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José Rosado | Editorial/Lifestyle Photographer

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Editorial/Lifestyle Photographer

Photographer / creative director

José Rosado | Editorial/Lifestyle Photographer

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Blog

Blog for Baltimore based photographer, Jose Rosado, full of articles, interviews, + other informational content on photography and the creative lifestyle.

This is a Test: Writing With My Eyes Closed + Heart Open

June 14, 2016 José Rosado

So as it were, here goes nothing. Lately I’ve been looking for ways to help make my writing stronger + better all around. Since I’m not very experienced in this realm of my creative life, not traditionally at least, I’m taking it upon myself to figure out what that means.

I’ve tried music, time-blocking, learning when to walk away and clear my head and when to simply force myself to sit and write, no matter what comes out just to practice on getting better. Maybe it’s the DareDevil I watched this past weekend but I decided to close my eyes and just write. See, there’s no purpose to this article, just me writing about whatever comes to mind, not watching the word count to make sure I get paid enough to justify the time and effort put out, or seeing how the flow and cadence work in the overall structure of the piece. I will only correct the obvious punctuation at the end and nothing else, because if not, n0 wuld evar reasd htis shitty piece, I oknow thaatmcuh for suer.

It’s weird for me to say this, as I’ve only been getting paid to write for a year, so I’m not nearly as seasoned as some of my counterparts and friends, but I’m trying nonetheless maybe in an effort to make sure I always approach my work like this, but let’s be real here: today for writers, there’s a very different story-line to making a career off your writing. Gone are the days of getting paid two dollars a word or having the appropriate amount of time necessary to craft something truly worthy of lasting impact, it’s more about views based scales and getting a huge archive of content for cheap to maximize your company’s every-dwindling budgets.

Saying this is not to mock the current trends in writing, especially since they’re pretty much all I’ve known, but in an effort to understand what exactly changed over the years. I sometimes wonder if there was a change in how people approached writing or maybe it was the technology that made it more accessible just like the advent of digital did to the photography world.

I bet no one really knows — instead they simply acknowledge that things change. Adapt or die type mentality.

Surely I’m not the first or last to ask these questions, but instead only attempting to seek understanding through asking the questions that I struggle to answer. In the end that’s all we really can do in life anyways, ask questions to which we all seek answers to:

The answer is 42 by the way.

I read a piece by Jon Westenberg tonight that argued all of us tend to over complicate things out of fear of going the simpler route. I’m butchering it of course but that’s why I didn’t write the piece or have the veracious following that Jon has.

Yet, after reading that it made me think how much, as a people, we really tend to do that. Why is that? Simply put, because we seem to think as we get older, we get smarter, and that because of that we can explain things in a much more intelligent, verbose manner. But the truth is I learn more from my kids everyday when I tell them to do something and they question me as to why they have to do it.

These little tiny ninjas are almost Watts-like in their philosophical thinking about not wanting to do HW or be on electronics all day without being told no. We tend to get broken down to the point where our only explanation is: I’m older than you therefore you have to listen to me; I’m big, you’re little; I’m smart, you’re dumb; I know more than you do, I’ve lived longer, etc. When the reality is maybe about half of those are actually true.

See kids are the smart ones, they keep it simple. As we get older, we flower things up for various reasons; to impress people of the opposite sex, impress our elders, show our worth or value, justify the time we spent in school learning about things we didn’t care for and probably will never use in actual practice of our lives, but we forge on nonetheless.

Maybe I’m wrong about all of this, but that’s the point, right? To learn we must admit we do not know something. By keeping my eyes closed, my mouth shut and my ears and heart open, I’m hoping to learn something about getting better at this crazy thing called life.

I think this is it as I don’t have the concentration to keep going but more so because I have to get back to the actual paid writing I have to do. It’s been fun guys and I hope that some of you give this a shot too and see what happens.

It seems the one thing I can be thankful for was the typing teachers I had in Catholic school that made us put shoe boxes over our keyboards while in class to be better equipped to do this and of course, tear shit up in Oregon Trails — which if we’re honest, is the real answer to life, right?


This article was originally posted on Medium.

In Creative Lifestyle Tags writing, lifestyle, creatives, creative lifestyle, Medium, freeverse
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Why You Should Always Make Time for Personal Projects

August 30, 2015 José Rosado
Connor Surdi // www.connorsurdi.jp

Connor Surdi // www.connorsurdi.jp

    Whether you've been a photographer for 10 weeks or 10 years, we've all heard the cautionary tales about yet another creative who's packed it all up, sold off all their gear, + decided to do something else in terms of a career.

It's with that in mind that I am writing about the importance of personal projects.

      Most people hear that and think of young art school students, who pull together friends to shoot some fun stuff in between their demanding curriculum of school mandated projects. Now while that is a good example, it is worthwhile to note its importance on the healthy creative 'paid/personal' work balance that really never goes away, but we often forget nonetheless.


"Being a creative is no different - do anything for a career, it will eventually become a 'job'."


    A few notable professional examples of photographers who still instill said balance in their careers are Chase Jarvis + Joey L, both of which preach a lot on this topic as they realize the long-term benefits and how it impacts their careers + more importantly their overall creativity as well.

Sounds all warm + nice but how can you make this actually work?

