New Direction Can’t Start Till You Take the First Step

I’ve been working on an new interesting direction for my photography.  In my continuous search for a direction after retirement; from the Federal Government, developing a new business project.  I’ve settle on developing aerial / drone photography for the real estate market.  My first client will be in the Commericial Real Estate industry.  

To start this project, I’ve had to get my remote pilot license.  This involve studying for the FAA Part 107 exam, and then take a test.  The next part is developing the skills of flying a drone, which takes practice.  The next step is purchasing the equipment that I plan to use in that business.  

I decided to go with DJI Mavic Pro 2.  Yes, it’s Chinese made, but there is nothing close in the price range made in America or other countries that have the same abilities and image qualities as the Mavic.  Plus until I gain the experience, I’m going with a product that many others in the industry is using.  

So here is the maiden voyage of Vorlago 1. 

It’s always nice to be mentioned in another blog!

My dear and old friend Dawn Hester, another photographer, has her own blog. She was at my opening for the FairFax Art League this past June 13th. You can read about it from her blog at

https://ddhester.wordpress.com/

You might have to do a search for my name or the phrase “supporting your local photographer.”

Either way it was a nice shout out for the Art League as well.

Gallery Opening Night

My gallery opening with the FairFax Art League in FairFax Virginia was last night. It went well, even with a thunderstorm that came threw the area right before. I was amazed I had at least twenty members and non members show up for the art and photography show. Three of my past and current co-workers even made the event, and one of them was my direct boss.

For the most part, those that attended the opening was impressed with the photography that I put on display. I finally had eighteen of my favorite pieces that span my adult career in photography. I had conventional black and whites and color images from the day, mixed in with current digital images. I had the digital images printed by Miller’s Labs and used their sister company MPIX to do the printing. All very nice on the nose color printing my Miller’s. I will use them again for my photography printing.

my future aunt and multimedia artist Atti

my boss and another co-worker.

Me standing next to an image that Atti really liked from my work.

My group show has been installed.

It’s been a number of years for me to show my photography. So I decided to show some of my favorite photographs over the years. How best to start by joining the FairFax Art League, monthly show as the Feature Artist. If it wasn’t for my girlfriend’s aunt who is a multi-media painter asking me to join and show, I would not have done it.

It’s not that I don’t like to show my work, but working for the Federal Government has put a damper on going public. They feel that if you put your self out there, the crazy’s might find you and cause you trouble, and that means trouble for the government.

As I pasted my retirement age, the age that I can retire from work with a pension, the less I am concern with having a problem with putting myself out there. I will have to do it anyways, when I cross over to the general private sector, and start trying to get clients.

So this is the first of many I hope, that will get my name and photography known to the public. This photograph is from the gallery install and are some of my favorite images from the 00’s and 10’s. As you can see, design is develop into my work.

view from two panels at the show. 

These are images from my street photography days, long before it became fashionable in the 80’s and 90’s.   

Training and training

So I’m attending the Photoshop World East conference in Orlando Florida this year. I don’t go every year or even every couple of years. I assume the technology doesn’t change as fast as that, boy was I wrong.

It’s good to keep up to date with the digital trends in the business. You don’t want to fall behind the rest of the industry, but in the end, it’s not the technology tricks that makes a photographer. Any body can learn the tricks and produce a picture with that trick, but it takes an artist to make a image, a story, that goes beyond those tricks. That is what I’ve been developing all these years in photography.

This year, I’ve been learning new tricks, new technology to redevelop, or grow my bag of tools. To relearn past skills, that I haven’t used since highschool, and that is my ability to draw and relook at subjects.

I’ve taken an forensic art workshop on anatomy and studied the human bones, muscles and face structure for facial aging, a request from my agency. It’s because they discovered that I have skills in Photoshop.

That’s also the reason I’m attending the Photoshop World Conference in Orlando Florida this year. Keeping up with the technology chances in the software that I most use. I also attended a workshop from a group that is associated with the drone maker DJI.

Their workshop was all about DJI’s drones and how to use photography on that platform. That workshop was only five hours long, but it taught me more about the business of commericial drone business than what I have been reading on the FAA part 107. Part 107 is the law governing small unman drone operation. Now being a workshop also on photography, I didn’t think I could learn anything new. But I was wrong, these two drone owners, taught be a few things, and I am grateful for attending the workshopZ. You never know where you can learn something new. There is always something you can learn from someone else.

That’s why towards the end of August, I’m traveling to Maine to attend the Maine Media Workshops and take a week long class on Adobe Premier Pro, video editing. It’s a new tool in my work box.