Posts Tagged ‘Inspiration’
April’s Showers
The first two weeks of April have seen me make some important psychological advances towards my 5 year goal of becoming a professional photographer. When it rains it pours it seems.
I’ve been submerged from life during the past month shooting like a madman every chance I get. Most of my recent captures have been multiple exposure RAW images for use with HDR related post processing. Sink or swim is the perspective I’ve taken and basically thrown myself in some deep water right off of the pier.
My efforts have already resulted in a few minor but emotionally important achievements. One of my pictures was selected by a German private photography club as their picture of the week. A couple of pictures have been used on a few local blogs in and around Vancouver, BC (where I’m from) and the local 24 Hour Vancouver daily newspaper ran this image as their photo of the day.
I also managed to make my first sale. 3 of my images were bought this week and are being printed on stretched 18″x18″ canvas for use in a local politician’s office. While I’m still a long way away from my $10,000 per month target it gives me hope that I have some measure of a chance.
I’ve also made a lot of contacts with people on Flickr and Twitter who share my passion for photography and are actively following my progress. I’ve been asked several times now for an article describing my process for creating my HDR images and I will make an effort to document my process so that others can try and learn along with me as I go.
My followers on Twitter are now up to 178 and I’ve been listed 13 times. My regular and constant posting to Flickr from April 1st through April 16th has resulted in 17,845 views, 398 comments and 212 being selected as favourites. This creates an average so far this month of 1,115 views, 25 comments and 13 favourites per day. If I keep up this pace I expect to see an approximate 500% increase in traffic for month 2.
These may be small steps but they have been important ones for me personally since I have very little to measure my progress along my chose path. I’d like to again thank all who have provided encouragement and inspiration for my journey. The have included other beginners, more advanced students of photography and a few very well established professional photographers who I never thought would notice a project of this nature.
Happy shooting the weekend is here and I’ve got a new 32Gb Sandisk waiting to be filled with images.