From hurricanes to tornadoes

Not literally, thank goodness -- Florida hurricanes, both literal and figurative, are thankfully behind me for good. But the wind, she blows, and in honor of the (figurative) Georgia tornado that has swept/is sweeping through many a life connected with mine at the moment, I'm doing some soul-searching as well.

I am going to use the Nerd Parade's summer downtime as a personal sabbatical from the world of the dark, smoky bar (unless I am there by my own personal choice). Just as Nerd Parade has been going non-stop since January '07, so too have I chased them around since January '07. My plans for the downtime are to finally clean out the embarrassing backlog of photographs I possess (from all facets of my photography, not just NP) and decide what my future plans will be.

In essence, I have not yet decided if I will return as Nerd Parade's in-house photographer after the summer ends. Truth be told, I have not yet decided whether I will return as a band photographer at all. There are plenty of Atlanta photographers out there to fill in the tiny, tiny gap I would leave, photographers who either already do it professionally or are striving to become professionals.

To make a long story very, very short: What most of the people whom I encounter don't realize is that I do have a career, and it isn't as a photographer. I spend 9 hours a day, 5 days a week, staring into a computer screen at my job. When I go home at night, my eyes hurt. I've also got a musician husband and all that comes with that to take care of, and a daughter going into middle school next year. I manage my house, my office, and still cook dinner 5-6 nights a week. I live 30 miles outside of Atlanta. And lately, when I have a spare minute, I find myself wanting to do nothing but sleep.

I was doing a little networking when I first moved to Georgia, but with Nerd Parade's increasingly hectic schedule over the past few years, I stopped making offers. It quickly became apparent that I would be unable to take any photography gigs if they conflicted with the Nerd Parade's appointments, booked or not. On several occasions, I'd booked something for myself several months in advance, only to have to cancel at the last minute due to circumstances beyond my control. (Again, you have to understand, it's a bit different than photographing 'Random Band X' -- I'm married to the bass player in NP, and we have one car.) It's seriously frustrating.

I begin to realize that there's only room for one industry professional within a family structure, unless there are no children involved. I enjoy photography and that has not changed. I will always love it, I feel I'm pretty good at it, and I will never stop taking photographs everywhere I go, but I need to re-evaluate how my photography does or does not fit into my current life.