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Sep. 6th, 2011
Wow, I can’t believe how long it’s been since I wrote something substantial. It’s not been planned, it just didn’t happen. Between life events creeping up on us, trying to get the new house up to speed and other associated mayhem; blogging fell gently to the wayside for the time being. Writing, as my muse, wasn’t one of those things that needed, wanted or remotely desired being active. It merely hid in the closet napping and avoiding the general mayhem of the rest of our world. Now as things are slowly and (mercifully) steadily winding down, the muse has awoken fitfully from slumber, stretched its wearied and unsteady limbs, and now smells that change in the air that may signal fresh creativity.
Updates (in short);
1. Brenna is off to college now. In fact, we’ve made a second supply run to Montevallo yesterday to provide her with her new bank card and my old printer. She seems to be happy with college life thus far and her room-mate situation.
2. Speaking of driving to Montevallo, it was a challenge. The heavy rain, wind and low visibility made for less than pleasant conditions. In fact, south of Cullman, Tammy and I had to detour off into the boonies because the interstate highway was closed. A tractor-trailer jackknifed and blocked several lanes of north and south-bound traffic. It added an extra hour to our drive home.
3. Chris is also adjusting to new realities in the house and at school. He’s discovered he has privacy and quiet time unlike before. He’s been exploring various science (chemistry and physics) videos and wants to experiment at home. While I’m happy to foster that intense interest, I now have to find him some safe outlets. He’s also growing increasingly confident and talented musically.
4. Speaking of the house, we’re getting ready to repaint the “guest” room and probably pull out the carpet from it as well. The house is in relatively good shape but there are signs all over of many less than high quality projects done by the previous owners. The carpets appear to have been non-professionally installed. Likewise several closets have finishing and edge coverings that were miss-measured and even more poorly installed. I do have another ceiling fan to put up this evening and I bought a set of track lights to install in my (eventual) studio as well.
More to follow shortly
Updates (in short);
1. Brenna is off to college now. In fact, we’ve made a second supply run to Montevallo yesterday to provide her with her new bank card and my old printer. She seems to be happy with college life thus far and her room-mate situation.
2. Speaking of driving to Montevallo, it was a challenge. The heavy rain, wind and low visibility made for less than pleasant conditions. In fact, south of Cullman, Tammy and I had to detour off into the boonies because the interstate highway was closed. A tractor-trailer jackknifed and blocked several lanes of north and south-bound traffic. It added an extra hour to our drive home.
3. Chris is also adjusting to new realities in the house and at school. He’s discovered he has privacy and quiet time unlike before. He’s been exploring various science (chemistry and physics) videos and wants to experiment at home. While I’m happy to foster that intense interest, I now have to find him some safe outlets. He’s also growing increasingly confident and talented musically.
4. Speaking of the house, we’re getting ready to repaint the “guest” room and probably pull out the carpet from it as well. The house is in relatively good shape but there are signs all over of many less than high quality projects done by the previous owners. The carpets appear to have been non-professionally installed. Likewise several closets have finishing and edge coverings that were miss-measured and even more poorly installed. I do have another ceiling fan to put up this evening and I bought a set of track lights to install in my (eventual) studio as well.
More to follow shortly
5. Photo-wise, I’ve been engaged in a game of reorganization, reprioritizing and revising my efforts. As some of you have noticed (or maybe not given how some blogs have gone silent), I haven’t been posting many images other than the nature photos of the day. Partially this is a function of my writer’s block and lack of time to post much. I’m going to try to break that log-jam and put up samples as I’m able to, but I’ve come to a conclusion.
I need to focus on setting up and running a website, more than I need to post pictures (model, nature, show, and abandoned place) my blogs. No, this does not mean I’m stopping. It means that this fall for several weeks, I will disappear again for a few days or weeks to build a website up. The goal will be to publish images to a website and send updates to the appropriate blogs with a teaser or sample image from any given set.
In a broader sense, I recognized that I could barely keep up with my blogs individually and some of my photos are great for one audience while offending others.. This will give me the central location to direct business to in conjunction with my actual studio. I’ve tried to generate business and leads through blogs and word of mouth with some success, but this is where I need to reach out beyond my friends, acquaintances and fans.
That being said, I've done six shoots in the last few weeks including three for catalogs. I have a couple more coming up and I'm genuinely interested in getting the studio built up and ready for use.
I need to focus on setting up and running a website, more than I need to post pictures (model, nature, show, and abandoned place) my blogs. No, this does not mean I’m stopping. It means that this fall for several weeks, I will disappear again for a few days or weeks to build a website up. The goal will be to publish images to a website and send updates to the appropriate blogs with a teaser or sample image from any given set.
In a broader sense, I recognized that I could barely keep up with my blogs individually and some of my photos are great for one audience while offending others.. This will give me the central location to direct business to in conjunction with my actual studio. I’ve tried to generate business and leads through blogs and word of mouth with some success, but this is where I need to reach out beyond my friends, acquaintances and fans.
That being said, I've done six shoots in the last few weeks including three for catalogs. I have a couple more coming up and I'm genuinely interested in getting the studio built up and ready for use.
6. SCA – I’m failing utterly at my goal to return to play. I’ve now missed three events or demos I wanted to attend this summer. In retrospect, I know I missed them for damn good reasons, but I’m starting to feel a bit hypocritical. Sure, this was a chaotic summer… Yes, each event was in conflict with other activities (our move, a planned (paid) shoot, bad weather, and illness)… It’s still frustrating me. On one hand, I really like the SCA atmosphere here. It’s much slower paced and much more laid back than Caid. Even with that, I can’t seem to break out of the rut and get going. I can’t even manage to consistently get to practices... Again family commitments and Tammy’s medical issues are making going to anything hard. On the other hand, I will soon have easy access to all my camping gear, a functional workshop and sewing space in Tammy’s studio.
7. Work has another source of consternation. While I’m being paid and have done some work in my new assignment, I’m still waiting to have full access to the government computer system. Without that, I’m relegated to busy work which is not satisfying in the least bit. I’ve pinged my site lead and heard very little back. In an era where the government is cutting back, I’d rather be doing something to make me a ‘value-added’ contractor rather than being that guy they barely see (because he can’t log into their computer system).
7. Work has another source of consternation. While I’m being paid and have done some work in my new assignment, I’m still waiting to have full access to the government computer system. Without that, I’m relegated to busy work which is not satisfying in the least bit. I’ve pinged my site lead and heard very little back. In an era where the government is cutting back, I’d rather be doing something to make me a ‘value-added’ contractor rather than being that guy they barely see (because he can’t log into their computer system).
