Where do I go from here

Where do I go from here?

Short answer...not sure.

This past Sunday, I attended the Frank Maratta's Car Show and Race A Rama at the Eastern States Exposition grounds in West Springfield Massachusetts. I thoroughly enjoyed the show and speaking to the car owners about their rides and I shot more than 150 pictures.

Side note; It's kind of funny when the owners invite you under the rope when they think you are a professional photographer because of your gear.

So I get home Sunday night, import, edit and export all of said images from the car show. I felt really good about the images and was quite pleased with the quality of my work...until...

I am trying to figure out where I fit in the whole photography thing. I don't really feel like I want to be the wedding guy or do the portrait studio type thing. I do enjoy event photography (such as car shows, Pipes In The Valley, etc) landscape, scenic, macro, you know, shots I can capture for other people to enjoy, and maybe make a little money at it.

Do I build a website for just a gallery? Do I spend more money on an e commerce site so I can sell my images? Do I stay on Fine Art America with millions of artists where I can sell images for a minuscule commission? These are only some of the questions I have. 

Getting into a gallery or shop is not as easy as it seems either. That's one spot I know I would like to be but where? 

So, getting back to the car show. Like I said I was pretty happy with my work so I posted not 1, not 5 but 40 of my images to Kappy's Keepers on Facebook. I thought they were all pretty cool shots. I shared on my wall, my wife shared on her wall, my mother shared on her wall and boom, 2 likes of the images. I had trouble sleeping that night as mind mind went crazy trying to figure out why. I have over 450 friends on Facebook, Kappy's Keepers has over 120 followers, my wife has over 600 friends and my mother has almost 150. So that's potentially more than 1300 impressions and to receive only 2 likes is pretty disheartening. It is hard to stay motivated without the validation of knowing someone appreciates your work but I will push on through.

I have had a Kappy's Keepers Facebook page for just about a year now and it has slowly grown to about 120 followers. I recently started an Instagram account for Keepers as well. I am on Spotlight, Twitter, Pinterist, EyeEm, Google+, Periscope, Fine Art America, pixels.com, View Bug and more. It's gets frustrating as I'm an administrator on a Facebook page for my fishing club where basically nothing gets posted and it has grown to almost 500 followers with almost no content. Where as I try to post content daily such as images, the Kappy's Keepers blog, youtube videos I have made, artwork from Fine Art America for sale etc on Kappy's Keepers and it just hit 120 followers after a full year.

 I don't want this to sound like a pity party so I will tell you there will be a website at some point. There will be a store at some point. I just have to figure this whole thing out.I will continue to shoot what I like and figure out where I fit in this equation.

Kind of pumped though, this Friday, I will be shooting a band "The Shady Experience" for the first time at Maximum Capacity in Chicopee Massachusetts. I am looking forward to it, it should be fun and also a learning experience. If you are in the area and have some spare time, stop on in and say hi. I will be the guy wearing a camera!

Thanks for reading!

E