Sunday – Page 2 – Richard Schulz

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 : )

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 : )

Apartment photos, journaling and other notes

Everything that’s created comes out of silence. Your thoughts emerge from the nothingness of silence. Your words come out of this void. Your very essence emerged from emptiness. All creativity requires some stillness.

06:32 AM.

I woke up earlier but it’s cold this morning. I did however mention I wanted to get some photos early. And once you type it online it is set in pixels. Outside didn’t feel cold but as I stood there, waiting for the shutter to close on a 25 second exposure, I started feeling it. I also felt the quiet. The sheer silence of a Sunday morning. After a few minutes some birds woke up. A car passed by on a nearby road, the revving engine disappear to the south. An someone started playing music and this transported me to a different place in my mind.

If this reads more poetic or eloquent than what I usually write you’re right. It feels like it, né?

Today emphasized what I, and many others, have know for a long time – mornings tend to be a very creative time. I am unsure whether this is because we are fully rested. Or perhaps thoughts and mental notes fermented into ideas overnight. Like opening a window and morning light streams in to reveal all things in the room.

Apartment complex early in the morning. — Just before sunrise.

These photos were both taken early this morning. The first one still has two starts in the top left corner. Without all the lights on in the evening this complex might look like just another normal set of buildings.

I also noticed the spots and marks I from earlier images are still there so it might be another issue but I’ll keep looking for it as I shoot more.

Journaling

After 103 days of not writing in my journal I opened it again.

I started penning a few things about how the past 103 days have been difficult. How most of my days are spent just feeling meh. Going through the motions. Eat, sleep, rave, repeat.

But I don’t rave.

From tomorrow I think I will open my day with journaling again and see if it sparks more thoughts, sparks more reasons to keep doing what I do. Gain more inspiration from the challenges I find on my path. Instead of thinking “wtf” when I see varies things of sheer stupidity, try so think “this doesn’t bother me”. I’ve been trying this for a few days since reading a Substack article and I have to say I now care about a lot less small bullshit annoying things than I used to : )

Other notes

I read an Austin Kleon post as well and he mentioned analog zines.

Just before the start of autumn (fall for my American readers) I made a decision to take as many photos as possible in the three months which the season spans. It’s almost the start of winter, based on the calendar and what I learned at school about 35 years ago.

Those photos have to be sorted, picked, repicked and then placed into some form of story. The purpose thereof is to share with readers the mornings of autumn here in South Africa. I used mostly two cameras – my mobile phone and my Kodak compact. Once I’ve done all the hard yards of making my shaky snaps look pretty I will share it online.

In closing

Tomorrow it is back to the grindstone. The proverbial meatgrinder called Monday. I hope to carry this ‘happy’ mentally a bit further into the week. And I wish you a great Sunday and a better Monday.

Thanks for reading : )

If you’d like to support my work you can do so by following this link to my Paystack payment page. Support from readers will enable me to put more time into the things I truly enjoy. In doing so I can share more of these things and thoughts around them with you : )

Alternatively you can subscribe to my newsletter on Substack which you can read here.

Barbershop, 18-55mm and auto-focus problems.

The title is perhaps clickbait but it complements my thought process.

I had a haircut this morning and as I sat down one word came to mind: professional. Two young men from I think Algeria running a small barbershop at the local mall.

The barber recognized me from my previous job and we started discussion food, businesses and he told me about his brother who operates the local branch of a franchise selling vetkoek.

The idea of being professional in your job, whether you work for yourself or someone else is an important concept. A lot of people I worked with during the years tended to stop caring about this aspect because they didn’t like the job. My thinking was always you never know who is watching.

When you are professional at work it tends to [hopefully] trickle into other areas of your life. You manage your situation at work and so to your photography business. You manage your website or newsletter professionally and feel inspired to apply this approach to other pursuits.

Being professional has a knock on effect which we don’t always see or understand.

An image of four windows in an apartment complex. Image is taken at night and the light is visible from the outside. — Shapes.

