Comments on: Focus

By: Nick Onken

Nick Onken — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 14:34:00 +0000

@terencepatrick Yeah, my agent helped me clean up the site and lose the categories. I think it’s definitely helped.
@chantz The key to focus is not losing site of your goals and vision, then doing everything you can to get there. But beware, it’s a journey to get there and it’s one that spans a few years. So you gotta push through it.
@jacob Well, that all depends on how much it costs you to live. When you feel like you have enough money to pay for your overhead and lifestyle then you can start turning jobs down that aren’t creatively what you want but pay well. Truthfully, I would believe that 90% of the jobs you end up shooting won’t completely fill you creatively, but that’s why you take the bigger jobs, so you can put your time and money into what you’re passionate about. Sometimes you gotta suck it up and do jobs you don’t love to fund the work you are really passionate about. Just make sure you are making time to actually do that. Afterall, you’re getting paid to click a camera. Sure beats making coffee. Stay tuned for a post to come. I still do jobs, I’m not 100% passionate about, but I’m just making sure I get paid more per click so I have more time to allocate to other ventures.

By: Travis Dunn

Travis Dunn — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 19:49:28 +0000

After reading this post, it seems like you are stating the obvious… but sometimes you need to hear it from someone else for it to really click.
It just clicked for me. Thanks

By: Jacob

Jacob — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 15:51:23 +0000

This is something that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately.. It’s really nice to see your opinion on it. I see a lot of assistants struggling with this too, and it seems like the most successful ones are those who decide to come to a full stop on their assisting work and throw themselves 100 percent into shooting.
I’d be interested to hear how the transition was for you, Nick. How did you know when it was time to start turning down those jobs that weren’t your main passion, even if they were good money?

By: John & Lauren

John & Lauren — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 14:39:07 +0000

This has been one of the harder things for me to figure out because my wife and I have already somewhat established ourselves as Wedding/Portrait photographers but at the same time, I see your Lifestyle Ad work as well as others and I love it just as much. I know now I can’t do both so instead, I’m really trying to shoot all our Weddings/Portrait sessions with a “lifestyle” approach. Haven’t quite figured it all out yet but I guess it’s all part of my 10gs.

By: Chantz Hough

Chantz Hough — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 13:46:06 +0000

hey, I really needed to hear that. I know that my two favorite things to shoot are weddings/portraits. But as one starting out and is still in their first year, I am still haveing to hold a second job too. I understand now that Focus is extremely important but do you have any tips for one in their first year? Thanks for the inspiration brotha.
chantz

By: Simon McConico

Simon McConico — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 11:14:10 +0000

Man. Focus is hard. I am still trying to figure out what I am passionate about shooting. I love people, so I narrowed it down to that, but from there everything else has been up for grabs. Hopefully I can find my niche and get in my 10G’s.

By: Terence Patrick

Terence Patrick — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 04:13:14 +0000

Focusing is one of the hurdles when starting out, like you said. In the end, I think it helps to experiment a bit to find the right fit and style, but once a strong pattern is developed that aligns the goal, it’s important to buckle down and learn to say no to the other things.
Noticed your site has been cleaned up and no longer has the assortment of categories. Is that something (the editing) that your agent helped with?