Change Is Good...Growth Is Better

No photographer really knows how many times we'll have to think about an image, truly see, compose, press the shutter, edit, then share it (if chosen to). At the same time, I can't slam pack everything into a single day out of fear of there not being a tomorrow. So instead, I plan as if there is. I pace myself. I evaluate my thoughts. I think about what I am interested in and accept how that shifts over time. Sometimes this thinking means less blogging here.

Partially why I haven't blogged here in a month is because in late May, I started a blog that I really wanted to create for months: Gradient Lair: Black women + art, media, social media, socio-politics and culture. Think critically. Feel Deeply. Powered by Tumblr.(http://www.gradientlair.com) In this blog, I critically (and without apology) discuss media and cultural issues and their impact on me and Black women at large. I also share positive and reaffirming images of and media about Black women. The serious and the sweet. As I mentioned in my end of the year post in 2011, I am teetering with the idea of pursuing a doctorate degree, and what I want to study overlaps the types of things I've written about on this blog since 2009, and now Gradient Lair since May 2012. I've received some great feedback about Gradient Lair so far, and it's very encouraging to me, especially since it's a niche blog.

The other reason why I haven't blogged here in a month, or not nearly as often as I did in 2010 or 2011, is that I feel my interests are once again shifting. There was a time that I thought that I would only create nature photographs--a time before "Tru Shots Photography (2005)." Then just portraiture and weddings. (I haven't done a wedding since 2009 and don't offer wedding photography anymore. My interest shifted.) Then portraiture, lifestyle and cultural documentary (as I began to travel, first in 2004, more heavily in 2006-2008 internationally, and then domestically in 2009-2011) photographs. This is where I am now.

But I feel a shift occurring again. Since last year, I've been studying HD dSLR filmmaking (and I wrote about some of the workshops and studying tools that I've learned from). I am interested in unit still photography (the still images created of feature motion pictures, documentaries and music videos etc.) in the future. I looked through my past work and some of the images that excite me the most are the street photographs amidst my cultural documentary images. I feel myself moving away from beauty portraiture and lifestyle images. It doesn't mean that I don't enjoy them, it just means that what moves me is shifting. Street photography. Unit Photography. Short film documentary filmmaking. It doesn't mean that I will label myself as a "specialist" of these tomorrow. There's still a learning curve involved in changing. But, I recognize that my interests are changing and I am studying accordingly. I love to study and practice.

My creative time has been or has become about:

• Reading books, articles and blog posts about images, ones that incorporate images, or ones that provide sociopolitical context and critical analyses that impact how I perceive images, media, and culture.

• Writing and blogging on Gradient Lair.

• Studying street photography and other photography genres.

• Studying HD dSLR filmmaking in general.

• Studying shorts and short documentary filmmaking.

• Studying unit photography and still image vs. motion juxtapositions.

• Watching films and other media (beyond just for "entertainment") with a critical eye, sometimes critiquing them via Twitter or on Gradient Lair.

• Researching PhD programs of interest (culture/media/communication interdisciplinary ones at good institutions) and trying to make yay/nay decisions about whether to prep for Fall 2013 or Fall 2014.

• Working on 2 photography eBooks and 2 actual books, one which deals with photography and one which does not.

• Shooting/editing....but not necessarily posting and blogging about it.(I still use Instagram somewhat.)

I don't have the same drive that many of my peers have to post every single image that I create, and even less so when I compare 2012 to 2010 or 2011. I think this actually becomes obsessive and counter-productive. It becomes a "look at what I did crayon drawing attached by a magnet on the refrigerator" kind of experience for me. It becomes a "will a celebratog from Twitter approve?" type of thing. I am so over that. I AM SO OVER THAT.

I use Twitter at pre-determined times during the day and LOG OFF all of the rest of the time. I split my Twitter account earlier this year. I tweet whatever I want (including photography) of varying sociopolitical and intellectual complexity on my personal Twitter account (@thetrudz) and photography as art, business, education or culture on my Tru Shots Twitter account (@trushots). (I still have a lot to thank Twitter for.) I have only 2 blogs now. Not 5. There was a time when I had 5! I only use networks that I enjoy using, not ones that photographers demand each other have. For me, that is primarily Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Instagram. (I occasionally visit my other accounts, as the icons on the right reveal). I blog when I have something to say...not feeling as if I "have" to say something.

"All noise is waste. So cultivate quietness in your speech, in your thoughts, in your emotions. Speak habitually low. Wait for attention and then you low words will be charged with dynamite." - Elbert Hubbard

I have mostly disregarded blog statistics and number of blog post retweets. In fact, I changed my retweet icon so I wouldn't see the number of retweets. (Besides, they decrease when you aren't praising the latest celebratog and choose to examine photography and its impact through a critical multi-faceted lens, no pun intended.) My whole social media/blogging experience has drastically changed when I compare 2012 to late 2009-2011. I...like the changes.

Changing how/why I use social media, studying and embracing my shifting interests, and preparing for and learning about other things within photography and outside of photography are things that only I have to approve of...myself. I approve! Change is good. Growth is better.

| Wednesday, July 18, 2012 | No comments