2012 hasn't started out very well for me at all and to be honest I find myself in a very precarious situation. My saving are running low and will probably be decimated at tax time. I have until then to find the thing that has been eluding me for the past 5 years. Steady income from my photography. I have no illusions about becoming the next Mapplethorpe or anything like that, I just want to earn a living doing what I love. I have trimmed everything way back to the basics. The only thing I have spent any really money on is for my photography, and even there I didn't go overboard and buy the very best of everything. I made sure I have a good camera body and a few pro lenses. But in all the other areas I settled for good enough to get the job done. I'm a great believer that it isn't the gear that make a great photographer.
I had hoped that over time my reputation would expand and I would be called upon to do more and more. Well, the reputation part has come true, I have made a reputation for myself in the Los Angeles gay community, and it's a good one. People see my work and they genuinely like it but do they think of hiring me when they need a photographer...not usually. Conversely, they will come up to me in a bar when I'm covering an event and tell me they want to set up a time to shoot with me. I give them a card and know the odd's are I will never hear from them. I have acquaintances who work in the entertainment industry and only one has ever offered me a gig.
As I said earlier, I'm in a make or break situation. Already I know I will be selling off my second camera body, probably next month. That's an easy sacrifice, though it deprives me of a safety net. Next I will start selling the lenses, that will be like chopping of arms and legs. Eventually, the only thing left to sell will be my 7D and whatever lenses and flash I have left. And then what am I?
