Just a Blog, No Twitter

I find myself amazed and confused with this new world we have created in cyberspace. Are we all hoping to gain more than our 15 minutes of fame by revealing so much of ourselves to this virtual world? And, here I sit, joining the masses to express myself and trying to keep up with all of these vast opportunities to be seen and heard.

A little history: I am a professional photographer and have been in and around the profession for more than twenty years. It's getting scary when the twenty years is closing in on thirty. I currently have a studio in Eugene, OR and I do mean currently since the past two months have been excrucuatingly slow and everything is day to day at this point.

I thought I would promote pet portraiture and placed an ad on Craig's List for a few pet models. I received a fantastic response from plenty of pet owners that wanted free photos of their pets as well as the possibility of having their pets displayed prominently around town and in print ads as well as the website, etc...

I scheduled three sessions and with each appointment, I went into the studio, set up backdrops, lighting, checked exposure and anxiously awaited my subjects, only to have all three peole not show up!

This was very discouraging since I felt like I couldn't even give photography away!! I wanted to take advantage of a slow time and still be working to promote my business not to mention how much I love working with people and animals. I would go in and set up feeling all enthusiastic and my mind was working overtime coming up with fun ideas only to be stood up.

The lesson I have learned from all of this - Don't give my art away!! I will figure out something. I do have my own pets and even though my poor old dog is almost 16 years old, I'm sure she won't mind a few photos.