Hidden Treasures

I started photographing rural Tennessee scenes in the Fall of 2012.  Since that time I have created a huge online gallery of images.  This consists mostly old barns, abandoned houses, cemeteries and rural landscapes.

In the beginning I would edit all my photos and typically create some monochrome images out of most of the images.  I regret creating so many monochromes right after a photo outing because it was just to get the pictures done, upload them to the website with the hopes of a print sale, and then quickly move onto the next thing.

Many times I go back through those images and the monochrome edits are not what I would do today.  It's a rushed version and mostly a monochrome edit copied and pasted from another scene in the set.  It's as if I threw my work out to the world without much thought.

Yesterday I was going through a batch of photos from one particular location in Henning, TN.  At the time I edited them I thought they were OK, but I wasn't in love with the captures.  As I looked back on them yesterday I felt they were little treasures that had been overlooked.  There was even one particular photo that was perfect for a conversion to add to my Blue Series Gallery.

What I have learned is to slow down and not be in such a hurry to edit and get finished with everything.  It's best to leave things sit a while and come back.

Change Is Good

For months now I've been in the middle of restructuring my photography business.  I've pretty much stopped almost all my free/volunteer photography.  My subject matter will totally focus on landscapes or architecture.

For several years I've tried to perfect and speed up my workflow so I can provide a quick turn around to offer real estate photography services.  With interior rooms being such a challenge, I have not refined my technique yet to 100% personal satisfaction.  I'm going to dedicate more time in trying to perfect my skills for photographing homes and also focus on the art side of photography.  The end result is I will be able to offer real estate photography services in Tipton County with a fast turn around time.

I did photograph an old barn recently.  It was a spur of the moment thing.  I had gone to work out one morning and on the way home I suddenly realized I had left my camera equipment in the car.  Suddenly, I had the gumption to photograph some old stables.  It went well.  I didn't take many points of view like I usually do on subjects, but just what caught my eye.  It made me realize, this is what I should be doing.  Get back to the art of it.  It's my work and my time and I will do it for me.  If people enjoy it, then I am doubly blessed.

"Donate Your Time and Talent"

This phrase has been stuck in my head lately.  There are a lot of people and organizations who send requests out to photographers to donate their time and talent.  I just thought I'd write and tell you about my time.  This is about my life as a photographer and other photographers may have a different perspective on donating their time and talent.

What is time?  Time is a lot.  It's worth a whole lot more than money because we only have so much of it.  When someone requests a photographer to donate their time they usually want a photographer to give a specific amount of time towards photographing an event.

What is my time in regards to this?  First of all, donating the time is not just all that is donated.

• It's the prep time to prepare for the event, 
• the gas money to get to the event, 
• the time to travel to the event, 
• the wear and tear on the vehicle to get to the event, 
• the time afterwards to edit the photos, 
• the time it takes to prepare the photos to get them back to the organization, 
• the wear and tear on the camera because all cameras wear out and new ones need to be bought, 
• the hard drive space taken up for the files which will eventually lead to another hard drive purchase when full.

So, in a nutshell, whatever time you expect a photographer to donate needs to be doubled or even tripled.  If you are hosting an event where you charge admission and have some expenses such as tent rental, catering, etc, why do you not figure in a bit of the admission cost for a photographer?  A decent photographer is worth paying.  Getting a volunteer photographer may result in photos no better than something you could take with your iPhone.

I already do much of my photography without pay.  An old barn, abandoned house or cemetery cannot be billed for services.  On top of that there are many organizations I do not charge for any photography services.  This can be very time consuming so adding anymore donations of my time can be too much.  I also have a husband and 3 kids and it takes time away from them also.

If anything, consider setting a small portion of funds aside for a professional photographer.  If your organization is on a tight budget, offering a small amount of cash for the photographer's time does help pay for the gas to get there and a USB drive to put the photos on.  

Cotton Harvest

I finally found a cotton harvest to photograph and I am so fortunate it was the field I have been watching.  Sometimes I think things are meant to be.

Something I did not expect was how great a photo opportunity the farmers would make.  All the people farming that day were very friendly.  I saw this gentleman picking up bits of cotton, I took some photos then walked up and started doing the same thing.  It's hard to just stand there with a camera while people are working.  I feel compelled do help a little bit, even though picking up a few pieces of cotton is not really work compared to what these guys have done most of their lives.

The sky was very dull and colorless when I first arrived to photograph the harvset.  The sun would come and go.  The nice thing about this kind of photo is the sky doesn't matter much.  It's the person that matters.  So, if you can take away anything from this, it's people matter the most.  There are some times when you have to change direction and focus on others.

Need To Be Re-inspiried

I went out today to capture some scenes, but it didn't go well.  The first place I wanted to stop I could not get access so my visions of rust quickly disappeared.