________________

Setting aside the time + sticking to it

    • Dependent on your focus, it can be as long or short as you prefer
    • Most important part is making sure you focus on unplugging from usual everyday routine

Finding the right amount of time that works for you

    • It can be as short as a week or 3-6 months - finding what works best for you will take time; don't despair
    • Wedding photographers use the seasonal downtime to work on personal work + new ideas for the upcoming busy season
    • Commercial photographers can be lucky enough to have three busy months of big work can allow them 2-3 months of traveling + shooting passion projects

Realize the workflow benefits as well as the creative ones

    • Walking around new cities with your camera can be therapeutic + a great way to shoot new plates for composite work or even limited run fine art prints
    • Prospective clients sometimes follow photographer's personal work closely for outside-the-box ideas for their creative needs/briefs
    • What starts out as something small may suddenly become a new direction for your career

Start small + slowly expand your comfort zone

    • Like shooting cityscapes? - the nearest city will always be great for discovering new neighborhood pockets or even new ways to shoot the same ones again
    • However, when comfortable why not discover somewhere new by train/car/or even plane? Think #wanderlust
    • The creative lifestyle can be tough, especially when it involves family - so why not bring along your loved one/ones to help you unplug + remember why you work the long crazy hours

Remembering why you picked up a camera/paintbrush/pen

    • Ask a lot of professional athletes who get paid millions to play a game + most if not all will say the best time in their career was the times coming up - before the money, contracts, + endorsements
    • Being a creative is no different - picking up your camera with no creative brief or for no monetary gain can remind you why you got into the field to begin with
    • Doing anything for a career, it will eventually become a 'job' - getting burnt out on a fun, creative outlet is inevitable, it's all in how you remedy the pain


    Often times in the roller-coaster lifestyle of being a full-time creative, we only come to these lucid understandings after some time away from it all entirely - whether we take a 9-5 job to help bring in a steady paycheck or just unplug from the creative side + move to another spot behind the scenes.

    However, it doesn't have to take such a stark departure to help bring about that understanding and instead remember the importance of on-going personal work while in your creative career.


View this article on these great photography/writing sites:

Petapixel

DIY Photography

Thought Catalog

 

listen to my interview on the 'Thoughts on Photography' Podcast about this very topic:

Click here to listen

 

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In Experiences, Inspiration Tags personal projects, Chase Jarvis, creative lifestyle, Joey L, Connor Surdi
Comment

Shooting Full-Time: Here Goes Nothing

August 27, 2015 José Rosado

    In my last blog post, I wrote about the horrible thing that happens sometimes to creatives where they give up the full-time hustle for a steady paycheck + full-time job.


I must confess; that was me for the last four years.


    After years of shooting to get by, I wanted to know what it was like to make steady money, have some sort of routine, be part of something bigger than me which was followed by the pressure to provide for my new family of three. I have to admit - it was kind of awesome; I got to still work from home, I finally had a nice apartment, I was able to go out to dinner with friends without having to check my bank account balance first, and do some traveling not involving a friend's couch [pre-Airbnb days aka stone age].  

    However, there came a time about two years in that I felt the creative itch again and needed to shoot. So I started shooting in a part-time capacity and it was quite nice - I was able to shoot what I wanted in terms of personal work,  while paid work rates made a big jump because I didn't care if I got the gig; every bid was knowingly high so I didn't get too busy outside of work + if I actually got it, it was a nice pay day. I took more risks in my photography stuff, like entering a creativeLIVE contest where I got flown out in San Francisco + met with Chase Jarvis, Jazmine Star, and a whole bunch of other really inspirational people. Yet, like everything else in life things took a turn.

Of course, those outrageous rates then became the new norm - thanks 9-5 two-week pay cycle.

    You hear the news that your company is going public and you think it's the coolest thing ever - until that is, the company misses Q4 + Q1 numbers and you get the red tag in your locker. You're let go, laid off, released and that's that. What followed was one of the toughest times in my life, especially because while I had been through this before it was no longer just me I was looking out for. As anyone can attest, the job search tactics nowadays are simply maddening alienating a huge chunk of really capable applicants. After some six months of concentrating on looking for another career type job, I decided to instead go with the flow and not against it - thanks Allan Watts.

    So here we are - announcing that I'm making the plunge into shooting full-time again since it's been the only thing this year that's made any real progress with some of my recent clients being LinkedIn, Verizon Wireless, + Jackson-Hewitt to name a few.  Am I scared? - to put it simply, hell yes. However, I have found comfort in that I don't feel like I'm trying to fit a square peg into a round hole - after trying to get a certain thing for so long, you really have to ask yourself if you're simply trying to force it + overlooking something else you should be doing.

    Over the last four years, I've grown so much - as an individual, as a new parent figure, as a creative, and in terms of my career; so I'm thankful for that. The past time was good for me, yet maybe it was just what I needed to realize that this is what I'm meant to do. It's scary yes, but I'm taking the plunge with no reservations, guilt or hang-ups because part of me feels like that's why I gave it up the first time; too scared to take any real risks, doing enough to get by but not enough to make it a full-fledged career.

So here goes nothing.


If interested in booking a 1-on-1 Workshop or booking me for your creative needs, both producer + still, please don't hesitate to reach out via the menu above or simply clicking here.

 
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In Experiences, Announcements Tags announcements, photography, creative lifestyle, creativeLIVE, Wall Street Journal, WSJ
Comment

Currently working as an Adjunct Professor at University of Baltimore & contributor for BorrowLenses + Influencive.

Formerly of:  Petapixel, Fstoppers + Chimera.


For any freelance content inquiries or requests to share any of the articles on the blog reach out via the Contact tab.


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