New Frontiers

Now that we’re settled in, day to day in the new house is starting to feel normal.  The new house is starting to feel more and more like home.  School starts next Monday, and after that routine develops, we’ll see how much free time I actually have.  That said, I’ve been giving some thought to the next evolution of this here blog.  I’m not entirely for sure what direction that I want to take ryanbowles.com in, but I’m beginning to feel that it has reached the pinnacle of it’s current iteration. 

I’m not making any money off the blog, which was at least part of the reason for the blog in the first place.  I’m not really marketing myself, or my services.  Partly because I don’t know what services I can or want to offer, and partly due to my lack of confidence.  Not having any marketing experience or contacts doesn’t really help either.   Honestly though, the real reason for the blog was to help me flesh out some ideas I was working on, and verbalizing my thoughts has really helped me work through some personal problems.  For the most part, those problems have been eliminated or mitigated.  I don’t know if that’s been evident in the last couple months of the blog or not, but I’ve strayed from stream of consciousness style posts, and moved more to just posting photographs and Illustrator projects.  I’ve had nothing to say, no weight to get off my chest.

I’ve really enjoyed my time with Illustrator and my sketch pad.  I love creating; drawing and coloring helps fulfill those needs better than photography, though photography remains an integral part of my creative process and I still enjoy it very much.  I have high hopes for my photography class, so you might see more angst from me if things don’t go well, but my fingers are crossed.  Next week will be telling, and the week following even more so.

So where does that leave ryanbowles.com?  I’m still committed to updating the blog until some other great idea strikes me, but I feel like it really needs to head in a new direction.  If it’s going to be about my work and my services, then the focus needs to be on my photographs, and if it’s going to be about me and my life, then I’d like to make it a little less structured, because when I start to feel obligated about posting, things start being a whole lot less fun.  And who knows, maybe it will take some yet unforeseen form.  Little thoughts are always growing and maturing somewhere in the back of my brain.

Below are some images from last Monday.  The wonderful people at Maynard Studios once again employed my services for a book that their work is being featured in.  Thanks again Matt and Karine for thinking of me when you needed a photographer.

Ryan