Update from me (and I need a chat!)

dancingfairy

Can you submit your work to:
AMatuer Photographer
Photogrpahy Monthly
Digital Camera Magazine (or DCM or whatever it is now)

In my opinion these are the best/most popular photo magazines and they always seem to have readers galleries and submissions/competitions etc.

Also how about an online gallery- not necessarily to sell you work but just to get your name known etc.

What sort of photography are you in?
Can you get yourself to loads ofevents - marches/demos/christmas/religious festivals/ etc and get some photos and just keep sending them to your local newspaper?

Can you get some advice from your uni careers office - here they say they helped someone up to 7 years after they graduated and they do help after graduation as well.

Good Luck and don't be so hard on yourself.

annie-c

LOL, well Kath you've written a post that sort of does the opposite of what storm challenged you to do - you've written something nice about each one of us that replied to your thread!!!! Please try Storm's suggestion though!

I'm going to add one.

Kathfisch has helped me without even knowing it, when she replied to a thread by somone else that could have almost been written about me and my life, and when she gave some really sound advice that made her seem mature way beyond her years.....

xx

climbgirl

I just wanted to say that my Masters degree is in fine arts as well and I can tell you that it is a long, long, hard slog to make a career in this field. Particularly as a practising artist, it's not something you choose to do for the money, believe me!

Like AnnieFanny, I chose to pursue another career path (for now!) for a lot of reasons, but the difficulty in forging a career path in this industry was certainly part of it.

I'm not suggesting you give up. But if you do choose to make this your career, you have to accept that you're going to need to take other jobs (like the Christmas shop one) while you get yourself established enough to make money from it. And that it probably isn't going to happen for a very long time. So make peace with that job!

I'm not entirely sure what I'm trying to say here really! Just don't beat yourself up for taking jobs to bring in money, it's admirable.

lynzpower

Kath

You know i think you are amazing.

Personally, finishing uni is the absolute PITS. I have got nothing but admiration for people who keep on trucking. I almost gave up the will to live when I finished uni, the constant rejection letters ( they wulod take thier toll on anyone) I like to think im a positive person, but I couldnt be even bothered to scan the paper for jobs after a while.

I did the radical thing and moved to london. Yes, It got me into debt, but that was poor financial management more than anything else. Im a firm believer that sometimes you just need to radically change things get out of the comfort zone and do something a million miles away from what you are doing to test your resolve and just shake things up a bit.

Now you might not want to do anything as radical as that ( or you might!) but invoking that change is a great place to start IMHO.

Now off to take some of my own advice :rolleyes:

Hugs to your treasure xxxxx

PigginSkint

:grouphug: Just wanted to send you a hug! I think you need it!

A Christmas job is a good start! I did temping for years and although it is a bit of a baptism of fire, I can definitely say no experience is ever wasted! It will do wonders for your confidence as well.

Good luck and keep your chin up!

anniestar

Hi Kathfisch, SO sorry to hear that you are down. You are a warm,wise and wonderful poster. I ALWAYS read your posts and feel much better for reading them. Things will improve of that i'm sure. I think there must be something in the air today I having a down day as well. Hun have you thought about contacting your local college/adult education centre/WEA about offering courses they are often interested in people with "popular" skills. When i graduated(seems like a million years ago now!)I ended up teaching on an adult education course, liked it and then went into teaching(via a PGCE).i'm SO sorry that you are down, you don't deserve it. Good luck in Sunderland, take care and please keep positive. you are really special. Loads of love and huge hugs Annie XXX

ZTD

kathfisch wrote:

Hi guys! Sorry if this is terribly self-indulgent and not at all moneysaving (except for me!!).

Nobody minds self-indulgence so long as it's not all the time. With the amount of time and effort you've taken to help others on the forum - you have quite a bit of self-indulgence to do before you even approach balancing things up.

kathfisch wrote:

I was replying to the thread about the emotional aspect of spending... and I ended up typing a long reply and crying by the end

Which shows that your spending is still an emotional part of you. An emotional need, rather than an unemotional "have to".

kathfisch wrote:

So I thought I would post it here instead and ask for advice and things... I don't know what I'm asking for really I just thought I'd post an update that I can look back on. I came so far on the dfw journey and I'm right back at the beginning... or so it seems

The story so far: my spending was triggered by a very difficult and stressful relationship that I was in... which in itself was connected with my low self esteem and depression, it was a very dependent relationship.

My lightbulb moment was scary as anything... I collected all money for gas bill from my housemates but it was gone into the hole of my overdraft/overspending before I payed the bill... but thankfully a student loan payment saved me!! I learnt my lesson though, found this site, adopted the dfw ways and the feeling was amazing!!

Being in control again, doing something constructive and which I could feel proud of, it was better than the (small) high from spending. And my confidence increased to the point where I ended the difficult relationship and gained so much more respect for myself in the process.

So, with that story told - how can you say you're back at the beginning? You're in control. You know what to do and how to do it. Sometimes you don't do it, but if you were perfect - I'd have a rival...

kathfisch wrote:

But again I am in a position of spending too much... not disastrously much too much... not compared to before... but I'm not really ok about it.

Right. So how much is this exactly? And what on?

