With my impending graduation getting ever closer, I am faced with the choice of deciding what to do next. Do I work for a while? Do I go right to school?
Part of me says, "Hey, you'll be in a new city; why not do both? Go to school, and you'll have weekends to do photography part time."
Another part of me says, "Hey, remember when you tried that and it didn't go over so well?"
I have been doing a lot of thinking about my future where photography is concerned.
I know that it is something I will always do -- it is a part of me now: that cannot be changed.
But what to do about it? How big of a role should it play in my life? Should it just be something that I do for fun? Should I do it for fun and try to sell my better art pieces? Should I offer my services on the weekends?
I will not lie: there have been a few times when I thought about hanging up the camera strap completely. [Insert ramble of negative thoughts and things that may make potential clients eschew my services.]
I think that moving to a new town will force me to market myself in new ways. Here, I haven't been doing everything I could (or should) do. I know that. I recognize that. I've even had things ready to market myself, I just...haven't. [Insert shaming finger-wag here.]
Perhaps focusing more attention on getting my work out to local eyes would elicit more business. I do not plan on taking this action where I am presently, though, because in five and a half months, when it comes time for me to move to Denver, I will have just established myself in the local eyes, and then uproot and do it all over again 50 miles away. No, it is much too late for my Greeley client- / fan-base to grow.
Besides, Greeley is not regarded at the moment for being a center of art. No one seeks Greeley out for the artisan shops. There is the annual Arts Picnic, but the majority of the vendors that I have seen when I attend come from other cities, 20+ minutes away. The University of Northern Colorado draws minor artisanal-quality shops and lifestyles around it, supported mostly by the larger-city students who attend the school.
I have also thought about making photography a bigger part of my life.
I would love to offer traditional packages to people: engagement sessions, weddings, family photos, portraits, senior shots, kiddo sessions, newborn sessions, maternity sessions...
...but seeing as how I do not have much experience in those arenas --I have never shot a maternity session, but the others I have-- it will be harder to get clients for those arenas because there is not much to see in the way of examples of my work. (Offer some free shoots on Craigslist? Don't mind if I do!)
Honestly, yes, I have thought about majoring in photography. But, I would be focused on shooting things, objects, and food, like doing spreads for household magazines. I do not know what it is about those shots, but they have been appealing to me.
That is not to say that I will stop offering the traditional shoots.
I have been meaning to take inventory of my life for a long while: to define where I want to end up, living-wise and career-wise.
Photography is not my only prospective major. Neither is art or ceramics. I have considered everything from teaching (as shared in a previous post) to being a counselor, one who specializes in addictions or just a regular therapist-type. My Creative Writing class really re-stimulated my dormant *not dead* love of writing these last two semesters, and with that reawakening came a dormant dream of possibly pursuing it in the future as well. {Ideas have already started forming for books to write about; some of them have already been presented to the classes over the last two semesters.} I have also thought of possibly becoming an editor for a publication (newspaper, magazine) or for a publishing company. (Y'know the ones to whom authors submit their works to be looked over...etc.)
The app for MSCD is due in March, so I have until then to decide on a major.
I just cannot believe that this is happening again. Every time something happens with me going to college (even when I enrolled at Aims) I always have a hard time deciding what to do. Maybe it's because I want to do it all!
There we go, that's what I can major in: Renaissance Womanhood! =P