Planting Seeds that grow

What it means to be planting seeds in your work and goals whether that be life things your work. Or are you planting the seed that will choke out your goals and dreams? 

Transcript

What's up, everyone? This is your photography Podcast, episode 10, planting seeds. I'm Adam Phillips, your host. And yeah, so I had a thought. So I've had this weekend I took off. And I shouldn't say it took off. But I just went on some hikes kind of did some stuff for myself to reflect on things with life where I wanted to go in the future, where I want my work and career to go, what kind of work I want to continue doing. I've had a lot of things that have happened within the last couple of years that have really made me kind of pull back from a lot of the work that I've done. And it's had me a question about the clients that I want to work with in the future. Or if I wish to continue doing the work that I've done in the past, the mountain biking and skiing climbing side of things. Just because I felt like some of these companies that I've worked with, they sit on, jump on a moral-ethical pedestal, and preach what they're doing. And sometimes I think they just do it to make people feel good about the products that they're buying from them. And that helps them sell products.
It's caused me to pull back and reflect and wonder if, if it's really like, the way I want to keep pursuing the work that I do. I had a thought yesterday. And something my dad said to me, how did he put it? A farmer doesn't plant seeds, not without the intention of growing something. So a farmer doesn't plant seeds without also intending to produce something, right. We tend to sometimes give things "seeds" or attention. When we don't necessarily want to grow something. So it was interesting to think about how there have been things that I've given seeds to in the past couple of years that I'm not sure that I want to grow in areas that I not sure that I want to grow anything. That's just something that I kind of wanted to say or bring up or share. Because frequently, I think we give focus to things that are quite as important. We believe they are urgent, or we feel that they matter. But in retrospect, like in the long term, do they? Do they really matter? Because are we, or are we planting seeds in an Avenue in a direction that we don't want to go? I don't know if this will be a podcast or a YouTube episode or a combination of them both? Yeah, that's really it.
I just kind of, you know, I'm sitting here in this tiny studio apartment. And I've kind of had this like thought. I've had the idea that I need be more on the road and find myself. I just shot a wedding video down in Zion National Park with another photographer that's all about doing weddings and stuff. Anyway, as I was down shooting the video, i had the thought and asked myself. Am I planting a seed right now in the direction of where I want to go? Much of my work has always consisted of commercial photography and video. Not this wedding scape. I've done weddings in the past 2009 I did some weddings to 13 I did a wedding or two. I just always felt burned out. I always felt discouraged and abused and used it at the end of doing wedding photos. You know, after you deal with the bride and the bride's Mom, it's just like it's not enjoyable; it takes some fun out of it. But as I did this video, it didn't feel that way. I was excited about what I was doing. I was! I was excited to get back and look at the footage; all of these things were occurring in the same space that I didn't enjoy doing the photos. So I came back, started a different Instagram account, and bought a domain name for it. And that's in the process of being built at the moment. But in the process of that, I'm also trying to do a little more work on my own website, which I thought was great. And I looked at it the other day and just was like, it needs some work. Um, but I think with that, all in mind, and planting seeds, and all of this, it's easy to get caught up in our Instagram accounts and, and the things that how it looks and how it's curated I've had. I've had photographers that are really new to photography. They follow all of the great photography rules, and they're not watching their grid on Instagram and all this. Still, you know, just because you have 1004, or just because you have 50,000 followers on Instagram and your grid looks excellent, doesn't mean you're making money. And some photographers don't know how to do an Instagram, but they're making money. And so it's funny because you can judge someone by the way their Instagram account looks. But it doesn't mean that they're great at delivering to clients or following up with emails or all that. Sometimes, you focus too much on your Instagram accounts and lose focus on the actual side of the clients and staff. And honestly, my own opinion, if you're not emailing these people and creating that professional space, to have these conversations. Whether it's texts and phone calls, and some kind of Skype call or zoom, FaceTime. Whatever, and then meeting up with them through emails. If you're constantly trying to just get your work through direct messages. On Instagram. I think you're falling short. 
I mean, you hear about a lot of stuff happening today, with people being censored, or their accounts being shut down, or they get locked out of their accounts or whatever. It's not a guarantee, it's, and your biggest failsafe is a website that people can go back to you. And not even have a sponsor for that. So yeah, thanks, guys appreciate it. Um, but there's no sponsor, just saying get your website do something to help put your stuff out there. Um, with that in mind. Yeah, you know, websites are great and everything, but, um, I think we, we used to be, and, you know, we had these things come out. When they were fancy and brand new and whatnot, everyone would take those to these trade shows or whatever to show their digital portfolio. And it was all fun because it was new technology. But I, I almost think, and this is the conversation I had with my dad. But I believe we are approaching a time when for those listening, an iPad that just showed up, but we were coming.
I think we're kind of stepping back. When digital first hit the ground, I guess everyone was jumping on board with everything being digital. And I think now we're kind of finding a space where sailing photography and all of that and digital art coming back together where we're printing our work. And our portfolios should be published because people still like to give a print catalog of products or whatnot. And the last, I think the previous Outdoor Retailer tradeshow I went to is actually in my storage unit at the moment. Still, I have a box that I made with my logo and laid on the top of it, and maybe I'll show it in a future episode. I'm not gonna even till the cuts and stuff like that. And all that be girl Bureau, whatever, but it has my images printed, free-floating inside. There's 13 by 19 size so that when I sat down with a client, they had to physically like engage with my images and
I tell you like the impression that I had with clients as they went through my portfolio because they weren't even flipping a book open. They had to physically, and it was just different. And I say that because basically just want to encourage you guys, you know, whatever medium you're in, try and do something different. The rest of everybody try and do something a little bit more competitive or other or just more memorable to your clients that you're trying to get work with. Because it's gonna stand out whether I got a job with certain people or not like they noticed my work. So it's just something to think about. I haven't done a video in a while and just felt like I needed to do it. I'm not going to be super pumped and excited that I shot this. But if I try and do anything with it tonight, I would be up till five o'clock in the morning? And I like my sleep. So um, yeah, that's it pretty much. Just wanted to set some stuff up and do something that I haven't done in a while. Record a video, record a podcast; I'm not going to promise that I'm going to jump right back into it and keep doing them. But hopefully, I do. And if I do, I hope to be a lot more consistent with it. Just had some stuff happen in life that pulled me away from this work a little bit. Not photography, necessarily, but doing some of these other things, the podcast, and the YouTube stuff. So um, but anyway, feel free to check out the links below. All of those. Support me. And yeah, you guys can have a Venmo link or a PayPal link or something you guys can help donate that way if you want. Um, because this isn't a big channel. And yeah, but the more this grows, the more I can encourage you guys to do some stuff. More, I can share inspiration and insight and teach a little bit or share what I know. So yeah. Anyways, thanks for watching, guys. I appreciate it. Click the subscribe button if you haven't. Thank you!