The past few nights I used a 18-55mm lens to capture images for my Apartments project. The focal length here is 55mm, f/6.3 and a shutter speed of 25 seconds. It has been cropped to a 1:1 ratio.

I like this image because of the primary colors and the shapes. The big square formed by the smaller squares draws my eye to these specific windows in the complex. In the top left hand corner is another sliver of light. It’s the bathroom window of the apartment at the very top on the left.

I don’t like this image because of the angle of the roof. Nothing can be done about it but with a tighter crop I could remove it but it adds some type of perspective on the building. Without it I think the windows might just ‘float’ in the darkness. Similarly the window to the left is a bit distracting. A better crop could probably also solve this issue.

Auto-focus problems.

I was out early this morning with my Kodak camera. It struggles with auto-focus when there aren’t enough light. These ‘mistakes’ do however make for some interesting photos.

Blurry image of a few lights. — Specular.

Perhaps these aren’t as much problems as they are me just not waiting for the auto-focus to find its spot. I could play around with it in future, see it as an increase in shutter speed?

This finishes of my post for today. Wishing you a great Sunday and a blessed week ahead. The latest edition of my newsletter is out today and I talk about a fog filled morning in April. If you’re not a subscriber you can find my Substack here.

Thanks for reading : )

Drying chili, growing herbs and chilling.

“The best teacher is experience and not through someone’s distorted point of view”

Another Sunday.

Hope is has been a good one for you. For me it hasn’t been too bad. Spent the morning doing a few chores, finished the next edition of my newsletter and as I type a chicken curry is on the stove.

A photo of a shadow pattern on a gate. — How many shapes in the shadow?

I enjoy spending time in the garden. I’ve grown chili quite a bit in the past. A few seasons back my yield from four plants added up to +/- 2 pounds. Doesn’t sound like a lot but it was – for the whole year I didn’t have to buy chili at all. I even shared a few with my friends and former co-workers.

Next season I plan to grow some again. Chilis tend to make the soil acidic and I’ve left the soil where they used to grow empty for the past year or so. I have a few varieties I want to try once Spring rolls [no pun] around – serrano peppers, thai chili, Habaneros and some cayenne peppers.

A photo of some chilis. Habanero, Thai and cayenne. — Hot stuff

I plan to take out the seeds and dry the chili for some chili flakes. I’ve eaten all of these peppers before and I’m looking forward to some freshly grown chilis. In small quantities obviously.

Other plants in my garden at the moment as thyme and rosemary plus some flatleaf parsely.

A photography of a thyme bush. — More thyme please.

A photo of a small rosemary bush. — Rosemary.

The thyme was bought at a local nursery and the rosemary I grew from a cutting.

The next edition of my newsletter is about a Sunday morning a few weeks ago when we had some nice fog on the morning. If you’re curious to read about it you can subscribe to my newsletter on the right side of the page.

The photo project I am working on is coming along nicely. I went through some old photos today and found shots of the apartment complex from a few years ago. I’ll post some of these during the week on Notes.

Thanks for reading and enjoy your Sunday : )

Herbs, houses and photos.

My fault, my failure, is not in the passions I have, but in my lack of control of them.

Another glorious autumn Sunday. May the 4^th – Happy birthday brother : )

I went to town this morning on a few errands. Again reminded by the massive benefits of walking. Stoics often talk about walking and it’s power. I’m not talking about walking away just about taking a walk. Instead of driving or cycling, just go on the shoelace express.

A street lined with trees. On the right side of the image a palisade fence. — Make like a tree.

A 45 minute walk does wonders for the mind and I often miss walking to & from work. It was the time when I ‘solved’ problems in my mind. Time away from people trying to get your attention. Time away from troubles. Where you just walk and focus on the environment around you. Deep breaths. Smell the pine trees. Smell the freshly mowed lawns. Hear leaves crunching under your feet. Feel the cold wind against your face.

Herbs.

