June 2025 – Richard Schulz

Starting something.

A photo of a lit sign for a business. — City in lights.

It’s been a cold few days here.

The chilblains on most of my fingers tend to suffer on these days. Last winter I had them for the first time in more than two decades. This is probably the downside of early mornings in the winter. A freezing wind tearing at your clothing hoping to find a way in.

The photo might look familiar. It’s a spot where I wait to get a few snacks to eat before work starts. In the distance [to the left] you can see a church steeple. One ironic thing about this town is the amount of churches you can find here. This neighborhood where the photo is taken has 3 within a 1km (1.6mile) radius. I’m not sure whether this is due to the factions within religion or just a case of catering for communities.

As I write this previous realizations are confirmed – I write much better when looking photos I took. The one below is in the street where I live. Just above the horizon you can see the light crescent of the moon. It might be a coincidence but on the colder mornings the moon is right up there – almost mocking me as I head to work.

A car passed and the red tail lights disappeared down the street where the cold darkness swallowed them. This type of silence and peace is something I truly enjoy in the mornings.

A dark early morning with a streetlamp illuminating the scene. — A light in the dark.

On my way into town this morning a light fog was hanging over a stream. It lies in a hollow and as the fog rises it covers the houses in a creepy blanket until the sun pops out from behind the horizon.

A light fog hanging over a stream. Houses on the horizon covered within the fog. — Slight fog.

Starting a photography business.

I’ve been thinking about doing food photography as a means of supplementing my income. Anyone who has been doing this knows how quickly something you enjoy doing can become a job.

This isn’t the first time my thoughts have drifted in this direction. Since I started doing photography it has been at the back of my mind. At the very least something I revisited at least once a month. Even if it is just briefly.

Initially I had the idea of taking photos and quitting my day job. The modern rat race is something I would love to escape [ wouldn’t we all? ]. Yet even the most focused entrepreneur will tell you this isn’t as easy. Starting a business, even a small business, takes a lot more than just saying “Let’s take photos for money”.

The process of getting clients and everything involved with it isn’t easy. You need to do the work – take photos, pitch to potential clients, edit, get your website / storefront updated, etc etc. It doesn’t end.

It is really easy for this to become another day job. Something you dread or dislike.

Thinking about this possibility – for a passion to turn into a job – it might help to think about this: at the very least, even though it might be more work than something 9-5, it might not be as safe, stable or traditional – at least you’re doing something you’re passionate about.

But passion can’t pay the bills right off the bat. In some cases it never does. This shouldn’t stop one from trying. If you start with nothing, what have you got to lose in this situation? You may have to work the day job a bit longer before you can go out on your own. Or you do the day job and sell photos / do photography.

I’m mostly writing this to motivate myself.

To keep going when the results I want isn’t there. To keep going even if you’re not getting sales. This always sucks. But few people are successful the very first time.

TL;DR – keep going. Do what you enjoy when it comes to your photography. Whether it’s for fun, a hobby or for money.

Our escape is our prison.

All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness.

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about photography lately.

Mostly because I haven’t really been doing anything significant with regards to it. The odd phone photo here and there. A quick and dirty photo in the morning – usually just before I get to work. My ‘Apartments’ project has halted at the moment. I think the last time I went out and took some photos were last month.

Then I look around me. Photographers killing it in my mind. I see photographers developing rolls of photos. I see photographers posting their work. I feel jealous. I start feeling angry at myself. Why am I not going out, taking photos? When I do go out with my camera I capture but I don’t feel excited about the photos.

A brick building behind a fence. — It’s not the content I’m seeking but the distraction.

I’ve felt like this before and I’ll probably feel like this again. It seems to be a natural cyclic thing. A wave pattern for creatives. Up. Down. Down. Up. Rinse and repeat.

Despite this being the N-^th time of me being caught in this I don’t really know how to get out of the funk. More photos seem to compound the problem. Staying online is a big contribution to the problem.

A blurry photograph of a sign and a car. — A blurry photograph.