My alternative was to drive around and just find stuff.  I found very little.  I have reached a new point with my photography where I am trying to enjoy it.  The enjoyment seems to be lost.  It is truly work getting things together and heading out for the day.  It costs money that I spend on gas to drive around and find this stuff.  I have to enjoy this because there is no immediate financial gain for what I do, there may never be.

I have a deeper purpose in life, I know that, but when it comes to my photography I feel sort of purposeless.  Why am I doing this?  For what?  For whom?  What is the end result?

As a kid I collected baseball cards.  In the 90s the market exploded and it not longer became fun.  Everyone was trying to profit off it and the cards had to be perfect.  A grading system was invented.  A player's card may have been cherished, but because it wasn't perfect, it wasn't as good.  The joy of baseball collecting was stolen by a market of people just wanting to make a dime off something a kid loved to collect.  More baseball cards were printed to feed the demand and the market became flooded with cards.  The baseball cards I have from that era are not worth as much ones from the past.

I see photography in the same light.  Everyone's got a camera and photos aren't as valuable as they used to be.  I shoot old barns, cars, dilapidated buildings and so does Tom, Dick, Harry, Sally, Sue and Jen.  It's hard to be original anymore no matter how hard I try.  Today I got out of the car to photograph an old shed.  I started to set the camera up and got back in the car without taking a photo.  The sky was cloudless, an empty space of blue.  It really makes for a plain picture.  I'm at the point where I just don't want to take photos if I know they don't even have a chance of having the "wow" factor.

So today I spent 5 hours slowly wandering the countryside and this is what I came back with.  At least there are some clouds...

Exhibit - The Art of Farming

Next week I will begin setting up for my first exhibit.  There will be 30 pieces on display at the West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center in Brownsville, Tennessee.  This is such a great opportunity and I feel honored to be able to share my work with so many people.

I Went Out Today!!!!

I have not been out photographing since November.  There are reasons for this.  Today I made myself get out.  It is cold.  'Bout froze my fingers.

I have those little stretchy gloves, which are fine, but in order to feel the dials on my camera, I cut slits in the pointer and thumb fingers of the glove.  Makes for two very cold fingers while the rest stay warm.  Visited some new places, but went back to some places I have photographed several times.  Below is one of those places.  As of today, I think this is probably the best photo of this place I have taken.  Glad I went out.

Take Me Someplace Warm Please!!!!

I'm getting a bit sick of the cold weather.  Sometimes I like to pull up old photos from my trip to Gulf Shores during the summer because I really enjoyed the early morning walks on the beach barefoot with my camera.  We did stay one night in Louisiana on our way home and since the French Quarter seemed to lack kids on a Saturday afternoon we just parked and our family walked down by the riverfront.

This cruise ship was leaving and heading to some wonderful destination - at least I hope so.  I put this on Pinterest a while back and it gets pinned quite a bit.  People dream about going on a cruise and pin it.  Those who are going on a cruise and pin it.  Others are planning their cruise and pin it.

I thought about going out today and photographing all the ice on the trees, but I'm too cold so I just edited some photos and read American Photo magazine in front of the fire place.

To Warmer Days!!!

The Instagram

For the past couple weeks I stopped posting work to my Christy Hunter Photography Facebook Fan Page.  I found it became quite pointless when Facebook limits how many fans can actually see my photos.  There are about 1,000 wonderful fans on there and Facebook seems to pick favorites without my choosing.  My website is always open 24/7 at www.christyhunterphotography.com.

I have had an Instragram account for a while.  What I have found that Instagram does not limit my followers to what they can see.  I have around 200 followers and most photos generate 20 or more likes.  With Facebook I would be lucky to get 5 likes from almost 1000 followers.  Also both Instagram and Facebook allow tagging, but tagging on Facebook doesn't display everything in a group like it does on Instagram and Facebook doesn't allow tagged posts to appear if they aren't recent posts.  The only negative I see of Instagram is the format.  Pictures are small and have to be square unless you put a border around them.  There are limits, but I have found Instgram to be a better way to share my work.

You can follow me at:
 http://instagram.com/christyhunterphotography

What to do?

I'm in the midst of restructuring things.  I've acquired a new dot com, http://adventureroadphotography.com.  It just goes back to my website, the usual http://www.christyhunterphotography.com.  I wanted to have an identity that is associated with rural West Tennessee and the adventures I come across.  This may be scenes of old barns, an abandoned house, rusty cars and sometimes a new car or two.  In the past I've taken a lot of photos with people as the subject and my goal is to do less of that so I can focus more on the adventures I may find driving around in my car with a cup of coffee.

My postings have been limited on my usual Facebook Fan Page, but I have a new one that I have been posting to, http://www.facebook.com/AdventureRoadPhotography.  This Fan Page is going to focus on rural scenes and not many portrait type images.  I can't guarantee that a really cool portrait or some interesting scene with a person wont appear, but I want the majority of what I post to be rural scenes without people.

Instagram people!  Use it.  http://instagram.com/christyhunterphotography  Follow me and have a nice day!