2024 09 18
This is what my laptop desktop has looked like for about a year now. Instead of locating the folder I need on the desktop, Iāll open any random folder and use the search bar to type for it instead. My schedule, and my thoughts and focus, have been all over the place. Iāve been telling myself for months now that I will get around to organizing the desktop, and the studio, and the house, and my time. Yet, here we are, still scrambling.
I think this is a nice analogy for my life and a sign that I really ought to get my priorities a bit more straight. This is not to say I need a complete change in lifestyle, but better balance would be beneficial. Itās impossible to shine when you have a million tasks in front of you, blocking your view.
We watched Civil War last night. The movie is just okay but it got me feeling nostalgic for a different era of photography and photojournalism. Shooting film and developing film yourself while on the move. The movie got me wanting to get out and make more photos. The movie also got me wanting to make a movie myself. This post reminded me that I wanted to write some thoughts about the seasons and why I prefer living in a place like Chicago, where they are clearly defined (although increasingly less so these days).
Last week, I hosted a favorite musician in my space, David Dondero, for an incredible night, which was lightly attended. On Friday of this week, I am hosting a favorite Illinois photographer Nathan Pearce, which my negative-thinking brain assumes will also be lightly attended as itās an afternoon affair. As Iām getting older, Iām learning that dwelling on the negative things doesnāt serve much good, and while I donāt yet believe in manifesting your reality, I see the point of people who do. More importantly, however, the takeaway is that I need to improve in communicating. Itās no easy task. Iāve always been wary of anything that feels like selling, but if I want people to participate in these things I am choosing to invest my time and energy in, itās a non-negotiable!
This post has been as scattered as my brain has been felling, so Iām glad I could give you a taste of what I live with. Hope you can make it out on Friday!
-Clayton
Springtime in Humboldt Park. Chicago, Illinois. March, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck
This is what my laptop desktop has looked like for about a year now. Instead of locating the folder I need on the desktop, Iāll open any random folder and use the search bar to type for it instead. My schedule, and my thoughts and focus, have been all over the place. Iāve been telling myself for months now that I will get around to organizing the desktop, and the studio, and the house, and my time. Yet, here we are, still scrambling.
I think this is a nice analogy for my life and a sign that I really ought to get my priorities a bit more straight. This is not to say I need a complete change in lifestyle, but better balance would be beneficial. Itās impossible to shine when you have a million tasks in front of you, blocking your view.
We watched Civil War last night. The movie is just okay but it got me feeling nostalgic for a different era of photography and photojournalism. Shooting film and developing film yourself while on the move. The movie got me wanting to get out and make more photos. The movie also got me wanting to make a movie myself. This post reminded me that I wanted to write some thoughts about the seasons and why I prefer living in a place like Chicago, where they are clearly defined (although increasingly less so these days).
Last week, I hosted a favorite musician in my space, David Dondero, for an incredible night, which was lightly attended. On Friday of this week, I am hosting a favorite Illinois photographer Nathan Pearce, which my negative-thinking brain assumes will also be lightly attended as itās an afternoon affair. As Iām getting older, Iām learning that dwelling on the negative things doesnāt serve much good, and while I donāt yet believe in manifesting your reality, I see the point of people who do. More importantly, however, the takeaway is that I need to improve in communicating. Itās no easy task. Iāve always been wary of anything that feels like selling, but if I want people to participate in these things I am choosing to invest my time and energy in, itās a non-negotiable!
This post has been as scattered as my brain has been felling, so Iām glad I could give you a taste of what I live with. Hope you can make it out on Friday!
-Clayton
2024 07 10
Time, the ever-flowing river. It keeps on moving. The clock keeps on ticking. If you donāt have a photo lined up for the following day, you end up running a photo of a no parking sign. Suck it up. Maybe weāll get āem tomorrow. Canāt win āem all, as they say.
As far as photos of parking signs go, however, it is a nice one!
-Clayton
No parking, tow zone. Chicago, Illinois. May, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck
Time, the ever-flowing river. It keeps on moving. The clock keeps on ticking. If you donāt have a photo lined up for the following day, you end up running a photo of a no parking sign. Suck it up. Maybe weāll get āem tomorrow. Canāt win āem all, as they say.
As far as photos of parking signs go, however, it is a nice one!
-Clayton
2024 06 13
I donāt have time for this shit!
The crazy thing about doing a post every single day is making the days like today happen, when you really donāt have the time for it. But you do, of course. You just choose to prioritize other things. Itās so easy to tell yourself youāll get back to it tomorrow. Youāll do it another day. Days turn to weeks turn to months. Thatās the gist of why I decided to force myself to stick to the daily post schedule. Even when I donāt have time for it.
