2025 11 27
The 606 in winter. Chicago, Illinois. November, 2022. Ā© Clayton Hauck
It used to be that Iād walk the 606 almost daily, as my studio and home are both located alongside of it. These days, however, I find myself taking a different path, through the neighborhood, mostly because itās a slightly more direct and quicker route. The few minutes saved on each trip may add up over time and allow me to be more productive, but realistically the scenes and human encounters I am missing as a result are likely more detrimental. Thereās a clever analogy in here somewhere but Iāll let you figure it out. I donāt have time for that today.
-Clayton
2025 11 25
That Tiny House. Chicago, Illinois. December, 2022. Ā© Clayton Hauck
Here it is! My oldest known capture of That Tiny House on the Ricoh GRiiix. Perhaps it will be a book one day.
Follow the tag link to see more! One logistical issue Iām a little bummed about is that I start a new blog each year and Iām unable to carry tags over from previous years. Maybe one day I will find myself with far too much time on my hands and I will migrate everything over to a new platform. But realistically I doubt this day will come.
-Clayton
2025 11 24
New flag, who dis? Chicago, Illinois. December, 2022. Ā© Clayton Hauck
Previously, I wrote about how much of the traffic to this here blog has been coming from China (See: 2025 11 07). Well, that trend has only accelerated since that post and Iām now seeing over 70% of all traffic being of Chinese-origin. The only logical conclusions I can draw from this are:
Iām big in China!
My previous most frequent site visitor (my mom) has a computer so riddled with Chinese spyware and malware that her USA-based desktop computer is showing up as being Chinese.
My blog host (Squarespace) recently sold out to private equity and the new owners are boosting traffic to owners of websites with fragile egos (myself) in hopes to get us to stick around and pay them more money.
Whatever the actual reason for this situation, I will now translate each blog post into Mandarin Chinese (for my loyal readers who never comment and may not be human) in hopes to further increase my reach in my new favorite country:
ä¹åęåčæļ¼čæäøŖå客ē大éØåęµéé½ę„čŖäøå½ļ¼åč§ļ¼2025幓11ę7ę„ļ¼ćčŖä»é£ēÆęē« ä¹åļ¼čæäøŖč¶åæåŖå¢äøåļ¼ē°åØęēå°č¶ čæ 70% ēč®æé®éé½ę„čŖäøå½ćåƹę¤ęåŖč½å¾åŗ仄äøå äøŖåä¹é»č¾ēē»č®ŗļ¼
ęåØäøå½å¾ē«ļ¼
ęä¹åč®æé®ęē½ē«ęé¢ē¹ēäŗŗļ¼ęå¦ļ¼ļ¼å„¹ēēµč大ę¦å·²ē»č¢«åē§äøå½ēé“č°č½Æ件åę¶ęč½Æ件ęč ¾å¾äøęę ·åļ¼ä»„č³äŗ儹åØē¾å½ēå°å¼ęŗē°åØé½č¢«ę¾ē¤ŗęę„čŖäøå½ēęµéć
ęēå客äø»ęŗļ¼Squarespaceļ¼ęčæåē»äŗē§ååŗéļ¼ę°čęæäøŗäŗ让čŖå°åæčå¼±ēē½ē«äø»ļ¼ęÆå¦ęļ¼ē»§ē»ēäø并ä»ę“å¤é±ļ¼ę£åØäŗŗäøŗå°ęé«ę们ēē½ē«ęµéć
äøē®”å®é åå ęÆä»ä¹ļ¼ęē°åØå³å®ęęÆēÆå客ęē« é½ēæ»čÆęäøęę®éčÆļ¼ē®ē»ęé£äŗä»äøēčØćä¹č®øäøäøå®ęÆäŗŗē±»ēåæ å®čÆ»č ļ¼ļ¼ä»„ęåØęå¦ä»ęåę¬¢ēå½å®¶čæäøę„ę©å¤§å½±åå
-Clayton (ęę)
2025 04 04
Car. Chicago, Illinois. January, 2025. Ā© Clayton Hauck
Thereās this car on my block that I have obsessively been making photos of. I donāt know enough about cars to know why I like it, but I think itās a Japanese import, and I love the old-school lines. This is one of the pictures I made, edited in a style that I donāt normally do. The digital grain melting into the fine snow particles is nice, I thought.
-Clayton
2025 02 26
Another Busted Car. Chicago, Illinois. January, 2025. Ā© Clayton Hauck
I know yāall are here for the gripping Busted Car Content so I will keep it coming.
-Clayton
2025 02 23
Another busted car. Chicago, Illinois. January, 2025. Ā© Clayton Hauck
This car hasnāt moved once as long as Iāve had my photo studio across the alley, so approx. three years. Itās a dumb observation that makes urbanist me go a bit crazy, in that we give away so much of our environment in support of parking underutilized and decaying automobiles.
