My recent trip showed me a few things about myself. Or rather, it reaffirmed a few things I already know. For one thing, I’m not a very prolific photographer. I was gone a little over two weeks and came home with maybe ten or twelve photos that I like enough to use on my blogs, and maybe two or three I consider worthy of making prints of. I’m fine with that, it’s the way I work, but it points out another thing. I make a lousy pro. I’m simply not wired for it.

I’ve subtitled this blog ‘carving out a life as an artist’. That’s the way I need to work, and that’s the approach I need to put my energies into now. Why wait? I’m fast approaching 60 years old. Too damn fast — if I could find a speed control on this thing called life, I’d turn it down several notches right now. I don’t have time to waste on things I don’t want to do. I did the professional thing back in the 80′s and early 90′s, but flat out quit. It’s one of those things I don’t want to do.

I don’t look at photography solely as a way to make a living, but rather as a way to live a life. It’s about being alive and awake and aware, and about giving visual form to that awareness. It’s about slowing down, recognizing those visual moments that stop you in your tracks, working with them, and making the strongest images you can from them. Now and then I succeed, and if I can turn that into a living so much the better.

I don’t see photography being about equipment either. Though I do shoot digitally these days, some of my favorite moments come with the simplest camera I own in hand. There are times when I’m tempted to put the digital stuff on the shelf and just work with that one simple, basic little film camera. I could do everything I want to do with it, and never outlive the possibilities. It’s an interesting thought, and it’s not out of the realm of possibility.

I could ramble on here all day, but I won’t. Maybe I’ll dig into some of these thoughts in more depth in future posts. If any of you have any thoughts or ideas or observations or insights, they’d be most welcome. Let’s consider this something of an open thread.

I’ve noticed over the past few months that the readership on this blog has been steadily climbing. To those of you who come by here, I want you to know that I greatly appreciate it. It’s nice to know you’re not working in a total vacuum. Hopefully, when I visit your sites, I can offer even half the encouragement you bring me. Stick around, and let’s see where this journey takes this contrary old photographer. It may prove to be an interesting ride. Bumpy at times, but interesting.

Cheers,
pj

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I’m back home in Montana again. I got back here Friday afternoon, and thought to post a few brief impressions of what I saw over the past couple of weeks.

The Oregon coast is magnificent. The power of the ocean is overwhelming at first, as is the beauty of it’s meeting with the land. It’s a place I could explore further. Maybe I will.

San Francisco isn’t bad, for a town. Actually I really like it — I just don’t ever want to try to park a car there again. It’s a fascinating city and there’s so much there to get to know. Besides, my stepson lives there. I’ll go again, but next time I’ll leave my car behind and parachute in or something.

To those of you who live around LA I’ll just say, with all due respect, you can have it. I enjoyed being able to see the world my daughter lives in now, but hey — I’m from Montana. Those freeways and traffic are a little much. LA County alone has about ten times the population of the whole state of Montana, and they’re all in their damn cars. We drive here too, but we’re not all driving in the same place at the same time. My hair is a lot grayer than it was just a couple of weeks ago. Once I got through it all and hit I-15 heading north I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Until I hit the desert.

I’ve never been in such brutal heat as that around Barstow and Baker. I was almost afraid to get out of the car because I thought I might sink right through the pavement. The desert is a harsh, starkly beautiful place, no doubt about it. It’s also a good reminder that nature isn’t necessarily gentle and forgiving. Places like that can kill you.

I pulled over in Las Vegas for the night hoping for a little respite, but it wasn’t much different. Just busier. I got a room, went over to New York, New York for a couple of hours, had a good meal, blew about ten bucks on the machines, and called it good. I have one piece of short simple advice to anyone contemplating driving through the Mojave Desert in the summertime. Don’t do it. Go around. Not only can you avoid the worst of the heat that way, you can also avoid Vegas.

In typical pj fashion, I hit the Salt Lake City area just in time for the afternoon commute. Miles and miles of cars, many lanes of them crammed almost bumper to bumper, from Provo to Ogden. It took over two hours to get through it. I eventually escaped out the north end of it, and am firmly convinced that you couldn’t drag me to a big city with a tractor right about now.

Finally, yesterday morning, I climbed up out of Idaho over Monida Pass and saw the big, beautiful Welcome to Montana sign. I almost pulled over and got out to kiss the ground. I thoroughly enjoyed the trip, but due to time and a limited budget I wasn’t able to explore as much as I would have liked.  Being able to finish my daughter’s visit with a road trip, and to be able to spend some time in both of my kid’s worlds was great. But, like I said, I’m from Montana and I’m glad to be back here. This is my place. This is my home.