Sure, not every day will be pretty or filled with wisdoms or amazing writing, but itās a rewiring of the brain Iām after. Focus. Keep after it. Now that my posts are slipping, in some ways, perhaps Iāll find the motivation to prioritize more time to this process, instead of frantically scrambling to get something up just for the sake of it.
-Clayton
Spring tree. Chicago, Illinois. April, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck
I donāt have time for this shit!
The crazy thing about doing a post every single day is making the days like today happen, when you really donāt have the time for it. But you do, of course. You just choose to prioritize other things. Itās so easy to tell yourself youāll get back to it tomorrow. Youāll do it another day. Days turn to weeks turn to months. Thatās the gist of why I decided to force myself to stick to the daily post schedule. Even when I donāt have time for it.
Sure, not every day will be pretty or filled with wisdoms or amazing writing, but itās a rewiring of the brain Iām after. Focus. Keep after it. Now that my posts are slipping, in some ways, perhaps Iāll find the motivation to prioritize more time to this process, instead of frantically scrambling to get something up just for the sake of it.
Damn, another vertical image today.
-Clayton
2024 06 11
Hereās a silly little story because it popped into my head and I donāt have anything else to write about:
One day a number of years ago, I was working on a project for a nonprofit which I was really excited about. The client had asked me, in addition to a half dozen other Chicago photographers, all of which I looked up to, to capture the city over the course of a summer. Each of us was assigned a few neighborhoods which we could document more or less as we pleased. It was a self assignment which I turned into a competition. I was motivated to make the best photos I could to stand out among a distinguished crowd.
As is often the case in any photographerās career-path-to-cynic,
Spring blossoms. Chicago, Illinois. April, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck
Hereās a silly little memory that popped into my head:
One day a number of years ago, I was working on a project for a nonprofit which I was really excited about. The client had asked me, in addition to a half dozen other Chicago photographers, all of which I respected, to capture the city over the course of a summer. Each of us was assigned a few neighborhoods which we could document more or less as we pleased. It was a self assignment which I turned into a competition. I was motivated to make the best work I could to stand out among a distinguished crowd.
The silly moment was this: having been assigned Humboldt Park, my own neighborhood, I made a weekend out of the annual Puerto Rican pride celebrations which were happening all around my house. Setting out to document the parade one day, I stopped off at a recently-opened park along The 606 trail to photograph it. Hunting for some unique angle among the large kidās netting, I was focused on my compositions when an angry mom snapped at me for taking photos of her children innocently playing on the play set.
āOh no, maāam, Iām an important documentary photographer capturing Chicagoās neighborhoods for a big important project.ā I said to myself, while mustering up something hopefully less self-important to her. In an effort to assure her I was, indeed, on the up and up, I offered to show her the images on the back of my camera, to give her a sense of what I was out documenting. Luckily for me, she took my word for it, because when I myself glanced down at the screen, the image staring up at me was of small children on the little roller coaster ride which was set up in the park at the carnival, which I had just made at the end of the previous day on my walk home. Had she seen this image, which seemed impossible to explain away, thereās no telling what mightāve happened.
As is often the case in any photographerās career-path-to-cynic, this project largely stalled and never became the big and important work I had imagined it was going to become the day I photographed children playing in the park. At least I had a nice laugh to myself about how absurd that entire situation was, which likely only a weirdo photographer like myself can fully appreciate.
-Clayton
2024 06 07
I have a ton of photos of bare trees still in the queue, but now that itās summer and the trees are full, it feels weird to post them. Perhaps I will hold on to them for next year and keep things more seasonally-appropriate. What this blog even is is still being considered. Is it a photo blog? Is it a words blog that is photo-centric? Iāve been thinking more about how words pair with images since the Alec Soth video I talked about a few days back. Generally speaking, I am enjoying this blog simply for the fact that it is allowing me to consider these things at all. These days, I donāt have time for watching baseball because my daily blog is keeping me in line. Also, the Chicago baseball teams arenāt helping their cause ā I tuned into the Cubs vs Sox game a few nights back and it was borderline unwatchable.
Anyhoo.
