"...it's just not that good."

"For the first couple years you make stuff, it's just not that good."

There's an image of a quote going around on Facebook.

Supposedly it's from Ira Glass, producer and host of This American Life.

I haven't heard it, but I like it.

It's about how those of us that do creative work, we kinda suck at first.

We have the drive, the "potential," but "it's just not that good."

I appreciate this reality.

I've been going back through old posts.

I've had to revamp my entire blog of almost 5 years.

I've looked through my first images from my first weddings and guess what?

It's just not that good.

In this quote, Ira Glass recommends doing a lot of work to push past the mediocrity.

Looking thru my entire blog, I see I've done a lot of work.

In the quote, Ira Glass reminds us that it's going to take a while.

Looking back thru my entire blog, I feel like it's taken a while.

A long while.

And in the quote, Ira Glass encourages us to fight your way through.

Looking back through my entire blog, it's hard not to be discouraged, even with my recent work.

It's not where I want it to be - it's not perfect.

It's hard not to ignore that nibbling sensation known as burnout (which I'll be talking about in the near future).

So I guess I fight my way through discouragement.

To find that place where my work is as good as my ambition.

And Ira Glass reminds us... that I'm not alone; "we all go through this."

"You gotta know that it's normal."

New look to our blog!

Welcome to our new look here at the Still Music blog. It's reader-customizable, which is pretty sweet. Just move your cursor over the top left corner tab where it should say "Classic," and click on multiple looks. I like to keep it on "Classic," because not all of my pictures show up in the other viewing options.

I've been working the last couple days on major improvements to the blog. Adding lots of tags, checking grammer and spelling, trying to get a cohesive look going on, and fixing pictures and links. Picasa deleted all of my previous pictures so it's been pretty tedious fixing everything. I've just deleted like 35 of my oldest posts because it's just so much work to try to get all the images back.

I have big plans for my blog to try to reach more people. I want people to follow us here at Still Music, so add our URL to your reader.

www.jeremyhohengarten.blogspot.com

Soon I hope to add a "Email List" link. PLEASE share with your friends, especially the ones getting married (even if they have a photographer!). DEFINITELY "Like" posts that you enjoyed so I know what people like to see ("Like" and "+1" buttons are at the bottom of each post.

There's lots to look forward to in the future here at our blog. We'll be exploring options like interviews with other photographers, tips and tricks, advice, personal stories, flash back or rewind posts, author's picks and favorites, vendor recommendations, resources, maybe some videos, and we'll hopefully be exploring my own experiences with my own wedding and our wonderful photographers.

2012 is going to be a fun year for us.

We're going to be shooting a lot more hopefully.

We'll be shooting in:

warm and fashionable Southern California, 

on top of a ski resort, 

in ever-beautiful and sexy Napa Valley, 

in Seattle, Washinton (hopefully on a YACHT!), 

on a beautiful ranch in the foothills of the Sierras, 

and even at Union Hill where my wife and I were married.

Don't worry, I'll be bugging you to stay in touch because I want you to enjoy coming to visit us here. The following screen shots are your different viewing options for the blog. It'd be awesome to hear from you about whether or not you like it. I'm always looking to improve and perfect. And this is far from perfect.

Stay tuned cuz this whole look will probably change real quick.

New Website!

Finally! It's sketchy but check it out! I'm changing my business name.... this is way better......

http://www.stillmusician.com/

Can you hear it?

Love, Jerm

Facebook Page...

I've had this for a short while now, but forgot to mention it... 

so here it is! 

I don't know if it'll work, but it should if you're a member. 

Link will be under the others!

Visit me!

February 07-10, 2008: Siem Reap

Siem Reap was just as interesting, just as breath-taking, and not as tragic or depressing. Siem Reap is where the temples of Angkor were built. Angkor Wat, the biggest of the hundreds, is simply out of control huge. It's arguably the largest religious (which I've read is a debatable term for Angkor) buildings in the world. The worst part? The number of freaking tourists. We're all there to see the same things, but there's just so many. It seems like the Taj, I haven't been yet.

We left Phnom Penh in the afternoon and took my last long bus ride to Siem Reap, and woke up late the next day to explore several temples. There's so many, it would take weeks to see them all. The next morning, we woke up before the sun, and watched the sunrise. The last day we didn't go to the temples, as many of them, as unique and interesting as each are, start to look too much the same. The picture opportunities were overwhelming, and I wished I had all my gear (or at least a wide angle).

I flew out as late as possible to Bangkok, and spent a long, boring night at the airport. The morning of the 11th, I flew out at 0645hr, and arrived at 0930 in SFO.... on the 11th. I had the rest of the afternoon to acclimate to culture shock. Something that's really depressing when leaving such beautiful, poor and underdeveloped, yet so much more real and rich, countries.

The slideshow is a long one!

Sadly, thus concludes my month-long trip to Southeast Asia. I love it, and I'm going back to explore even more. Come with me.......

Photos & Copyright Jeremy Hohengarten 2008
For editorial use only.

February 22, 2008: It's been a while

It has been some time since my last entries, but at least there's a lot of fun stuff to catch up on. I've been sick as a dog the last several days, as many people are/have been, but I haven't been motivated enough to take my free time and put it towards photo sorting. But there will be a lot of cool things to be checking up on, for example:

I took a last-minute month long trip to Southeast Asia, a trip most people didn't know I took. This was in mid-January to mid-February. I got back last Monday, and then lack of sleep and over working put me in bed, sick as all hell. But I'm excited about my pictures, and a lot of people have been saying they wanna see them.

Last Sunday, Jill and I shot her good friend's wedding in San Jose. It was good, I think we got some good pictures, even though I haven't even looked at mine. 

I'm going home next weekend to see my family for the first time since Christmas, and I'm pretty excited. I think I'll do a lot of blogging from there, since all I want to do is chill out.

Also, I'll try to get the slideshows previously posted working again..