slow reinvention
the reinvention project week twenty-three
In April of 2024, I began a year-long reinvention project in which I am blogging my progress each day, then summarizing with a newsletter article each week. This is week twenty-three.
Last week, I enrolled in two photography classes at a nearby community college, Photo Capture 1 and Digital Image Processing 1. It was an impulsive move. I had been thinking about buying a nice camera for making videos and for taking photos of my paintings. I also had been researching how to create high-resolution digital captures of my paintings in order to sell prints instead of originals. As well, I had been pondering whether I might work at the community college; after all, I have a PhD and decades of experience in software engineering. In some sort of alchemistic reaction, I ended up enrolled in these photography classes, thinking about becoming a commercial photographer.
I’ve never been big on taking photos. I’m not one of those people who’s constantly documenting everything I do on my phone and then uploading to Instagram. I’ve never had a high-end camera, just point-and-shoots and my phones. This was unexpected.
revived
Before last week I felt enervated and diffuse. I had no sense of what I wanted to do or who I wanted to become. I spent some time on Substack Notes and quickly became as disillusioned. I found plenty of good ideas from other people, so many that I questioned whether I could really contribute value with my own. Writing, something I’d been doing for over twenty years, no longer refreshed or inspired me.
Now, a couple weeks into my photography classes, I feel plugged in, electrified, alive.
I’ve fallen in love, but not with a person—with new possibilities.
slow reinvention
A repetitive theme of my nearly-six-month-long reinvention project has been: make it go faster. With this new direction, however, I feel ready to slow down and savor.
I have some vague intentions—I might create a business taking photos (or digital scans) of art, for example. The photography instructor called this a “final boss” of the program, as taking such photos requires extreme technical skill and experience.1 It sounds like it should be easy, taking photos of art. But it’s not, whether you are photographing it to help people experience it without seeing it in person or to promote it in a way that is both accurate and attractive or to digitally capture it so it can be reproduced by printing.
I could also see developing a pet photography business, offering both portrait and action shots. My professional photographer friend says, “people can take photos of their animals themselves,” and that is true. But some people might want a higher end photo, one that is more like art.
Whatever I do will take years not months. Just like when I became a data scientist and first I had to build up expertise in a PhD program, then I had to learn with hands-on experience, making myself over into some sort of commercial photographer will not happen in an instant.
The commercial photography program at the community college is a two-year program. I likely won’t pursue an associate’s degree, as I have enough degrees (bachelor’s, master’s, PhD) and I don’t want to have to take a bunch of gen ed courses taught by poorly-paid adjuncts. However, to get through the twelve or so photography courses I want to take will require take me two years anyway.
Then there will be a time of apprenticeship, and of putting in the work to build a viable business, whatever that might look like. Or maybe I will end up an employee again, but using some new skills.
I’m ready to invest my time, my effort, and my money into this. I can relax now. I don’t feel any need to hurry. I can just enjoy the journey, engage with learning, and allow a new version of me to emerge on its own time.
week twenty-three posts
Sunday planning — Day 155: Week twenty-three planning
Monday money — Day 156: Fiscal dominance
Tuesday book club — Day 157: A new dream
Wednesday advice — Day 158: The voice inside my head
Thursday thinker — Day 159: Authenticity for an audience
Friday flash — Day 160: Infatuated, but not with a person
Saturday practice — Day 161: Starting a new habit
Anne Zelenka is a painter, a mother, a writer, and a former data scientist. She lives in Highlands Ranch, Colorado with her mother, daughter, four cats, and two three dogs.
There are, of course, many other tasks in photography that are equally as demanding.