Of late I’ve been drowning myself in YouTube shorts. I tend to find myself scrolling them for much too long. It’s not the content I’m seeking but the distraction. I remember this feeling when I started out on Instagram. Same thing with X / Twitter.

Perhaps the problem lies with my consumption. Too much Substack. Too much YouTube. Not enough IRL. Perhaps my problem is with my perceptions around a platform.

I like Substack, it’s a great platform. But…for someone not in a good mind space seeing success [while not having any] can be difficult. I don’t hate on those who are achieving their goals or successes. Hard work needs to be rewarded. Constantly being subject to the success of others tend to make you bitter.

Outcome?

A simple way to stop this kind of consumption is to not go online. Avoid the pitfalls completely. A sabbatical. A hiatus. This points to how easy it is to become misaligned in the age of the internet. We only see a few things and based on this we paint a new picture for ourselves.

Based on this new information we put ourselves down. Paint ourselves into a corner. And if our escape (the internet) becomes our prison, where do we turn?

Thanks for reading : )

A man and his scooter.

It was in my usual spot this morning when a young man, actually two, passed on a scooter. I greet them each morning as they pass by, then stop at the corner shop, buy cigarettes [probably] and then head to work.

This morning was a bit different. I’m not sure what was wrong with the scooter but they had to keep it revving to avoid stalling. It was slightly funny but more annoying as the sound of the revving engine just kept going up and up.

As they left I still heard the high revving even as they were out of sight.

A photo of a person on a scooter. — Scooter.

I snapped this with my phone as he waited for his passenger. If you look closely you’ll see another motorcycle passing in front of them. I took the photo hoping to catch both of them in full view but slow auto focus. It turned out alright in the end.

If you’re new here thanks for taking time to read my writing. If you’re looking for a bit more then head over to my Substack and see some other photography related content. There is also a link at the top of the page where you can see the options available to support my work here & on Substack.

Thanks for reading : )

Yesterday I got my prints.

It’s been a while since I decided to sell my photos.

I guess many photographers have this in mind at some point. For the rest of this post lets forget the why behind the reason and focus only on the prints. When it comes to selling photos you have two options – sell digital or sell physical prints. Three options if you decide to sell both.

Selling digital photos are the easiest option. Setup a store front and make the product downloadable after purchase. Done. No shipping, no printing.

Selling physical prints of your photos tends to be a bit more messy. I live in South Africa so I suspect it will be messier (more expensive, logistically a bit more difficult) than someone living in the US. My primary concern was the shipping and then the printing.

I’m still working on the shipping but over the past week I printed some of my photos I want to sell. To see a few things:

The quality isn’t bad. From the images I can see my photo quality isn’t as bad as I initially thought. I printed photos from my Canon 1300D (18MP) and I printed photos from my Fujifilm XE-2 (16MP) and both results are fairly good.
Paper quality. For a photo which will be framed I suspect the paper will do the trick. From the printer’s website “crafted on Fuji Lustre paper using a high-quality wetlab printer“.

My big questions now are mostly related to the paper quality. What is a good enough quality paper for selling photos? Then another one pops up. What is a good size – I’ve been looking at some other photographers selling prints and A4, A3 & A2 tend to be popular sizes.

Overall I’m happy with the process. Mostly done online and if I need to ship locally I could even let the person doing the printing handle the shipping.

In closing.

I’d like to hear from anyone else who sells their photos. What are some of the challenges you’ve had?

Thanks for reading : )

Photo prints

It’s been a busy week for me. Not much time for either writing or photography at the moment. The shots I do take are mostly on my phone camera. I enjoy taking them but somehow it doesn’t feel the same as with my other cameras.

I suspect the idea of these images being taken without planning, in a way rushing them, is what makes me feel less enthusiastic about sharing them. This makes me less eager to shoot, which makes me less eager to plan. You can probably see where this is going.

Here is one of the better ones from the week. A cold morning with some nice fog as was waiting to get to work.

A group of trees in the mist. — Cold and misty.

