Trying to make a living, with my Art...
Posted: 04 Oct 2019 14:21
Some of you might know that I’m still struggling with some issues caused by the event that got me locked up in the forensic psychiatry in 2015. After I was released in 2017, I worked really hard to get back on my feet, after not only loosing my freedom, but also all my belongings and body of photography and videographer work.
Everything burned to ashes in my apartment, the event that got me locked up and labeled as crazy.
It’s still a bit painful thinking about my files that were lost too, not to mention the equipment...
Since 2017 I worked my a... off to get back on track and to be able to do what I love most. Creating art with my camera. Underwater and on land.
I spent hours working shitty payed jobs and was and still am living on a tight budget and investing all I can in expensive photography equipment. Almost every cent I made since then and the rest in food and normal living expenses.
Since the beginning of this year I was able to work on my portfolio on the side. The last months were tough, I worked construction and on the side some other gigs and on top of that building my photography and video portfolio.
I’m running a website for it, Facebook etc...
I did many shoots for free, for “friends” and so on.
In order to do it officially, the site is run through a friend, because I still couldn’t start my own business because of some issues and payments the court still wants from me for the earlier mentioned fiasco. I’m still depending on people Dir lifts and other things, since they took my drivers license too and I have to pay to get it back also...
I’m certain that I will be at some degree successfull at some point with my work.
Strange enough a lot of people like what I do, but there are only a few that want to book my service and most of them are happy with the results, but some really bugged the shit out of me lately.
I had a couple dog swimming events last month and explained in front of the photoshooting what the coasts are. Since I’m running it through a friends business more than 50% of the earned money goes away for taxes and his share. Yes he is somehow helping me, but on the other hand also profiting from it. He thinks I’m a bit stupid when it comes to taxes, so he overcharges me and they go in his pocket. I don’t mind it that much, but he wants more and more for his „service“ and acts like he didn’t earn anything from it...
Then from about 15 clients, about 4 of them which I took pictures of their dogs underwater started huge discussions about my prices and some thought that in the photoshooting fee of 20€ were the pictures already included, even though my other friend which believes in my work and helps me a lot explained to them beforehand like to all the other clients how much it coasts in the end. With one I had to argue back and forth until I just said I’ll pay your shooting fee back, to settle the issue... Even though I spent 30min in cold water with her dog and she didn’t understand why the pictures coast extra... On top of that editing time, uploading them to my homepage and my friend explaining and doing the paperwork with her while I was in the pool shooting other dogs.
How can someone living in Germany think, that I can pay 2 people’s work time and underwater equipment for thousands of euros and then offer a service for 20€ all inclusive??? I’m really trying to keep the prices fair... And the dog swimming event is only once a year, just before they are being closed over wintertime..,
Like I could make a living from that...
Anyways, I don’t want to complain. There are people out there worse off than me, but it’s a bit frustrating.
I will try now to sell some of my work as Fineart prints and reinvest that into new projects. I have some underwater Fineart work in mind, that I want to accomplish. No matter if I make money with it it in the end, but I want to do it and assign at least one self assignment a month to myself and if time permits even one every week. I have 16 hour days lately, but I’m eager to put in the work, because it makes me happy to keep creating and I refuse to get a „normal“ fulltime job and give my energy to a corporate company...
If you guys are interested in viewing my work have a look at different media where I display it. Maybe you have ideas how to promote and display it even better on other platforms?
So far I’m only using this:
Homepage
http://www.hydrovision-images.com
Instagram: @hydro_vision
Facebook @hvimages
Any support and shares and so on would be much appreciated. And some feedback too!
Some of my videos:
https://youtu.be/ADzZOcJB1Z8
https://youtu.be/dkGNf5kQD_s
https://youtu.be/y4KR9OqXIuc
https://youtu.be/GRd98mqN8HE
Underwater:
https://youtu.be/8GubrVaV_Bc
https://youtu.be/fMumYRLye9g
https://youtu.be/UBrqtQJb4DA
I hope it’s ok to post the links?
Cheers,
Chris
Everything burned to ashes in my apartment, the event that got me locked up and labeled as crazy.
It’s still a bit painful thinking about my files that were lost too, not to mention the equipment...
Since 2017 I worked my a... off to get back on track and to be able to do what I love most. Creating art with my camera. Underwater and on land.
I spent hours working shitty payed jobs and was and still am living on a tight budget and investing all I can in expensive photography equipment. Almost every cent I made since then and the rest in food and normal living expenses.
Since the beginning of this year I was able to work on my portfolio on the side. The last months were tough, I worked construction and on the side some other gigs and on top of that building my photography and video portfolio.
I’m running a website for it, Facebook etc...
I did many shoots for free, for “friends” and so on.
In order to do it officially, the site is run through a friend, because I still couldn’t start my own business because of some issues and payments the court still wants from me for the earlier mentioned fiasco. I’m still depending on people Dir lifts and other things, since they took my drivers license too and I have to pay to get it back also...
I’m certain that I will be at some degree successfull at some point with my work.
Strange enough a lot of people like what I do, but there are only a few that want to book my service and most of them are happy with the results, but some really bugged the shit out of me lately.
I had a couple dog swimming events last month and explained in front of the photoshooting what the coasts are. Since I’m running it through a friends business more than 50% of the earned money goes away for taxes and his share. Yes he is somehow helping me, but on the other hand also profiting from it. He thinks I’m a bit stupid when it comes to taxes, so he overcharges me and they go in his pocket. I don’t mind it that much, but he wants more and more for his „service“ and acts like he didn’t earn anything from it...
Then from about 15 clients, about 4 of them which I took pictures of their dogs underwater started huge discussions about my prices and some thought that in the photoshooting fee of 20€ were the pictures already included, even though my other friend which believes in my work and helps me a lot explained to them beforehand like to all the other clients how much it coasts in the end. With one I had to argue back and forth until I just said I’ll pay your shooting fee back, to settle the issue... Even though I spent 30min in cold water with her dog and she didn’t understand why the pictures coast extra... On top of that editing time, uploading them to my homepage and my friend explaining and doing the paperwork with her while I was in the pool shooting other dogs.
How can someone living in Germany think, that I can pay 2 people’s work time and underwater equipment for thousands of euros and then offer a service for 20€ all inclusive??? I’m really trying to keep the prices fair... And the dog swimming event is only once a year, just before they are being closed over wintertime..,
Like I could make a living from that...
Anyways, I don’t want to complain. There are people out there worse off than me, but it’s a bit frustrating.
I will try now to sell some of my work as Fineart prints and reinvest that into new projects. I have some underwater Fineart work in mind, that I want to accomplish. No matter if I make money with it it in the end, but I want to do it and assign at least one self assignment a month to myself and if time permits even one every week. I have 16 hour days lately, but I’m eager to put in the work, because it makes me happy to keep creating and I refuse to get a „normal“ fulltime job and give my energy to a corporate company...
If you guys are interested in viewing my work have a look at different media where I display it. Maybe you have ideas how to promote and display it even better on other platforms?
So far I’m only using this:
Homepage
http://www.hydrovision-images.com
Instagram: @hydro_vision
Facebook @hvimages
Any support and shares and so on would be much appreciated. And some feedback too!
Some of my videos:
https://youtu.be/ADzZOcJB1Z8
https://youtu.be/dkGNf5kQD_s
https://youtu.be/y4KR9OqXIuc
https://youtu.be/GRd98mqN8HE
Underwater:
https://youtu.be/8GubrVaV_Bc
https://youtu.be/fMumYRLye9g
https://youtu.be/UBrqtQJb4DA
I hope it’s ok to post the links?
Cheers,
Chris