2026 03 10: Finding My Focus(es)
Clayton Hauck Clayton Hauck

2026 03 10: Finding My Focus(es)

Iโ€™m still loving black & white these days. The issue Iโ€™m having is that I need to sort of reinvent the way I edit and process my images. My entire workflow is a learned behavior and itโ€™s time consuming, slow, and rigid. Lately, Iโ€™m finding myself mostly sharing phone images because they are right there in front of me and immediately processed as I shoot them in vscoโ€™s app. While this is clearly a lazy approach, the reality is I hardly have the time to look at my images these days, so anything I shoot with my โ€œrealโ€ cameras end up sitting on a hard drive being ignored. When I switched to the Ricoh a few years back, I really enjoyed the newfound control and resolution the raw files gave me when compared to the iphone snaps, however, to get the look and feel of the images to where I want them to be, a not insignificant amount of time is needed.

All that said, Iโ€™m finding myself rethinking my entire approach to photography. Instead of constantly snapping images, as is my default method, Iโ€™m trying to shoot less โ€” and more specifically, more thoughtfully. This blog will remain my place to play and explore, however, the posts will probably be a bit less constant as they were in the past. Iโ€™m finding myself less excited about the endless flow of snapshots that previously I would not hesitate to throw up on the blog. Partly, if Iโ€™m being honest, this is a fear of judgement in my abilities, however, I think the bigger reason is far more healthy: Iโ€™m figuring out what it is I want to show. The stories I want to tell. And everything else, well, I just ainโ€™t got the time for it!

Read More