-Clayton
Bare tree in spring. Vincennes, Indiana. April, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck
I have a ton of photos of bare trees still in the queue, but now that itās summer and the trees are full, it feels weird to post them. Perhaps I will hold on to them for next year and keep things more seasonally-appropriate. What this blog even is is still being considered. Is it a photo blog? Is it a words blog that is photo-centric? Iāve been thinking more about how words pair with images since the Alec Soth video I talked about a few days back. Generally speaking, I am enjoying this blog simply for the fact that it is allowing me to consider these things at all. These days, I donāt have time for watching baseball because my daily blog is keeping me in line. Also, the Chicago baseball teams arenāt helping their cause ā I tuned into the Cubs vs Sox game a few nights back and it was borderline unwatchable.
Anyhoo.
-Clayton
2024 05 12
Happy Mothers Day! Apologies for posting late, mom. Yes, everything is fineā¦ Iām just falling behind on my blog post scheduling.
-Clayton
Flowering tree in spring. Vincennes, Indiana. April, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck
Happy Mothers Day! Apologies for posting late, mom. Yes, everything is fineā¦ Iām just falling behind on my blog post scheduling. Hope you had a great day, moms!
-Clayton
2024 04 29
This website has become a filter of sorts. After making images, they get edited down to my selects, which then get color and tone adjusted and saved into another folder. Then, those selects get edited down again and moved into another folder meant to go towards various social media or websites, including this one. When I go to make a new blog entry, I browse the Pointing at Stuff website folder and see which images are still feeling good enough to post or are no longer feeling as excited and get scrapped.
This image, while a simple moment without much action, is one that I feel good about. Itās a bit of a new perspective for me, taking images of simple moments like this that I come across while out and about. This is not to say I havenāt previously made photos but that my eye is now hunting for āart photosā that may fit into a bigger body of work. Once you combine images and juxtapose different frames, new meanings and vibes get formed which can then be further explored and created upon.
Anyway, none of this may make sense and you may dislike this image, but Iām enjoying my new found perspective on photography and plan to continue pursuing it to see where it takes me.
-Clayton
A car rest wrapped in the drive awaiting nicer weather. Peru, Illinois. March, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck
This website has become a filter of sorts. After making images, they get edited down to my selects, which then get color and tone adjusted and saved into another folder. Then, those selects get edited down again and moved into another folder meant to go towards various social media or websites, including this one. When I go to make a new blog entry, I browse the Pointing at Stuff website folder and see which images are still feeling good enough to post or are no longer feeling as excited and get scrapped.
This image, while a simple moment without much action, is one that I feel good about. Itās a bit of a new perspective for me, taking images of simple moments like this that I come across while out and about. This is not to say I havenāt previously made photos but that my eye is now hunting for āart photosā that may fit into a bigger body of work. Once you combine images and juxtapose different frames, new meanings and vibes get formed which can then be further explored and created upon.
Anyway, none of this may make sense and you may dislike this image, but Iām enjoying my new found perspective on photography and plan to continue pursuing it to see where it takes me.
-Clayton
2024 04 28
If you read yesterdayās post, this is the scene we came across while walking home from bar dinner.
If you read Thursdayās post, this is me embracing using new photographic tools. Iāve written about it here before, but Iāve been loving the Lapse app in my iPhone. While Iāve been trying to use my phone less for image making (thus, carrying around a Ricoh everywhere I go), I do love the snapshot aesthetic this app provides, along with the date and time, which is a fun throwback to point and shoot film cameras. The only downside is the files you get from it are not very big. I imagine the app creators donāt want to host full-sized images on their servers to save money, but if you could pay for a āproā version which allowed maximum resolution, I would totally give them my money.
For the first time in my pro photography career, Iām finding myself wanting more, new, different cameras! I just need to make sure I donāt revert back into the gear-head person who cared more about what equipment he had than the images being made from that equipment.
-Clayton
Spring flower pops up in an unexpected place. Chicago, Illinois. April, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck
If you read yesterdayās post, this is the scene we came across while walking home from bar dinner.
If you read Thursdayās post, this is me embracing using new photographic tools. Iāve written about it here before, but Iāve been loving the Lapse app in my iPhone. While Iāve been trying to use my phone less for image making (thus, carrying around a Ricoh everywhere I go), I do love the snapshot aesthetic this app provides, along with the date and time, which is a fun throwback to point and shoot film cameras. The only downside is the files you get from it are not very big. I imagine the app creators donāt want to host full-sized images on their servers to save money, but if you could pay for a āproā version which allowed maximum resolution, I would totally give them my money.
For the first time in my pro photography career, Iām finding myself wanting more, new, different cameras! I just need to make sure I donāt revert back into the gear-head person who cared more about what equipment he had than the images being made from that equipment.
-Clayton