Today I picked more herbs from the small garden I keep. I have some flat leave parsley, rosemary and two thyme bushes.

I enjoy the value I get from plants. The peace and (mostly) quiet a garden gives. The same as walking it gives you a bit of time away from things troubling you. And the added benefit of being able to use what you grow. South Africa has a good climate for growing with plenty of sunshine during the summer months.

A building behind a palisade fence. A door is visible behind the fence in the center of the image. — Brickwork.

In the past we’ve grown chili, tomatoes, spinach, potatoes and pumpkins. I tend to focus on the simple stuff. And this season I’m putting more focus on herbs.

The rosemary plant was grown from a cutting. It took about a month of TLC but eventually started sprouting roots and in spring time I’m planning to make a few more cuttings so I can have at least three rosemary bushes. All the herbs in the garden we use in our food. It makes a big difference in whatever we cook plus the idea of “I grew this” is pretty cool.

Houses.

I wanted to study architecture when I was growing up.

A view of a building through a palisade fence. — Fenced in.

The love and interest in buildings never waned and a few years ago I stumbled up a great channel on YouTube. I won’t like to the channel because it’s simple enough to find but I will share the website here were you can find beautiful architecture. The photographs are really good and show you the level of detail in many of these buildings.

https://openspaceseries.com/blog/open-space-the-steve-mcqueen-residence-hugh-m-kaptur-1964

In closing.

For the rest of the Sunday I tend to take it easy. With a new work week ahead I want to go in as focused & relaxed as possible. The public holiday are finished for the time being so long weekends and short work days are something of the past. If you’re interested in purchasing some of my photos you can find my storefront here.

A telephone poles with lines diverging into different directions. A few birds in the background. — Segments.

Thanks for reading : )

D&D, a Sunday well spent.

It’s Sunday again.

Today is slightly different. It is a public holiday and in SA it means the next day becomes the public holiday (the day off I mean). I’m unsure about other countries and their amount of public holiday but we rank fairly high in terms of public holidays, I think.

A more chilled vibe than the usual rush to finish everything and get ready for the next day. I’m working tomorrow but only half day. Until two o’clock.

A tree in a misty morning. Behind it a telephone pole and the side of a house. — I like photographing this tree.

I spent the day with my brother and some friends around the D&D role playing game. Breaking from my normal routine on a Sunday was worth it. Saw a really cool games room (will take more photos next time around) and this inspired many thoughts in me.

No website.

For all the power of the website it is still at the mercy of servers and a hosting company. I had an unforeseen outage and couldn’t access mine until earlier this morning. Thanks to the people working behind the scenes to get everything back online but it made me think:

If my website isn’t guaranteed to be online always, what are my options?

A question which might not need an answer really. But if you’re not doing the social media thing or even the newsletter thing but you’re focused on your website as your main “base of operations” if you will; what happens if it goes down?

Perhaps a combination is best – website, your newsletter platform of choice and one social media channel [where you don’t scroll to death but merely share and then logout].

Also, make your website your home page [if you haven’t already]. This way you see what your community sees and if it’s down you’ll know about it quickly.

Photos to sell.

I’ve narrowed down the photos I’ll be adding to my online store. Most of them are from my first few years doing street photography. Once they are online I’ll share the link here & on Substack.

In closing.

It’s all I’ve got for now. Looking forward to more writing tomorrow, half day at work gives me a few extra hours in which to do this. Hope you’re having / had a great Sunday.

Thanks for reading : )

Are we documenting too much?

Fog forms when the difference between air temperature and dew point is less than 2.5 °C (4.5 °F). Fog begins to form when water vapor condenses into tiny water droplets that are suspended in the air.

I woke up to lovely fog this morning.

Being a photographer my first reaction was to go outside. Snapped a few photos before heading into town. As I cycled & took photos (a compact camera plus quiet streets allows cycling and photography to take place at the same time) I felt the happiness I tend to feel around the colder months. Empty streets and misty mornings are right up there for me.

