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I'm not *quite* dead yet.. I'm getting better!
14 years ago
General
I'm still here; work and life has just been throwing me a few curveballs which have been keeping me away from FA and other things.
First off: In Jan I took a callcenter job which I became to Loathe after a few months. It got me into a downward spiral and was the major factor from my absence from FA and my break from photography. I worked in a high-volume call center for a large company. I was laid off from the job in October; which ironically was when I was reaching the breaking point from stress and may have put my two weeks in anyways. I have done a callcenter twice now. I got burned out both times. I will NEVER go back to a callcenter again, no matter how much they pay me. It made me depressed, and I ended up taking out a lot of my frustration directly on family and friends. I also gained 30lbs or so because I sat on my ass for 8 hours and went home too depressed to "work out".
Secondly, as the one post I was able to put up during the summer; I threw my back out- and therefore was physically unable to do photography for about 2 months,
But since all this, things have changed. Two weeks ago I got the job I've allways wanted which is Hands-On technical support for a smaller company. Everyone is friendly, and knows my name there allready. Altough I love the job; there are three flaws in why it may not last: One- its a contract position; as of right now I'm only there till the end of the year. Secondly it's part time. I'm getting a really good rate of pay so I'm making slightly more then I would sitting on my ass collecting money from Unemployment; however, but I am not making as much as I was at the Callcenter still (Ideally I'd like to make even a little bit more of course).
Third is its on the other side of the metro area so its a long commute. If they decide to hire me Full Time it will more then make up for that commute.
I can do this for a few months even with MFF because I've got some money coming in from independent consulting (I no longer operate my business formally, but can still take a little side cash in the interim for consulting).
Since I'm staff at MFF and still finding my place work-wise the next two months are still going to be fairly hectic for me. But overall, in a good way. My negative stress level is down WAY down.
I've had a few inspiring moments lately that lead me to think I should get back into photography. I took a nice long break from it due to stress and general businiess.
The foremost happened a few weeks ago. I just happened to have my SLR with me in a local park, and saw something pretty amazing for inside a major metro area. The lighting was perfect.
Two female deer appeared as I was putting my gear in my bag. Very quietly I took my camera back out and snapped on my telephoto. I've seen deer before, even in the cities, but what was remarkable was how close they were; and how tame they proved to be.
Slowly I moved up on them. They didn't even flinch; just kept eating. I followed them from a polite distance for close to an hour. The shutter noise didn't disturb them, nor did my presence there. Other people were in the park, and they didn't care. The closest I got was about 8 feet away, which lead to some remarkable portrait shots I need to sort through and process this winter.
Since I've been away for so long... I'm not sure what I want to do with this account yet; or even my photography in general. I found that my work may have been a little underappreciated here, but more of it is just having the time and well.. interest in posting things again. That and finding my niche as a hobby photographer. Getting back into the groove as it were. I'll figure that out at some point. I have had a few nudges lately that tell me my break from photography is over. I need to figure out what to post here.
So eventually I might post stuff again once I figure that out, as long as figure out in general what direction I want to go with my photography. What is my purpose of all of this? It's not to make money; there is FAR too much competition out there for that. So what is my reason then? Strictly for enjoyment? For something to share? For teaching others? I need to figure this out,
First off: In Jan I took a callcenter job which I became to Loathe after a few months. It got me into a downward spiral and was the major factor from my absence from FA and my break from photography. I worked in a high-volume call center for a large company. I was laid off from the job in October; which ironically was when I was reaching the breaking point from stress and may have put my two weeks in anyways. I have done a callcenter twice now. I got burned out both times. I will NEVER go back to a callcenter again, no matter how much they pay me. It made me depressed, and I ended up taking out a lot of my frustration directly on family and friends. I also gained 30lbs or so because I sat on my ass for 8 hours and went home too depressed to "work out".
Secondly, as the one post I was able to put up during the summer; I threw my back out- and therefore was physically unable to do photography for about 2 months,
But since all this, things have changed. Two weeks ago I got the job I've allways wanted which is Hands-On technical support for a smaller company. Everyone is friendly, and knows my name there allready. Altough I love the job; there are three flaws in why it may not last: One- its a contract position; as of right now I'm only there till the end of the year. Secondly it's part time. I'm getting a really good rate of pay so I'm making slightly more then I would sitting on my ass collecting money from Unemployment; however, but I am not making as much as I was at the Callcenter still (Ideally I'd like to make even a little bit more of course).
Third is its on the other side of the metro area so its a long commute. If they decide to hire me Full Time it will more then make up for that commute.
I can do this for a few months even with MFF because I've got some money coming in from independent consulting (I no longer operate my business formally, but can still take a little side cash in the interim for consulting).
Since I'm staff at MFF and still finding my place work-wise the next two months are still going to be fairly hectic for me. But overall, in a good way. My negative stress level is down WAY down.
I've had a few inspiring moments lately that lead me to think I should get back into photography. I took a nice long break from it due to stress and general businiess.
The foremost happened a few weeks ago. I just happened to have my SLR with me in a local park, and saw something pretty amazing for inside a major metro area. The lighting was perfect.
Two female deer appeared as I was putting my gear in my bag. Very quietly I took my camera back out and snapped on my telephoto. I've seen deer before, even in the cities, but what was remarkable was how close they were; and how tame they proved to be.
Slowly I moved up on them. They didn't even flinch; just kept eating. I followed them from a polite distance for close to an hour. The shutter noise didn't disturb them, nor did my presence there. Other people were in the park, and they didn't care. The closest I got was about 8 feet away, which lead to some remarkable portrait shots I need to sort through and process this winter.
Since I've been away for so long... I'm not sure what I want to do with this account yet; or even my photography in general. I found that my work may have been a little underappreciated here, but more of it is just having the time and well.. interest in posting things again. That and finding my niche as a hobby photographer. Getting back into the groove as it were. I'll figure that out at some point. I have had a few nudges lately that tell me my break from photography is over. I need to figure out what to post here.
So eventually I might post stuff again once I figure that out, as long as figure out in general what direction I want to go with my photography. What is my purpose of all of this? It's not to make money; there is FAR too much competition out there for that. So what is my reason then? Strictly for enjoyment? For something to share? For teaching others? I need to figure this out,
Hopefully we'll see some of those deer photos.