Over the weekend we went to see a local framing store - yes, we’re going to put more of my photos on the walls of the new place - and while we were there, we started talking about whether he might be interested in stocking some of the photos I’ve done, in order to sell them to shop customers.

I’ve no idea whether we’ll make any progress - I guess that the odds of making a sale on one’s first attempt are fairly low, if I’m being realistic - or whether he’ll decide to give it a go or not. That’s something where only time will tell, really.

But for me the important thing is that I’ve now made that leap, and from here it really only gets easier. It’s something I’ve been talking about trying for a while (for which read “flummin’ ages”) but now I’ve actually started looking at whether I can sell some of my stuff.

There’s a long way to go yet, I know - but at least the first steps are now being taken. I’ve no idea whether I’ll be successful or not - I’d like to think it will, but reality tends to kick in at that point with a good healthy “Yeah, Right”. I’m going to try, though.

And like the man said, “Life’s too short to be filled with ‘I wish I’d….’”.

Yesterday I was writing a bit about the portfolio site, and what to do with it. At the same time, I’ve also been looking at what I need to do as the next ‘phase’ of the photography that I do. And when all’s said and done, the simple answer to that one is ‘take more photos’. It’s when you get to the question of ‘What of?’ that my brain currently stumbles a bit.

As it is, I’ve got several projects in mind, and once I’ve started them off, I’ll be fine - it’s just those initial stages where getting started requires some energy, inspiration, and motivation. Not necessarily in that order. But they’re the bits in which I’m currently lacking quite significantly.

In the mean time, I’ve also gone back to some earlier ideas, and been thinking about the best ways to get certain photos I want to try. Currently my big weakness is that I’m really bad at just asking people if I can take photos of them, even when they’re in a public place, and in theory I don’t even need to ask permission at that point. As it is though, well, I feel uncomfortable doing that - although I feel even more uncomfortable asking people. I’ve ordered some business cards, though, which will hopefully come in handy. To my mind, it’s all too easy to just say “I’d like to take your photo - I’m legit, honest!” without any corroboration, and I figure that the cards might help a bit on that score, and at least lend the semblance of being somewhat competent. We’ll see.

At the same time, I’m considering getting some decent(ish) notepaper done up - it won’t be too expensive, and again it’s probably going to come in useful. I know I need (or, more accurately, feel the need) to gain permission from certain places before going off to photograph them, so again it strikes me that having a request come through on ‘proper’ paper, rather than just any old printer paper might be a bit of a bonus.

As with many things this year, I suspect that a lot of this is all about initally “laying out the groundwork”, getting everything in place so that when I do have the inclination/motivation/energy, I don’t have to hang around doing the organisational scutwork - by that time, everything will be as in place as I can make it.

Of late, I’ve been updating my photography portfolio site with more photos, and also looking at what the next stage should be, what I should be doing next. On that score, I’ve now got some ideas, and I’ll be aiming to start putting them in action over the next month or two.

When I look at the portfolio site, though, I still wonder whether I should add a photoblog or not. At the moment, I know I couldn’t add a new photo every day in the same way that Chromasia or DDOI do. But then maybe if I had the incentive to do so, I would.

At the same time, though, I wonder if a photoblog is what I actually want. It’s a portfolio, at the end of the day - do I want to then be adding in regular images to a different section? Particularly if they’re done on a regular basis, and thus perhaps not up to the level where I want the site to be? That’s my problem - as yet I still don’t know. Of course, the easy answer is that if I don’t know, then I’m not yet ready to do it, and that’s fine with me as well. Maybe it’s just something I need to think about for the future.

As it is, the front page of the site updates the main image every time the page reloads. Maybe for now that’s enough…