I'm currently taking a vacation from paid photography work. I'm a software analyst first and a photographer second, and the software analysis has taken me to Seattle, Washington, away from my local Wisconsin clients. I have a contract position, that will probably turn permanent at which point the whole family will relocate West. Since it's work that brought me here, I'd guess it's less a vacation from paid photography and more a forced leave of absence.

I looked into opening up the same kind of weekend photography business I had in south central Wisconsin, but unfortunately the Seattle market is rather glutted with photographers. It takes a lot of time and energy to create a client list and then maintain it, and I just can't do that and work a full time job in a market as competitive as this one is. What I can do is shoot for one client--a client that I haven't shot for in over 5 years--me.

In Wisconsin, I needed both the day job and the photography to put food on the table. Now, the day job takes care of food, and photography can just be fun. There's no pressure to deliver anything, and I'm free to experiment with new techniques, new styles, new genres of photography--like food or photojournalism. I'm taking joy from the craft of making photographs, rather than worrying about the final product ("I like this shot, but will they?").

I'll update this with photographs from my current base of operations, along with thoughts on the nature of photography, other art forms, and life in general. Up next--the aforementioned photojournalism.