rico moran

Reboot

This post is the one where I start something different; something more focused and more personal. The majority of the content is about my recent trip and how that motivated this change, but the info about what’s changing is all in the last paragraph.

At the end of October I flew to New York City for the PhotoPlus Expo and Conference. Before returning home I stopped in Toronto to see some studios, galleries, and just see the city. From the beginning I knew that this trip was somewhat of a starting point, being the first trip I have taken on my own and the first trip not taken for pleasure. My main purpose was to learn more about the creative and business aspects of photography, and to confirm that my vague plan of how to “make it” was possible.

Being my first time at an expo/conference and first time alone in another city, I had no idea what to expect other than that I’d be more outgoing than usual (which I wasn’t). Over the next few days I talked to and listened to some photographers I look up to, including Jay Maisel, Joe McNally, Andrew Hetherington, and James Pomerantz. I also missed some things, like James Nachtwey and Greg Heisler speaking, some galleries, and museums. You’ll always miss something on a trip to NYC; an extra day or two in the city might have solved that, but I’m content with what I did get to see. What I did catch instilled excitement in me. Being able to see and hear about where I could be or what I could be doing in the future was absolutely inspiring.

This excitement was only amplified by my stop in Toronto. With no conference to attend, I had more time to see the city. I was able to go to the Flash Forward Emerging Photographers exhibit, step inside Edward Burtynsky’s Image Works, and walk over to his gallery showing of Oil. I also stopped in at Westside Studio, took a (short) tour, and talked with the studio manager, Jamie, who was very friendly and open to questions. I inquired about assisting for Westside and if someone like me (who doesn’t have photographic education, but does have knowledge and excitement about photography) could hope to support himself assisting in Toronto. This has been my plan to learn the trade as of recently and I was encouraged to hear that, with persistence and hard work, it can be done.

With some attainable goals in sight, I have a more firm idea of what and where I want to be. Now is the part when I make plans to reach those goals. I want to be assisting and learning from photographers at the top of their game in Toronto. I also want to take advantage of the great community that I already have access to in Edmonton. The key ingredient to both of those is to get up and go. Go talk with other photographers here, go shoot more often, go email people in Toronto. For the last year or so I’ve been sitting and staying, just reading blogs and magazines and not doing anything with that great deal of knowledge I’ve been ingesting. Now it’s time to do something, 2010 will be a productive year.

This time around I will write consistently about the things that inspire me and about experiences more directly relating to my photography. To do this I’ll have to be constantly doing things instead of watching movies and TV at home. Hopefully, this blog can chronicle my adventure, starting from scratch and eventually realizing my dream.