busy coming up with new ways of making money. Too busy to blog.
-Clayton
Kimball Arts Center. Chicago, Illinois. March, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck
Too busy to blog. Relearning how to be a photographer. Busy drinking all the worldās best coffees, scheming and dreaming. Busy planning a wedding; doing my morning pages; relearning how to make film photos; learning how to make all of the cocktails; thinking of opening a bar. Busy coming up with new ways of making money. Too busy to blog.
-Clayton
2024 05 03
Iāve returned from my big job in Atlanta and catching up on things. Maybe Iāll write more about photographing big production assignments sometime. Itās a fairly fascinating job. We took over an $800,000,000 airplane for the day, brought 40 people and a dozen trucks filled with endless stuff onto the busy airport tarmac, placed our āsunā lights onto a giant lift platform to get them high into the sky, and then ran through seven scenarios as if we were enjoying a flight 30,000 ft in the sky when in fact we were safely down on earth. While everything is being faked, I pride myself on making everything feel as real and authentic (creative director buzz word alert!) as we possibly can.
Speaking of creative directors on big production assignments: this is Zach skateboarding at Slappy Curb outside my See You Soon studio. We met last year on a big production job and one fun fact about him is he does not have any social media accounts. How amazing is that?!?
-Clayton
Slappy Curb in late afternoon sunlight. Chicago, Illinois. March, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck
Iāve returned from my big job in Atlanta and am catching up on things. Maybe Iāll write more about photographing big production assignments sometime. Itās a fairly fascinating job. We took over an $800,000,000 airplane for the day, brought 40 people and a dozen trucks filled with endless stuff onto the busy airport tarmac, placed our āsunā lights onto a giant lift platform to get them high into the sky, and then ran through seven scenarios as if we were enjoying a flight 30,000 ft in the sky when in fact we were safely down on earth. While everything is being faked, I pride myself on making everything feel as real and authentic (creative director buzz word alert!) as we possibly can.
Speaking of creative directors on big production assignments: this is Zach skateboarding at Slappy Curb outside my See You Soon studio. We met last year on a big production assignment and one fun fact about Zach is he does not have any social media accounts. How amazing is that?!?
Image made from my first roll off teh Contax T2. I tried pre-focusing on the pavement, anticipating where heād end up, which worked a bit but didnāt quite nail it. The fun thing about shooting film is these imperfections often only enhance the image, anyway.
-Clayton
2024 04 05
Sunsets are like a photographer cheat code. Itās easy to make a nice photo with a brilliant sunset. Because of this, sunset photos are cliche and not really something professional photographers like to make photos of, unless they are mentally-healthy mainstream photographers.
One of my best ideas was an app that has one and only one task (aside from gathering emails to monetize): send you a push notification when a pretty sunset is happening near you. Iāll never act on this idea so I will give it to you, dear reader, to act on and become an overnight millionaire.
Yesterday I briefly partook in a āphoto walkā now that I am a film photographer and people take me seriously (before sneaking off early and going back to my studio to edit my clientās digital photos which are due before I can leave town and make more digital photos for another project). I spotted a fun scene in an alley and raised my Contax to make a serious film photo. It was subtle, just the way a carās headlights were bounding off a puddle halfway between us, but just after snapping a frame, I heard an audible sigh from a photo walk participant as he mockingly-proclaimed, āan alley photo!ā Just as instant shame set in, but before I even had a chance to turn around and awkwardly defend myself, but annoyingly just after I made the image, a massive airliner dramatically emerged from the overcast skies perfectly placed in my composition like a phantom sign that I indeed was on to something.
Sunset scene with a skateboarder making use of the popular Slappy Curbs spot outside the Kimball Arts Center. Chicago, Illinois. February, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck
Sunsets are like a photographer cheat code. Itās easy to make a nice photo with a brilliant sunset. Because of this, sunset photos are cliche and not really something professional photographers like to make photos of, unless they are mentally-healthy mainstream photographers.
One of my best ideas was an app that has one and only one task (aside from gathering emails to monetize): send you a push notification when a pretty sunset is happening near you. Iāll never act on this idea so I will give it to you, dear reader, to act on and become an overnight millionaire.
Yesterday I briefly partook in a āphoto walkā now that I am a film photographer and people take me seriously (before sneaking off early and going back to my studio to edit my clientās digital photos which are due before I can leave town and make more digital photos for another project). I spotted a fun scene in an alley and raised my Contax to make a serious film photo. It was subtle, just the way a carās headlights were bounding off a puddle halfway between us, but just after snapping a frame, I heard an audible sigh from a photo walk participant as he mockingly-proclaimed, āan alley photo!ā Just as instant shame set in, but before I even had a chance to turn around and awkwardly defend myself, but annoyingly just after I made the image, a massive airliner dramatically emerged from the overcast skies perfectly placed in my composition like a phantom sign that I indeed was on to something.
Follow your instincts. Donāt let the haters bring you down. Shoot the pretty sunset if it makes you happy. Shoot more film (and digital to pay for the film).
-Clayton