Branding

(Warning – I’m apparently in a rambling mood. While I do have a point to all this (I promise!) somehow I got off on a pretty much completely different topic, but eventually end up where I wanted to start. In between? No apologies, I’m just being me. Oh, but apparently I’m having a hard time following any train of thought or making much sense today, so I will apologize for that. :] )

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Sometimes my “crafts” (crappy or not :] ) aren’t always crafts in the general sense.

For the sake of my sanity (and the fact that I want to share as much as possible!) I’ve obviously been considering my photography stuff as part of my “craft.” I don’t have nearly enough photos or time to set up a separate place for that. I know not all the pictures I’ve been sharing on TWT posts have been really high quality (termites, anybody?) but most of the time they are just as (or more) important than the others, usually for more personal reasons.

I would love to do the photography thing full time, but have found that I’m not a huge fan of shooting people. I’ve been asked by a few friends to take family pictures or general “portrait” type pictures, and while I’m happy to do it, I don’t have quite the right sense for posing people. I would prefer to hang out with a family doing something fun (playing at the park, etc) and take candid shots of the activity instead of trying to go into the day knowing that I absolutely need to get some perfect family shots. For this reason, I will probably never be a professional “people photographer.” I will never shoot weddings (no matter how much I would love it!), or senior portraits, or babies, or anything like that. But really, I’m okay with it, because I know I’m not good enough to do it. Maybe in time it’s something I’ll get better at, but right now, I’m just fine with it.

What I do like - no LOVE - to shoot is anything & everything in nature. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I’m perfect at this by any means, but thankfully I have a decent eye for it, and I don’t need to “pose” a landscape or flower, I can just go with it, however it is. Granted, framing the shot is perfect, and takes a certain eye, but I don’t have to try to tell someone how to stand or pose or smile to look the way it does in my head. I just move & fiddle with the camera until it looks just right, and if I can’t, I move on & get on with my day.

The reason I’m even bringing all this up (believe me, none of this was my original intention of writing today, but obviously it was on my mind!) is that Nick & I got talking about my photography stuff again this weekend. We’ve talked about it before, and how awesome it would be if we could afford to travel so I could take pictures, then eventually, I could sell enough to pay for the trips. To travel & photograph for a living would probably be my dream job. We were at an art/craft fair in Mpls this weekend & kept finding amazing farm scenes we loved & Nick said I could probably take similar photos around his parents’ farm. I told him that’s part of the reason I need to get a DSLR, I can’t afford to play trial & error when I shoot in 35mm!

So, my point to all this? I’m not certain I have one, except that I need to add to my summer “crafty to do” list – take more pictures.

And my original plan for this particular blog post? The fact that not all things are necessarily crafty, because I’m working on designing a brand for us. Like, a cattle brand. Yes, really. Nick wants to have something to mark our woodwork stuff we make, which got me thinking. If the design is simple enough, I’ll be able to stitch it into my crochet stuff (small & simple, not gawdy & overpowering) and can use it as a watermark/trademark on my photos. Now you see how I got into the photo rambling. :)

Over lunch I did a little research on branding & found this. How awesome is that?! And really, for twenty-five bucks, it’s not outrageous. I’m seriously thinking about ordering one when we decide on something.

I’m not certain yet if we’ll go the “official” route with registering the brand. I’m not even sure the state of Missouri has an official branding registry. I suppose it’s something I’ll at least look into.

And what have I come up with so far? Well, it needs a little more work before I share it. But I’m pretty happy with what I came up with today.

Oh, and yes, I realize it doesn’t have anything with the “My Crafty Crap” name I came up with, and no, I don’t plan to change the Etsy name when I do finally open the shop. I just don’t care. And for now, you’ll just have to trust me since I’m not sharing the brand until we decide on one. :)

Until next time…