NFGphoto
patreon
Where we at
🕑 Added 2019-12-19 11:12:00 +0000 UTCBy way of a status report...
This is the slow time of year. This year has been slower overall and this season is the worst time. I've had four shoots this month, and they're all client shoots without a lot of images to show off (as opposed to my own projects which generally result in more stuff to share).
Which means, my dearest friends, that you're making my life better with your support but you're not really getting anything for it and for that I am very sorry. If you want to drop your support, for a while or forever, now's probably the time to consider doing that. No hard feelings, you've been great and you owe me nothing. <3
To get into more detail about how slow it is, as if the idea of a full-time photographer doing four shoots in a month isn't really indicative enough... My normal session rate is a hundred bucks, and I had a half price special for anyone who bought before the year ends, good for any time in 2020. And if they booked before March, they got a free edit as well, bringing the session price down to $20.
I sold less than fifteen, I think? 80% off and I sold a dozen. I remain fairly ambivalent about it, I'm in a solid enough place financially and, having just completed a 3-month stint behind a desk for a local distribution company I know for sure I am not in a hurry to get a real job. Photography is my thing, and I've got the drive and the interest to keep doing it for the foreseeable future.
Times are tough for a lot of people and photo sessions are the first thing to go when you worry about your job and rent and, you know, all that important stuff. I get it, I can't be upset about it. But I'm not sure how to increase the numbers. None of my attempts to break into other sports have really worked out, which I think would be the first step to increasing my customer base.
I'm super burned out on the social media front. I desperately need a social media manager, someone to remain hyped about showing off my stuff while I suffer through weeks of imposter syndrome or fail to post anything at all because it's too samey or too soon or too much or etc etc. The agonizing planning and effort involved is just killing me and week by week my reach gets smaller because of The Algorithms and I'm reasonably sure Pure was shadowbanned because it hasn't had a new follower in months... And so when I DO post, it generates less attention than ever.
So the summary, I guess, is that it has been really slow for a long time, and it's about to get worse. Normally the slow period runs Dec-Feb, but that's been getting longer and longer and in 2019 it ran until about May/June.
And if you're still reading this wall o' text... My plan is to get more models in for more concept shoots and experiments. If I'm not getting paid -anyway- I want to keep shooting, and these projects are the ones you get to see.
So far in January I have three scheduled shoots. That leaves a lot of time for experiments... If I can convince anyone to come play after they've pigged out all holiday and think they're fat.
So, yeah! Thanks for being awesome, I want to do amazing things but You gotta know that times are tough, things are slow, and if you pull your support I totally get it. Thanks for being here.
Just don't pull it before the end of the month, 'cause I'll put some stuff together you'll like. =)