This week I did two things which I hope will push me towards something more professional when it comes to my photography – I started advertising my services as a photographer and I got some of my images printed. The prints arrived today and I’m putting a few thoughts together on them which I will share tomorrow.

I went into town to collect the prints and I took a few photos with my Kodak. These I don’t mind sharing because they weren’t rushed : ) Slightly edited in Snapseed because I needed to see something colorful.

A building behind a palisade fence. — Boxing club.

By the time you’re reading this my latest newsletter should be published. Subscribers get it delivered to their inboxes and if you’re new to Substack then the Substack app is the place to read mine and other great newsletters.

I’ve been working on more interviews and the next one will be published on the 29th of June. I’ll be putting some of the interview as well as a few photos from the photographer on Notes during the week.

Before I publish this I have to add the best thing I’ve read during the week. If you’re struggling to stay focused on the craft and pursuing your dream of becoming a writer / photographer / artist then read this. You’ll thank me later.

Built of Spite and Bone by Justin Allen- Photographer

Read on Substack

Thanks for reading : )

Experiment with the camera you have.

Captain’s log, 06:10 AM, 4th of June 2025.

Its cold today but no as cold as the previous week. The winter here tends to have days where it gets extra cold. Or it could be us getting used to the cold until nature cranks it up a notch.

This morning I decided to take my camera with me. The past few weeks haven’t good for me photography wise. My motivation / discipline / passion isn’t there. I’m spending more time reading about photography and photographers than actually doing photography¹.

I’ve mentioned it before and you might have experienced this yourself. The auto-focus of a compact isn’t always the best. It might be time catching up with my Kodak or I am just too used to how quickly a DSLR can find focus.

With this being said I decided:

Why not use this disadvantage to my advantage? Why not use the second, perhaps two where the camera struggles to find focus? Press the shutter button and as soon as the screen goes dark, indicating it is in the process of capturing, move the camera.

*Light trails or double exposure, I can never tell.*

When I’m out taking photos I’ll rarely stop to look at what I’ve captured. One because the little LCD on the back of a camera tends to lie. Two I don’t have time to stop and check – I am on my way to work so I’m a bit crunched for time.

I suspect the difficulty to focus comes down to the lack of proper lighting. I turn the flash off and this time of the mornings there aren’t much light. Sun has not yet risen.

The next image is one of my favorites. I am walking downhill here. The house at the bottom is on the edge of a small stream. It is fed by a small lake further to the right of the image. This ‘valley’ is a prime spot for fog and it gets really cold in the winters because of the water.

At the bottom of this hill I take a right turn and head towards town. This stretch of road runs through agricultural holdings. This is one of the houses I find along the way.

On my home I decided why not try this ‘technique’ again and see what happens when it is sunset VS sunrise.

The image above is close to home. Morning & evening photography gives you great silhouettes. Except for the crop and the resize on these images they are SOOC.

I like this last one for two reasons. The self-imposed shaky effect and the orange & yellow of the sunset. Winter sunsets are my favorite. Yeah it’s cold once the Sun starts to dip but it disappears you can marvel at these types of sunsets.

Moral of the story.

Just because your camera isn’t the best, newest, fastest with auto focus doesn’t mean you can’t take interesting photos. Apart from the auto focus I find these images have a bit more “grain” in them. I don’t think grain is the right term but it looks grainy. Probably has more to do with the low resolution or something.

Take your camera and do something weird. Shoot with different, not-your-normal settings. Shoot where there is no light. Or shoot where there is too much. Experimentation is part of the photography journey. You don’t make cool images by just sticking to the beaten path.

In closing.

If you’re interested in my newsletter you can subscribe on the page, to the right. I send out a newsletter every second Sunday and I write about photography and sometimes I interview photographers from the Substack neighborhood.

Want to support my work? Leave a tip or consider a subscription option via Paystack. And lastly, I sell images on my Paystack store front. Digital to oversees users at the moment but looking forward to shipping actual prints after I finish my research into a local print shop & courier service.

Thanks for reading

It isn’t necessarily a bad thing considering the quality of images & writings I find on Substack.