Shifting Focus

Shifting Focus

 

I started this blog, last year, as I was beginning my foray into turning photography in to my full-time profession. The idea was that I was going to post about the trial and tribulations, the successes and the failures I had along the way. To in some way, pass on information and lessons that I learned in the process. I would still love to be able to do this, but I learned one very valuable lesson along the way.

There are no instant lessons. The learning process for each and every piece of information doesn't happen overnight and as expected, there have been more failures and setbacks than successes. The lack of posts along the vein of running a photography business is simple due to that. Whilst I have learned an extraordinary amount, I cannot pass on what I've learned with the risk that it is mostly unproven and potentially dangerous to whomever might read it. That would just be plain irresponsible and quite the antithesis of the ideals of sharing.

Because I do want to maintain this blog and I don't want to inadvertantly sabotage someone elses career choices and therefore their life in even the smallest of ways, I will be shifting focus of this blog a bit. Instead of trying to write about the runnings of a photography business, which I am unqualified to do, I am going to return to the much simpler format of writing about photography. My photography, the photography of those around me that I admire and respect, the goings on behind the images and occasionally, I might still be able to brush on the topic of photography as a business.

So in the coming weeks, I will be sharing with you some of the fabulous times I've had over the past several moths and I will also be sharing with you the people that I admire, the friends I have made and the one's to look out for as they, like myself, set out on their quest to conquer the world!

As these changes are taking place, I've changed the title of the blog and I have also changed the URL. Please, make sure you update any bookmarks or feed readers to ensure you still recieve your subscriptions! The new address is http://johnmcintirephotography.blogspot.com/

The goal of this change is to enable me to provide interesting content on regular basis, so I do hope you'll be sure to keep an eye out for my posts as they start rolling out very soon!

Here I Go

Here I Go

It's been a good while since I've had the opportunity to post here. The last several weeks have been a veritable roller coaster with all the ups and downs. A lot of highs a merciful amount of lows.

The biggest news of the lot would be that as of last Friday at 2PM, my employment in the textile manufacturing industry officially ended. I now have no other source of income other than my camera.

Now other than my continued full time employment, there's the multitude of things that kept me from posting here as I would have liked. Of the many things finished and started over the past few weeks, this is but a quick breakdown:

• Business Plan Complete
• Several Meetings with a Business Advisor
• Several Wonderful Photoshoots
• Marketing Plan Complete
• Press Release Complete
• Several Events and Fairs Scheduled
• Found a Studio Space
• Lost Said Studio Space
• Finished Full-Time Employment (Did I mention that yet?)

Now I plan to touch on a lot of these topics in future posts, as this is still a blog about my endeavour to make a career out of my photography, but for now, I will just leave you with a couple recent images whilst I begin to plan what is next to come.

This Past Week

This Past Week

This past week, all of it, has been slightly mental! Between mentoring proposals, days off, being called into work, shoots, cancellations and viewing absolutely wonderful studio spaces, I really haven't had a chance to let my brain keep up; nevermind keeping up with everything else!

So not only do I have a few posts to write, but I have to sort out what's in my head. Probably the most important of these is that Wednesday, I was shown a studio space in the town centre that is exactly what I've been dreaming of. Not only is it in a wonderful historic building, but the way that building has been refurbished is beyond imagination! It has all the modern accoutrements one would expect in a 21st century hub but not only that, it is literally 2 minutes from the train station and the rates are absolutely dead cheap.

Right.

That's me needing to get on top of my business plan, setting up meetings with business link, registering as a sole trader, opening a business account and somehow convincing a bank I am more than worthy of a business loan in this dire time of economic woe!

I can do this, but it's not me that I need to convince!

Social Networking For the Socially Inept

I hereby proclaim to the whole of the interverse:

I am socially inept.

I cannot cope in social environments. I get anxious and I completely shut down. Put me in a large group of people and I'll pretty much panic. Put me at a table at a restaurant with even a small group and I will only speak when directly spoken to and even then all you will get is one word answers.

It used to be, about 14 years or so ago, that I thrived on the internet. Good old chat rooms and forums and mIRC were somewhere that I could get involved socially without worrying about all the shortcomings of my social incompetence.

The internet has changed. Of course, I'm sure everyone and their dog is aware of this, but it has changed a lot. Everyone is on the internet. The internet is now wholly a mainstream social platform and a legitimate one at that. Find me someone who is regularly online and doesn't have or hasn't had a profile on a site such as Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, etc, etc. Being social on the internet is identical to be social in the real life with the exception of the different rules of etiquette.

Well, you ask, what does any of this have to do with photography or social networking?

I'll tell you.

As a person, none of this means anything to me. I could just ignore the social aspects and go on, invisible, behind the scenes a merry little outcast.

As a photographer, whom operates mostly on the internet, this is a very different story. I need social networking. I need to participate in the photographic communities and I need to be able to connect with potential customers. Therefore, I have to have and do have profiles on all the main social media sites as well as my main website and this here blog.

But do I use them effectively? Hardly.

I feel awkward randomly commenting on people's photos, statuses, blog posts, etc, etc. Even though, usually, they want me to. Or maybe that's the issue. They want "people" to, but I then ask myself why would they want "me" to. I know very well, or at least I suspect so, that I'm just being paranoid and that I'm very likely cutting myself out of great networking opportunities and denying other people a comment because my own wiring is a bit loose.

So here's the deal: I know what the problem is. I think I know what I should do to fix it. I need to get over this trepidation of mine and jump whole-heartedly into the social bandwagon. So from now on, I will try and make it a point, everyday, to comment and reply to people on Myspace, Facebook, Flickr, DeviantArt, Twitter and make sure that I comment on the blogs that I read.

I don't really care if I get any response or if I fall on my face at this point. I just need to get over this ridiculous fear I have of interacting with other people, especially those individuals that are like-minded.

So, if you have accounts with any of those sites, get in touch, you may well just be part of the catalyst I need to fix this issue of mine!