I’m slacking… I know.
Been a long time and I hope everyone out there is doing well. Life has swamped me with a lot of going-ons and I don’t get much time to sit and write. I’ve been slacking on my journal too but all of it will change soon.
Tomorrow is my last day at Full Package Media. 7 months of driving around DFW photographing some amazing home and some that were… ok. I’m super thankful to have been able to shoot with the company and sad to be leaving. Learning how to shoot real estate has made me focus more when my eye is placed on the viewfinder. It taught me to slow down, pay attention and look at all the details. Learning all this again has already made my photography better and cleaner. Getting the details right in a photo before hitting that button has made post product a lot easier. So I’m happy to gain from the job and hope to one day, maybe, return. Or own a franchise.
I really haven’t pushed any new work out or searching for new clients in the past several months. Not enough time and just getting frustrated about inquiries that have gone belly up for no reason. So I took it easy and didn’t really force my work. Well, it looks as if the work I have been doing for the past few years may be paying off. When you get a call and you’re moved to tears, you get that little pat on your back. A little confirmation that you’re doing well. I’m not going to tell any of yall out there that there isn’t a lot of struggle being a photographer, because there is. It’s a lot of work and I’ve never been able to give it my full 100% focus. I’d say its about 80% behind the scene work and 20% behind the camera work. I’ve watched veteran photographers and hear them say this same thing but until you’re doing it, you just don’t know. “This is a business.” You have to run so many parts of this/your business, it’s like your 2nd job. And I hope some time soon I’ll be able to devote at least %80 my time to running my business. I’ve been all about the photography and not really concentrating on the business. If things go well with this “life-changing possibility”. I’ll definitely be enrolling in a business management class or get a degree in it so I can run this business better.
Recent activities that I’ve been up to; I photographed my friend Gerry’s proposal and photographed a friend’s amazing car all within 24 hours. I met Gerry back in 2005 when he had just moved from Californa and we did one of my first photo shoots. He had and still has his 1961 VW Beetle Ragtop from our first encounter. He contacted me one night and asked if I could do this for him. In the VW world, you’re family if you’ve ever hung out with your buddies and talked cars for hours. My instant reaction was CONGRATS and You know I got you. It was amazing to be there for a friend and to capture their special moment. This wasn’t my first proposal shoot too. I had done it years before for another VW friend, if I’m right they just celebrated their 5th anniversary. So about 24 hours after this and meeting my other friend at our big VW car show, I’m photographing a car that we’d been trying to shoot for almost 4 years. I met Jason in Helen, GA at another LARGE VW show and wanted to photograph his ride. Being from Texas we wanted to set up something but we never got a chance. He and his wife drove up to Dallas for DubSplash at Sandy Lake Park and we ran into each other. We both kind of knew what was on our minds and so we scheduled to do a shoot after the show was over. I went and found some locations and then I found a place that i’d been wanting to shoot for years. Tol him where to go and the rest is history. I’ve added a few of the photos from the EOS shoot in the portfolio, so make sure to stop and have a look in my portfolio.
More to come on that topic in the next few months. The topic image has a bit of a hint in it. Take care, be well and be kind to each other.
Jakeb
Leave a reply