RockDaddyDesign Photography: 2021 Review.
As we welcome twenty-twenty-two, we also wanted to reflect on all that we accomplished to be where we are today. 2021 was a grind. Adam and I both had substantial personal and professional “adjustments” which attributed to some growing pains of how we wanted to live (and thrive) in our artistic-centric lifestyle.
One of the most important things we did in terms of our photography is, honing our philosophy to one simple hyphenated brand: client-driven. What dictates our style and makes us different from other photographers is our collaborative process of ensuring our collective vision is brought to life — whatever it may be! We are lucky to have worked with so many passionate local artists.
With a New Year-style celebratory tone, I would love to share some statistics to give you an inside scoop of the work we’ve completed this past year!
A REVIEW OF ROCKDADDYDESIGN’S TWENTY-TWENTY-ONE:
- Count ’em up: 23 galleries were released this past year! That’s almost two per month… yes, almost, but more on that later. (This does not include professional headshots, family portraits, or independent hiring contracts.)
- On average, there are about 30 photos per gallery which means Adam edited and published to Patreon almost 1,400 images!!! Even if he only spent around 5 minutes editing each image, that’s still over 115 hours, or almost 5 full days just editing photos this past year.
- We worked with 17 clients! Seventeen projects that have inspired our creative work in this medium. We can’t thank our models and clients enough to trust us with capturing their artistic & professional visions!
- We also took care of business by protecting ourselves this year by having our model release forms reviewed and updated by a fancy, real-deal lawyer. We’ve been lucky enough to share creative visions with so many amazing artists, it’s unfortunate when there are a few who make this a necessity.
- We refocused our printshop with Picfair.com! And damn they look good, too. Don’t forget to beautify your boring walls with some of Adam’s nature and wildlife photography: https://adamafurious.picfair.com/
- Categories! I can comfortably say that we really brought our patrons a wide variety in subjects this year with galleries ranging from these categories: fashion, boudoir, cosplay, nude/bodyscape, wildlife, landscape, nature, family portrait, headshots, and events. (Hey potential clients, challenge us to add a new category!)
- There was ONE LOST GALLERY (technically two, but this one we actually cared about)… We braved the chill of the Windy City to do some stunning architecture photography. It was grandiose, illustrious, monumental — and you’ll never get to see it thanks to a technical difficulty aka user stupidity. Guess we’ll have to make another trip to Chicago, oh no…! :)
- In April we celebrated Adam’s birthday and he made out like a bandit. He got a new tri-pod, light cube, a new portrait lens, a macro lens, polaroid camera, pop-up changing pod, and a dark green travel backpack to contain all of his photography accoutrement. It’s not the sexiest thing to talk about, but any monetary contribution is always accepted as we live in such a fast advancing technological world. Thank you to everyone who has specifically helped us in this area.
- Photography inspired us to travel to nine different places this year! Traveling is incredibly important to us, and we’re eager to shoot in more locations this upcoming year. So get vax’d, booster’d, and wear your damn mask before I go stir crazy ok alright thank youuuu.
- I published 17 blog posts! Starting in mid-March, I did my best to release two blogs per month — simple math will tell you that I was unsuccessful. But! Reach for the moon, land among the stars. I am thankful I found Medium.com, and proud of the written work I was able to release this past year.
- Five blog posts containing four episodes were dedicated to my prose-screenplay-creative-writing-story The Elementals. With personified characters of inanimate objects, elements, and ideas, I primarily used Adam’s photography as inspiration to tell strange, fantastical stories about Fire, Wind, Water and Earth. I look forward to continuing their tales in the new year.
An overused expression, but fitting nonetheless: you are going to piss off a lot of people when you start doing what’s best for you.
I wouldn’t want it any other way. Thankfully, with this mantra, we’ve shed the dead weight and unnecessary road blocks of negative energy and focused on reaching our full potential as Columbus based artists.
Speaking of our artistry — Adam and I are buzzing with anticipation about our upcoming projects…!
THINGS WE’RE LOOKING FORWARD TO IN TWENTY-TWENTY-TWO:
- Firstly, I’m excited to officially announce that I will be performing in CATCO’s musical production Head Over Heels as the young princess “Philoclea”! The show opens March 17th; tickets will be available on February 1st. For more information: https://www.catco.org/2021-22/
- We are anticipating the release of our original music album “From the Studio… Apartment” by FOX + RAM this year! Patreon subscribers have already enjoyed our original tunes and music videos. And truly, the greatest way to show your support for our music in the mean time is purchasing a song on Bandcamp: https://foxandram.bandcamp.com/
(Hey btw, why aren’t you guys on Spotify or Apple Music or Amazon etc etc etc? Great question, audience plant. READ THIS RIGHT NOW — https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/nov/14/streaming-platforms-arent-helping-musicians-and-things-are-only-getting-worse )
- Some of you may have seen pictures on my Instagram about this: we have renovated a new music rehearsal and recording space! Right now it is the primary hub for our newest unnamed project — a rock-n-roll cover band coming to local bar venues in the Central Ohio area! That’s right, Adam and I will be melting your faces off again very soon. We know you missed it. ;)
We are always looking for new and exciting ways to tangibly bring you our creative efforts. As you can now assume, Adam and I are eager to focus more on music and live performance in the upcoming months. But don’t worry! We have many anticipated galleries and travel opportunities to continue our photography as well. Any changes in content for you all will not be without a balance in the various areas of artistic expertise we possess!
Here we come, 2022. Cheers to the New Year!
BONUS PHOTO — here’s one we managed to recover from the long lost Chicago set!
Thank you to everyone who has read my blog posts thus far, and all of those who are active Patreon subscribers. Social media followers, please keep doing what you do! Liking, sharing, and commenting on our posts help us reach a wider audience and grow our community.
You can now view our photography’s portfolio on IG: @rockdaddydesign
Stay up-to-date with our music, FOX + RAM on IG: @fox_and_ram
Follow Adam and me to stay up to date with announcements and BTS content: @adamafurious & @summit.j.starr
Email me with your comments & questions: summitjstarr@gmail.com
