I'll start with this image, not because it's one of my best, but for two other reasons. First, it's safe for work, unlike most of the rest of the images in this post. Second, this is an image of the last sunset at sea I will likely see in the role of a Naval Officer. It's been a heavy last few weeks.
For those of you just tuning in, I am a career Naval Surface Warfare Officer. My photography passion started long before that job and will continue long after, but that's been my primary work and source of lively hood since 1993. Last December I pretty much found out my career was not going to go much further, and a month or so ago I found out that what will probably be my final tour will take me away from San Diego and the life I have built here. May was my last month out to sea on my final ship. Leaving the ship I have mixed feelings. I am glad that I won't ever have to deploy for long stretches away from my family ever again (aside from two months of training coming up on the east coast, enroute to my new assignment). But I will miss the sea itself, and the feeling of being in control of a 100,000 ton nuclear powered airport and the 6000 people onboard. Honestly, there are a lot of things I was never good at in my career, which rightfully limited how far I could go, but one thing I can do better than almost anyone else out there was drive a ship. While I may suck at powerpoint, 3M paperwork and the admin BS, put my on the bridge or in Combat and stand back, there's not many better.
How are my limitations as a Surface Warfare Officer germain to my photography? Well, there are interesting parallels. What was I good at? Ship driving and watch standing. Ship Handling is a mix of science and art. There are general rules, techniques and formulas that can get you through 85 percent of it. But that last 15 percent is all art... you have to understand the rules and the science well enough to know when it works and when it doesn't, but ultimately you have to feel the ship under your feet and learn to react before you can see things happening. I can't describe it, but it's the feeling of, "wait for it.... wait for it... NOW!" but no one else feels the now moment and no science can point to it. Seems similar to photography or any other art, in that you have to know the technical side, but applying the science becomes a matter of art that you just have to feel in yourself.
Anyway, in the last couple of months I found out I was moving, I eloped to Vegas, and did a lot of shooting, and being stuck on a ship for a month away from the world gave me time to get caught up and start to process all that.
So, after years of living in San Diego, finally decided to shoot a model at Blacks' Beach. Other that the stupid amount of stairs to get down and up, especially with 50 pounds of camera and lighting gear strapped to me, it was a great place to shoot.
The long flat expanse of calm water gave me an idea, I really wanted to get a fire spinner out there, I was hoping to get a really good reflection in the nice, flat water. Alas, the night I had a model and the time available, the tides and weather didn't cooperate, and I couldn't get the perfect mirror I wanted, but we still got some good shots.
I also did a promo shoot for a Fringe Festival show that is being putting on by (and performed by) a group of my friends and fellow circus people. This was a great shoot, the only down side to it was I found out I am not as immune to poison oak as I thought I was. It has never bothered me before, even though I have waded through it numerous times doing search and rescue and just hiking, but I guess I finally got enough to overcome my resistance, because my legs were mounds of itchy pain for a month after this shoot, but it was worth it because we got some great stuff.
Most of these were lit with speedlights balancing the sun, just like the beach shots earlier in this post, but I also decided to experiment a little bit and see what I could get with just some nice golden hour natural light for a few shots.
It was a fun afternoon of shooting, and totally worth the itchy hell that followed. I also got an email from a burlesque dancer who really liked the shots I did of one of her shows, so she wanted to hire me to do a shoot with her for her web site. Had a blast, again, did some speedlight and experimented with some natural light as well, and really got to take advantage of my 85mm/1.4 for some classic boudoir shots.
Kept the hotel room we shot in for a mini stay-cation with the wife and our son, managed to get a great shoot in with the wife, but sorry, you don't get to see those shots ;-P.
In addition to the shooting and editing, as past of moving onwards and upwards in the Arcanum, I had to come up with a vision of where I see myself in the future. Strangely hard, but appropriate as I contemplated my impending move. So, as I get ready to head to my new home in San Antonio, where I will probably retire from the Navy and look to establish myself a local photographer, I had to figure out exactly what I want to shoot and who I want my market to be. This was much harder than I initially anticipated.
After a lot of thought, what I realized was that while shooting beautiful, naked women was fun, it was really just a bonus perk but not what was really important to me. I want to shoot artists, both performing and standing still. I want to be the guy that the local circus performers, burlesque dancers, yogis and theater artists call when they want pictures. I want to shoot their live shows, I want to shoot awesome projects with them, I want to shoot headshots for them that aren't just standard cookie cutter stuff. I want to be the guy they call to capture their soul, their art, their expression. I'd like to make enough income from photography to break even, but I think ultimately I am more motivated by recognition of artistry than payment. Money is nice, but respect and admiration is better, that being said, money is necessary to survival.
Which leads to moving. I get to re-establish myself in a new market. This is the epitome of the whole challenge = opportunity theme. I will have to establish myself as part of the artistic community not only in San Antonio, but neighboring Austin. The bright side is, none of the artists there will be my friends and family like they are here, so I will be able to establish a paying relationship from day one. But I will need to build a clientele, I want to become the go to guy in the area for any dancer, artist or performer who want shots done, either action or posed for their portfolio.
This leads to a lot of work on my part. I get to spend the next couple of months totally re-working my portfolio and my site to cater to the photographer I want to be. Focusing on festivals, artists and performance primarily. I even have a good tear sheet to start, the artist that made my trapeze saw the pics from the bridge shoot I did a while back and asked to use them for her publicity, so I am slowly getting known as a circus shooter. Then I get to get in the market and make connections and see what happens.
In the mean time, I am going to try and shoot what I can while I am traveling, but posting might be intermittent until I get re-established and come up with a new home and a new normal. Until then, the journey continues. Click on.
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