yes, it's true--i need a haircut

as promised, pictures of the studio. it's not much, but it's a start.

also, today marked the posting of several online ads. who knows what will come of that, but here's hoping that it results in some work.

speaking of work, i find myself in the interesting position of having three different clients that have things that they would like photographed/designed/drawn/written, and in each case, i'm being told "yeah, we really want to do this, but we have our hands full, so now isn't the best time. we'll be in touch." what should i say to that? "well, my hands aren't full, and it's me that has to do the work," seems a little aggro, but "okay, let me know," seems a little wimpy, and also a little less likely to make me any money in the foreseeable future.

maybe margaret's right--i should start making porn. if there's one thing i learned in art school, it's hooray for naked people.

a place at the table

i moved almost completely into my studio yesterday and today!  hooray for work space, with (fewer) distractions and setup for photo stuff!  if only there were internet connectivity, and if only my cell phone wasn't on the fritz, i could have a functional place from which to conduct the business of the day--which is photo, in case that wasn't clear by now.

in any case, part of tomorrow's agenda is a little bit of studio documentation, so there will be studio pics up here eventually.

in other news, i've plugged analytics into the website, and it seems that i have had three visitors in the last two days--which is not a great hit rate.  i'm thinking some advertising is in order.  also, a better site.  i keep going on about that; perhaps it's time to actually implement it.

studio one, aka the red door rumpus room

as promised, updates:

first of all, i'm moving into a studio. the hope is that this will help with both creative vision and productivity--especially the latter. also, i'm sharing it with a couple of guys, both of whom are web designers, which will hopefully mean referrals. once i'm in and settled, i'll post images.

next, i'm now "working," (and i use the term loosely) for gin optics et al. in theory, there will be money eventually, but for now, there's exposure, and practice, and the opportunity to meet people and see things and do things. and i might as well.

oh, and there are a couple of other semi-promising leads. i've got four new detectives on the case. i've got them working in shifts!

more free photos

after a completely frantic few days, pictures are finally finished from the house i shot last week. see below. general updates re: business and other such drivel (and there are many!) to be posted later today, i hope.

how can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?

for lack of anything better to do, it's time to start making. a first order of business is the website, a second is the portfolio, and a third is general work--more pictures need to be taken. to that end, i'm learning flash (or starting to) today, which means an updated site can't be far behind. at least, i hope that's what it means. to further than end, i'm also shooting a house for free on thursday. i suppose i should say "for my portfolio," not "for free," because that's the point, but since we're keeping the tone nice and negative around here, we'll stick with the free part.

i'm also considering trying to find a super-low-budget office/studio space, in no small part because it might be nice to a) have someplace to go and work, and b) an actual studio space would be pretty nice sometimes. i've been emailing with a couple of the children of the corn (i.e. craigslisters), and so far, everything is either expensive or sketchy.

in any case, there are new portfolio pictures in the works (they'll probably turn up here at some point...) and a web relaunch (which will definitely be announced here, though the actual site will be--you guessed it--at my website).

ok back to flash.

no frills photo

tried no frills photo for the first time this week--and failed. no takers. which, i suppose, is a commentary on our nature to be closed to the guy on the street corner selling stuff--perhaps i need a better venue, or perhaps i need to be more aggressive in my sales.

in other news, i'm strongly considering putting a portfolio up on etsy. if it happens, you'll find out about it here--buy some work, please? oh, wait--if you know about this blog, we're probably pretty tight--i'll just give you work. which might be why i'm struggling so mightily. i should learn to care more about dollars than i do.

federal express

i'm in san diego for the weekend, learning about physics (and how to teach it). i mention this because i sat next to a guy on the plane who considers himself quite the marketing genius; i'm inclined to believe him. his assertion is that the experience of an actual thing, held in your hand, has much more impact than the virtual copy of that thing, i.e. send a physical portfolio.

what's more, my marketing guru thinks that said physical portfolio should be delivered via fed-ex, because there's something about the fact that it shows up in an envelope that ultimately gets hand delivered to the guy in charge, and he has to pull the tab that zips it open, and inside is a physical thing that becomes important just by virtue of its presence in said envelope.

so i'm thinking it's time to craft some portfolios, tailored to the firms that i think give me the best shots at actual work, along with construction companies in china (don't ask), and send some fed-ex letters.

in other news, the comparatively long silence was due to a bout of overwhelming self-doubt on wednesday, from which i have finally recovered. starting a business is punishing, to say the least.