Purge.
The other night I was babysitting and the kids had already gone to bed and I found myself watching Hoarders on A&E for the first time. I made it a whole whopping 4 minutes before I completely lost all my sanity and was freaked out, I thought I contracted some sort of infectious disease just by watching this program. Thankfully, 7 minutes later, the parents showed up so I could stop watching this show, I know, I could have just turned the channel but what’s the fun in that? After watching 11 minutes of this program, I’ve decided that I need to de-clutter my life, not only possession wise but also personally and professionally.
Which brings me to what I’m blogging about, I went through the Photocommunications program at Texas Tech University wanting to excel at music + concert photography and shoot professional musicians and tour with bands. When I moved to Southern California to attend photography school in Santa Barbara, I wanted dive deep into perfecting my skills not only as a photographer but more specifically a music + concert photographer. It’s always been a dream/passion of mine to photograph bands and musicians. Moving back to Texas to the live music capital of the world, I’ve had opportunities to photograph bands as much as my schedule allows, and I’m feeling more and more inspired to dig deeper as a music + concert photographer and really concentrate on getting my business and name out there.
In the past I’ve taken wedding, engagement, family, senior and baby sessions for practice, money, blogging, etc purposes; after much thought, consideration, planning, strategizing and over all happiness level, I’ve made the decision to no longer accept potential photography jobs that do not pertain to the concert + music photography business. To some it might seem to be a big risk and potential mistake, however I’ve really been contemplating this decision and hear me out! The passion, adrenaline, excitement, giddiness, overall happiness I get while shooting a concert is phenomenal and I don’t get the rush I get with that type of photography in any other genre. I know others think music photography is the worst having to deal with security, drunk people, prima donna’s, tour managers (that’s a shout out to you, Johnny Hanzelka! bahahaha jk jk!), and only having 3 song shooting limitations in most venues/arenas. Those scenarios are where I thrive and I love every minute of it and wouldn’t want to be doing anything else.
So as I’m purging my life, I will no longer be accepting jobs for wedding, engagement, babies, family and seniors. I have enough friends in those industries to recommend them to you and they’ll do a better job photographing your session more than I ever could. Just like if you asked them to photograph your band, they wouldn’t be as jazzed up as I would be! I’m glad I can now finally realize I can say no to a project and focus on what drives me through life. Every once in a while I’ll be posting some headshot or profile type photos of friends who I’ll make model for up keep with potential promo shot photography for bands, also most of my friends are gorgeous and belong in front of the camera!
A post isn’t a post without a photo so here is a photo I found while purging my hard drive the other day, I like the depth of field I captured in this particular image! I still love photographing cemeteries as a hobby, this particular shot was taken in New Braunfels at a German cemetery that I can’t remember the name of. Whoopsie.
love it. live it. capture it. purge it. 😉
~ Jalys.
Awesome decision, Jalys! The way you feel about bands is how I feel about weddings and engagements so I totally get where you’re coming from. Doing what you’re really passionate about will make you happier in the long run! And you can send all those weddings to me! 🙂