-Clayton
2025 02 16
Winter light. Chicago, Illinois. January, 2025. Ā© Clayton Hauck
Thereās a high-contrast look to winter sunlight that I quite like. No leafed-out trees to filter and soften the sun. No wet and wispy clouds to add texture to the backdrop. Just the raw and real elements. Take it, or hop a flight down south, and leave it.
-Clayton
2025 01 01
Becoming a Daily Blogger in 2025
Today marks the successful completion of a full year of daily blogging!
Five days. Five, damn, days. At the time, I didnāt care that I missed posting to this here blog for five days because I was busy getting married. That clearly takes priority to casual blog posting, which goes almost completely unnoticed. Now, looking back from the comfort of a new calendar year, I see it as a failure of my objective! Perhaps because I live in the United States and we tend to see things as all or nothing. Perhaps because I donāt have my priorities in order. Perhaps because my standards are so high I consider it a complete failure to only get 98.6% of the way towards reaching my goal. Whatever the reason, when I noticed this five day gap (Iād completely forgotten about it because, you know, it doesnāt really matter) I was furious with myself. Why hadnāt I anticipated and pre-loaded blog posts? Should I now āpunishā myself, start the timer over, and do it all over again this year?
Coming or going? Somewhere south of Rockford, Illinois. February, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck
Becoming a Daily Blogger in 2025
Today marks the successful completion of a full year of daily blogging!
Five days. Five, damn, days. At the time, I didnāt care that I missed posting to this here blog for five days because I was busy getting married. That clearly takes priority to casual blog posting, which goes almost completely unnoticed. Now, looking back from the comfort of a new calendar year, I see it as a failure of my objective! Perhaps because I live in the United States and we tend to see things as all or nothing. Perhaps because I donāt have my priorities in order. Perhaps because my standards are so high I consider it a complete failure to only get 98.6% of the way towards reaching my goal. Whatever the reason, when I noticed this five day gap (Iād completely forgotten about it because, you know, it doesnāt really matter) I was furious with myself. Why hadnāt I anticipated and pre-loaded blog posts? Should I now āpunishā myself, start the timer over, and do it all over again this year?
Letās be honest, I probably donāt need to be sharing any old thought I have on the internet anymore. That said, Iāve made it clear from day one that the entire point of this here blog is for me, myself, and I. Iām doing this to improve my own writing skills, photo editing skills, and to think through various subjects. The fact that I am doing it publicly is a byproduct and not the main motivator, but itās also a way to keep me honest and put pressure on myself to continue to show up. Itās how my brain works.
As an example, I was doing my āmorning pagesā quite regularly for months after reading The Artistās Way. This was super helpful, however, as soon as I got busy with other shit (like getting married) I completely cut out this habit without even realizing I had done so. In a way, this here blog is my own version of the morning pages. Itās my version of therapy and it gives me a chance to think. Hopefully it does more good than harm when it comes to my reputation and people reading my business!
One quick story about a proud moment that justified the time Iāve dedicated to this here blog: I lost a big job we bid on this fall. We lost it, but we almost won it! This may sound insane but I was almost as happy by how close we came to being awarded the project as I wouldāve been had we actually been awarded the project. If youāre in the biz, you know about these calls you have with the client and/or agency leading up to bidding on a big project. On this specific call, it became very apparent to me that we had no realistic shot at winning this bid (for a number of reasons, but an obvious one was that all the examples they showed us were images they glowingly described as exactly what they wanted to capture ā they were all made by another photographer, whom theyād just worked with, who was also bidding on the project!). My takeaway from the call was that if we had any shot at getting the job, I needed to write a really good treatment.
Either the treatment worked or things changed beyond our control because we got the call that we were favorites for the job. It was all but guaranteed! Then, as happens, things changed again and we didnāt get the job. But I took it as a nice consolation prize and largely credited my habit of writing regularly with being the thing that put us over the top.
Most likely, in the new year I will tweak my approach a bit. My main priority is to continue the writing. Whatever approach best enables me to do this is how I will go about it. Again, there are days when I simply donāt have the time to jot down something worth reading, and those days probably donāt need a post. Maybe Iāll make it a āphoto a dayā situation so I can more easily fulfill my lifelong dream of posting to a blog every day for a year (sarcasm?), while keeping the words to days when I do have something more meaningful to share. Weāll see.
Thinking bigger, I often say you need to go to where the people are if you want to see noticeable success, and the people are not hanging out on blogs. If I really wanted to take this project to the next level, a YouTube channel would be the obvious next step. Learning to communicate in video form, versus textually, is a skill that will take you places in this day and age. The reality, however, is that I likely only have the time for a more casual blog, like this here one, that exists mostly as a space for personal growth and exploration. Regardless, I appreciate you being here!
Happy New Year!
-Clayton
This is one entry in a multi-part series of self-exploration and contemplation-out-loud in advance of the new calendar year. Some of this may happen; none of this may happen.
For the complete list of posts, see 2024 12 25.