We all spend too much. There's always unneccesary things bought, whether it's a bag of maltesers or a cappuchino. The importance is that it - every individual item - is worth it overall and you're not dragging yourself into trouble.

kathfisch wrote:

I've been looking for work since I graduated and hence having very little income. I managed to leave uni with no debt except student loan but no savings either meaning I'm back to living with my parents and finding it very difficult to budget. I've felt really bad about myself for being unemployed and have fallen into buying things as a treat/because I deserve it.... not sure how that works since I don't think I deserve anything?!

Of course you do. Employed or unemployed, rich or poor, you deserve something. That something is respect. Both by yourself and others.

At the moment you seem to be in the trap of buying "little treats" to cheer yourself up, then making yourself miserable because you've bought it. Which needs a "little treat" to cheer yourself up...

Get off that merry-go-round. Budget for that little something. Put a little bit of money away every week for something you really want. If you don't want anything, or you can't afford anything you really want, then save the money up until you can afford something that you truly want.

kathfisch wrote:

I have had absolutely no respect for myself because I haven't been able to find a job, I've felt no motivation to keep at my practise as an artist and I've generally wasted the last few months.

Your unemployment is not your fault. I was unemployed for years after leaving university - so I know exactly how you feel. You can't get a job because you don't have experience. But you can't get experience because you don't have a job.

kathfisch wrote:

Well, this week I found a job :j , but only a temporary Christmas one in a shop. Which feels much better than signing on (a thousand times better!) but I still manage to put myself down for it, to think its not good enough, and to not respect myself for it.

It is good enough. In your life, you will do jobs for various reasons. For the money, for the love, and for the experience.

This job hits two of those. Use it as a learning experience. Be keen, and try to learn as much as you can, and make a note of all you have learned.

Although you know you can, employers like to see proof that you can get out of bed on a morning, and that you can deal with the general public and that you can get on with work collegues - and this job will help you prove that.

kathfisch wrote:

I'm £400 in debt (0% overdraft) and hopefully I can sort that out asap with work and money for nothing challenge but I'm so scared that I'll just be in the same position again very soon, unless I manage to get a job that feels worthwhile (like I'll get somewhere or achieve something).

Or that you accept that not every job that you do will be "the one", and that to reach the final destination of your "dream job", you have to wade through other lesser jobs.

kathfisch wrote:

And so now I feel positive about my photography, but still can't quite find the motivation to start any new work. It would take so much time and effort and determination to carve out a career in photography.

It would, but that's not the reason why you should do it. You should start new work to re-waken your passion for what you do.

kathfisch wrote:

I'm so afraid of failure that I am paralysed by it. I've always had very high standards but I've never seen the effect of it quite like this before.

Failure is not an end. It's just a way of learning how to do things better. Think back over all the stuff you know. How many of those skills were learned before the harsh altar of "try and fail"?

kathfisch wrote:

As I said before... I don't know why i'm posting this really... except its helpful to write it down. Sorry its so long, any comments gratefully received!

This is not long. Even if it was, there is no reason to apologise for it. It's the length it needs to be.

Said the Actress to the Bishop...

And I hope you at least smiled at that...

kathfisch

annie-c wrote:

LOL, well Kath you've written a post that sort of does the opposite of what storm challenged you to do - you've written something nice about each one of us that replied to your thread!!!! Please try Storm's suggestion though!

I'm going to add one.

Kathfisch has helped me without even knowing it, when she replied to a thread by somone else that could have almost been written about me and my life, and when she gave some really sound advice that made her seem mature way beyond her years.....

xx

Lol, I know, you're right!! Glad I helped, not sure which thread it was though!

Ok, enough procrastinating... 10 postive things about me....

1) I care about the other people on this forum, giving good advice and support whenever I can thank you to storm for that, you are right I do really care about the people here

2) I am a good listener and genuinely try to do everything I can to help people.

3) I am open minded and do not judge people cos I know what it feels like

4) I enjoy learning and am quick to learn new things.

5) I naturally see the best in people and look on the bright side of most situations doesn't seem like it right now, I know

6) I can speak french well how did you know storm?!

7) I believe that all my past experiences have made me stronger and there's no such thing as a wasted experience.

8) I am loyal and kind, and a good friend.

9) I try my best in everything that I do.

10) I am proud that I am gradually managing to lose weight and get fitter.

Struggled a bit with that to be honest, I'm not used to actually saying stuff like that!

kathfisch

lynzpower wrote:

Kath

You know i think you are amazing.

Personally, finishing uni is the absolute PITS. I have got nothing but admiration for people who keep on trucking. I almost gave up the will to live when I finished uni, the constant rejection letters ( they wulod take thier toll on anyone) I like to think im a positive person, but I couldnt be even bothered to scan the paper for jobs after a while.

I did the radical thing and moved to london. Yes, It got me into debt, but that was poor financial management more than anything else. Im a firm believer that sometimes you just need to radically change things get out of the comfort zone and do something a million miles away from what you are doing to test your resolve and just shake things up a bit.

Now you might not want to do anything as radical as that ( or you might!) but invoking that change is a great place to start IMHO.

Now off to take some of my own advice :rolleyes:

Hugs to your treasure xxxxx

Hi Lynz! No, i didn't know that, so thank you

You could be right, something radical might help! I will give that some thought!

x

tryhard_2

hi kath
cheer up. re your photography - bureau of freelance photographers might be helpful. Practical photograhy is another magazine in addition to the ones mentioned before
good luck with the job