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A number of changes are happening here at photomontana.net, and my other photo sites, as I work on making the most of my limited abilities to try to turn my photographic interests into some kind of workable gig. Here are a few of them in a nutshell:

• I’ve mentioned it earlier, but I started a sister site to this one. It’s called adventures with a two dollar camera, and it’s an ongoing project of work I do with a camera I got at a yard sale years ago for two bucks. The point of it, besides simply being a fun way to work, is that much can be done with minimal equipment. Your vision is what counts, not so much the camera you use. Stop on by and check it out.
• I’ve put up another website, finn photography, as a place to offer prints for sale.  So far it features two galleries, each with a small but growing selection of available prints.  One is for small prints from the negatives I shoot with the two dollar Silette, the other is for larger prints, some from my past but mostly new stuff I’ll be doing. The film negs will be drum scanned, and both film and digital files will be printed on high end printers. I’ve also created an email mailing list to keep those who sign up informed on latest print releases.

I’m going on a road trip to California in about two weeks. My daughter has been staying with me since the end of May, and rather than fly her back to Burbank, I’m going to drive her there myself.  We’ll spend a few days driving down the coast, a few days in San Francisco visiting with my son, and then on to Burbank where I’ll spend a few days letting my daughter show me around where she lives now.  Then I can poke around the West on my way back to Montana working on building up my photo files. I’ll take a laptop and a couple of cameras, and call it a working trip. I’m looking forward to it.

Last, but not least, I’m changing the look of this blog. I’m giving it a new theme and a new paint job, something more open and spacious. If things look weird around here for awhile, fret not — it’s just me tinkering.

On that note, I’ll get back to it. Keep those cards and letters coming.

pj

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I can’t say I’m terribly surprised. I’ve known for some time that this was very possible. Deep down in my gut I’ve even hoped for it. I got laid off from my job today. Sometimes a guy just plain gets lucky.

I’ve talked tough in recent months about walking out of there and making a go of it on the internet, about turning my blogs into vehicles for bringing in the money I need. The time has come to put my money where my mouth is. It’s time to do it or die. I’ll have some time to do that now — wish me luck.

Above all, thoughts and ideas are more than welcome. They’re needed. Thanks all. Now I’d better get to work.

pj

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Spent a good part of the afternoon watching the clouds roll by. Somebody has to do it…

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High Noon -- Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness

I like bending rules, going against conventional wisdom. There’s something deeply satisfying about going right ahead and doing what many say you should avoid doing. Especially in photography.

There is one rule I take particular delight in thumbing my nose at. It’s not strictly a rule, but it’s a piece of advice that’s thrown around enough that it’s pretty damn close. It’s that one that says shoot early or late in the day, and avoid the midday sun. I’ve heard it a million times. So have you.

Granted, the early morning and late afternoon/evening light can be beautiful, and I certainly suggest taking advantage of it. But so can the midday sun. It’s a strong, powerful, and direct light, and can provide dramatic and powerful images if used well. The shot on this post was made in late June or early July, can’t remember exactly, at high noon. That’s about as directly overhead as the sun can possibly be. It’s still one of my favorites, though I’ve lost the negative over the years and only have one small print to work with.

My point here? Hell yeah, by all means shoot early and late in the day. But don’t be afraid of the midday sun either. It won’t break your camera. If you use it to it’s best advantage, you just might come up with some dramatic and arresting shots. Give it a go.

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Quitting a job isn’t all that difficult.  I’ve done it more times than I can remember over the years.  All you have to do is stop going.

That’s the easy part. Then the fears and second-guessing begin. Now what do I do? Where’s the money going to come from? On and on it goes. I’ve always managed to land on my feet, but the sleepless nights can be damn wearing.  But still, I have little choice but to do it again. Soon. I’m getting close to 60 years old. I have too much I want to do with the second half of my life to waste any more of my time at a job.

Since I was last footloose this internet thing has really exploded. There are resources up the ass for making a living on it, some good and worthwhile, some frankly pretty cheesy. I tend to avoid those.

It seems to boil down to a few basic principles. Identify your niche, your passion, work like hell to build a presence, and go for it. Sounds easy. Yeah. Right. But it’s possible, and that’s good enough for me.

Here’s one interesting site about going your own way. It’s the blog of Chris Guillebeau called The Art of Non-Conformity.  It’s good stuff, down to earth stuff, by a guy who’s living what he talks about. Give it a look.

I’m still working on sorting the possibilities out.  If you’re working along the same lines, have any thoughts or ideas, give me a shout. Maybe we can pull our hair out together or something.

pj

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