What to do...

Well it's increasingly evident that to make a go in the photography one must make some decisions. What to specialize in (portraits, still, stock, lifestyle etc.) and who to appeal to/what is your client base?

I was "thumbing" through my pictures on my computer and was realizing that none of my photos have anything in common, I'm all over the place stylistically and I lack a specific "genre" that I operate in.

I believe this means that I need to focus more on the shoot and take the images I need to take by finding a common stylistic ground and making whatever I'm shooting my own.

How in the hell am I going to do that you ask? Well I'm not sure yet, but I swear I'll work on it.



In somewhat related news I was reading up on PhotoShelter and going through their School of Stock and reading their production values section which just made me realize how tired I am of taking pictures of my close group of friends. No offense to Vern, Blake, Trevor and my girlfriend but I'm very bored with all of you. I need fresh new faces but it seems that the way to do that is through models and I'm very unimpressed with Model Mayhem and I can't afford to pay talent for any of my non-commissioned work. So I suppose this is a call for new faces to anyone that reads this.

I'm ideally looking for:

--attractive males/females that aren't overly attractive.
(by this I mean you should not look like a super model, you should be good looking but approachable.)
--clean in appearance
(no tattoos that can't be covered easily, no facial piercings/extreme piercings)
--friendly, professional demeanor. I'm not looking for posers I'm looking for people who look natural

I'm very interested in shooting athletic types and musicians/bands.

I need to start shooting for me and stop shooting out of boredom, it's not that I don't come out with good photos it's just that I need to be taking the photos that will help me get to where I want professionally. It's all about a solid portfolio.

Cleaned up the ol' FLICKR page today. Went from roughly 800+ images down to 232. I got rid of stuff that was unnecessary, redundant, old, etc. If you want to have a look at whats left then go to www.flickr.com/taylorjonesphoto

I had an interview at a local studio today, I feel the interview went well. I'm hoping I can land this job because boy oh boy am I tired of working at Barnes and Noble.

Spent a few days in Bellevue last week. What a great city, full of yuppies but nonetheless a cool town. While we were there we took a trip to Kubota Gardens near Seattle and if you've never been then I must say you're missing out. It's a Japanese garden that was created about 70 years ago and the Seattle Parks Dept maintains it. My dad and I shot a wedding there about two years ago and I was pretty impressed with the place.

Here's some pics from there:




Also shot a wedding last week at Bear Creek Country Club in Woodinwille, also a wedding I shot with my dad. Got some really great pics for my portfolio even though there were some technical difficulties (I don't want to talk about it)

Here's a few pics from the wedding:






I also got an offer to be an assistant at a wedding on Saturday, I am available that day so we'll see if that goes through or not.

I am definitely accepting work so if you or anyone you know is looking for a photographer for anything then send them my way. Just sayin'.