The photo below was taken at a local shopping mall. For an unknown reason they put a massive parking lot around the mall. It might get used if there is an event on but most of the time it is used by Bolt drivers or people learning how to drive.

A parking lot of a local shopping mall. — Paved paradise.

Sundays are the most creative day of the week for me. This one even more so because tomorrow is a public holiday which means I can really do some creative work.

Here is a list of things which rolled around in my mind this morning as I sipped an overpriced coffee.

Write a second newsletter. Something shorter, more focused on what I read on Substack. A good way to build community.
Thought about the Substack app. How is the new layout for you? I skip the reels button completely (haven’t clicked it yet). The Subscriptions ‘page’ is my favorite in terms of layout.
I’d like to see more website links from the authors on Substack. One of my go-to is Seth Werkheiser’s website. A perfect example of building something for yourself outside the realm of algorithms.

This is perhaps a bit left field or it might not since I’m writing things down to an audience – what are your thoughts on documenting your life?

I won’t ever go a far as a reality show does where everything gets shown or shared but this is definitely more than I would have thought about a few years ago. Is this level of documenting normal? Is it small talk on the internet?

I’d like to read your thoughts here or on Substack.

Enjoy your Sunday and thanks for reading : )

First steps.

Sunday afternoons tend to bring out the creative in me.

It’s a day where I don’t have to put on a fake smile. It’s a day where I can be myself without all the pretending.

I thought about starting. If you’ve been reading some of my thoughts here and over on Substack you’ll know I want to start selling photos. The photo selling is one aspect I am looking at but realistically speaking I’d like to become financially independent.

A year ago, give or take a month or six, I had a bad experience with a business I worked for. TL;DR business got sold, staff didn’t want to work with the new owner so he retrenched everyone.

This (coupled with ten years of retail work) left a fairly sour taste in my mouth. And it left me with the realization of no job being a safe haven despite what I might think. By the same token I can say working for yourself is not safe either but at very least you’re doing something you enjoy.

So I sat down and started working through some ideas about how I can start earning additional income. It was natural for photography to fit into this plan.

A dark road lit by street lights. — Early morning.

Getting started.

The first steps in this, or any related journey, is to get started.

The level of your desire to become financially independent will not help one bit if you don’t start. And trust me, if you’ve never done this – the first steps are the most difficult.

A long time ago I did freelance website design & development. The search for clients took time. There was a lot of knocking on doors. After a few months I found my first client. The thrill of making money for myself, off my own efforts doing something I enjoyed is indescribable.

The first victory is the most important.

It sets you up for the next one. And more importantly it shows you what is possible when you work hard enough. You are responsible for the results you want. You might not succeed initially but trying is better than not trying.

An old man walking past an open door. — Keep moving.

And it won’t be easy.

Wishing for things to be better only serves to make you more miserable. You sit and think about how you want to move to a different point in your life but you don’t do something to achieve it. This is a key ingredient for depression.

Think about what you’d like to achieve with your photography. Do you want to sell prints? Do you want to become a landscape photographer or a fine art photographer? Is it event and wedding photography which tickles your fancy?

Just start.

Take one photo of a landscape. Shoot with one model. Start looking at platforms where you can sell your work. Post online. Find a community. Get yourself out there. Make people aware of your work, what you can do. No one knows about the photos you want to sell. No one knows about your dreams unless you tell them about it.

Caveat.

As with most things in life it is best to be carefully optimistic. That’s my take anyway.

Does taking the first step mean your endeavor will be a success?

No.

Success isn’t a guaranteed thing. It isn’t promised to anyone. This is where the hard work comes in. Emailing potential clients looking for a website. Placing adverts. Marketing yourself. All these steps are going to make your successful. Even if you don’t achieve success you have gained the experience for your next attempt. Rinse and repeat.

If you got to the end I thank you for taking the time to read my work. Should you want to support me and put me a little bit closer to my goal of being financially independent please have a look at my Paystack page or consider subscribing to my newsletter on Substack.

Thanks for reading : )