Unhappy Decisions

I hate making decisions that make sense but feel crappy to make no matter how right the decision might be.

I'm going to give up my studio. The lease expires soon and the landlord wants to increase the rent (quite a bit) and I just don't see how it makes sense for me to sign another lease.

The studio itself never pays for itself, at least in terms of what I can invoice for its use not counting what I might get paid for my services. The monthly expenses to keep it are in the neighborhood of $2500 a month. With the kind of rent increase the landlord quoted, add another few hundred or more to that. By the way, the landlord claims he already has someone who wants to take the space at the new rate and this new, prospective, tenant won't cost him the usual commission from his real estate people. (Who, for the most part, find him his tenants.) "It's all about the money." That's the words he used when explaining this to me.

The majority of my personal income comes from bookings that are outside the studio, e.g., locations, other studios, etc. The paid gigs that come into the studio don't cover the monthly expenses and, when they occasionally do, it's not by much. There's no net gain to me keeping the studio and, if I stay, it's going to operate, regularly, at a greater loss considering the rent increase.

While the studio affords me a lot convenience as well as opportunities to do things just for the fun of doing them, I can see where it's going to become a bigger drain on me financially. It's also, of course, a place to store all my gear and that's another convenience. (I'll have to deal with the storage issues separately.) One of my good friends has a much larger studio space than mine. He's offered to let me shoot there, for the most part, whenever I want. He's also a guy who enjoys shooting stuff just for the fun of it. And, when it's a paying gig that requires me to provide the studio space, he'll let me book his place for a much reduced rate.

This is the part of the business I hate the most-- the business part. I'm not very good at "business" and that's probably because I simply don't like it. What I like is shooting. That might sound Peter Pan-ish but that's how I am. For me, it's not just about the money. I think it's great that I can make a living doing what I truly enjoy but I'm not driven to take that to another level, business-wise that is. I'm so passionate about this thing I do that it often trumps good business decisions and, more often than not, not to my benefit. (At least, from a business perspective.) I think, this time, I need to make a good "business" decision and not let personal considerations get in the way.

I apologize for this post not being about glamour photography. (And being something of a bummer-- certainly for me it is.) Writing about stuff that's happening in my life is how I often work these kinds of things out or, at least, to help convince myself I'm making the right decisions.

The pretty girl images accompanying this doom-and-gloom post are of Alexa Lynn from a month or so ago. I captured them at one of those bookings that did not take place in my studio.