A Matter of Retirement from my Artistic Lifestyle
If I am to seriously consider retiring from my photography career, there needs to be a thorough and thought process taken. One doesn't simply close the door on their love of art. It is far more complicated.
I find this opening truly difficult to pen, if you will. I had never entertained the thought previously. Perhaps you have. I have not. It's more a lifestyle than the 'journey is the thrill', kind of undertaking, as it undertakes the before the shoot, the variances during the shoot, as well as the enhancement of the images, better known as the editing, following the shoot. Yet there is even a further stage, that is the consideration for days post edit, the consideration of the potential buyers, and how their enjoyment may last, with a few more tweaks for a lasting enjoyment within their homes, their offices.
Then what will I want for my customers once retired? Is it truly the income anymore? Will my customers, my visitors feel abandoned? If this is your first visit, perhaps you will have no problem with my thoughts. But if you have come back for more of my photographic art works, to view, to purchase, to gift to others, then I have a concern. What I do on these webpages is to present you with works I have spent time shooting and creating. There is a real effort in doing so. My art is not that which you see on commercials, where people are phantasmagorically snapping endless shots of smiling and laughing, bouncing and jumping friends for never ending fun. My art is the joy of passionate work.
Picture this, the simple flower, or animal, mountain road in the woods, may all seem dull in comparison. And no one would fault you with that thought. But when you link through you notice thought, and framing the scene, the object was put into the capture. And so much more than that. The art, may end with fading into our walls. We rarely notice them after a while. I have always strived in creating an image, better than nature presented it to me, so that doesn't happen. Simply pu,t my feeling is that my photography lasts.
My works take time to develop, time to reconsider the editing, the colors, or lack of, the step up from what nature provided, even if it was spectacular. There are few ever taken by the most talented photographers that will ever be enough to please those sho spend their income on a given print, that will forever thrill them, even as years and decades pass. And that, the effort it takes to create a photographic wall hanging, that continues to enhance our lives, is my aim. I may have come close in capturing an image that at the time I thought, this one is perfect. But with hard work through a photo editor, I can truly say that the final edit is one I am fully happy with. And I know from the compliments, customers are too.
As I go along here, I feel the tug of not well grasping this retirement concept. Almost as if I will not be able to retire from my craft, and yet I must. But perhaps not today. Not just yet.......
