I’m not sure how it came about, but I came to the realization that this dog photography thing, this competition thing, this paying client thing, just wasn’t for me. Doing dog portraits were, to some extent, enjoyable, but they were never good enough.
I hate to think of the hundreds of dollars I spent on groups and organizations learning the skill – all the while I was miserable.
To think of the last month I entered the Professional Photographers Association Merit Image Review I spent $100. I received three merits. Whoopee – can’t eat merits. Can’t use them for anything other than bragging rights and who really cares? I didn’t even bring me that much joy because from the minute I paid the money and pushed the button to send the images I agonized over it. What little bit of joy I got out of receive the merits was overshadowed by the agony.
No fun.
When I started school at Catawba Valley Community College for Photography Technology I had the aspiration to become a documentary photographer. I haven’t fallen too far off that path. I’m a storyteller. I get paid to tell stories. How wonderful is that?
Why take portraits of dogs (or anything else) to please others? Why fight with other photographers for those dollars?
I have multiple skills – not only can I take good photographs, but I can also write. That makes me kind of golden – kind of. When you specialize in multiple skills, you don’t always get good at one of them, but it is what it is. I use both words and photographs to tell stories. I’ve been doing that for many years now and I love my job.
Remember that $100 I spent on self-gratification? That $100 would buy two rabbit cages. It’d buy one or two rabbits. It’d buy a lot of seeds to plant in the garden – I get way, way, way more enjoyment out of watching flowers bloom and vegetables grow and photographing them than I ever got photographing and editing dog portraits in an attempt to get good at said skill.
So, I reestablished www.spellcastfarm.com and merged it into this page. What appears here won’t be awards. There may still be dog portraits, but if there are, it’s for me, not for anyone else. What will be here is posts and photographs about self-sufficiency. There’s great enjoyment out of growing food – but what will be different now is that what food will be grown here will be for Wally and Michelle, not to sell to others. That’s a nightmare as well.
Let’s just say Walmart has ruined people and leave it at there.
On Friday, Wally and I go to South Carolina to pick up five rabbit cages. If all goes well, I may be able to get back some of the rabbits I sold to a local couple to re-establish my herd. If not, I’ll buy more. I’ve really missed rabbits.
Until later …
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