The State of Soles of Silk - May 2023
Hello everyone. I wanted to take a few minutes and touch base with all of you about a few things concerning Soles of Silk. I've always been open and keep my site running as a passion project that I've always done for fun and mostly with personal friends. A few things have been affecting both me and the site, so I want to go into a bit of detail down below.
Shoots: Hard to Come By
For most of the site's existence I've always had a bunch of unpublished sets just waiting to be published. I'd go and shoot when I had more sets than I could even post in a calendar year. Sadly, that hasn't been the case for most of 2022 and here in 2023. Most of the time I've only had a handful of sets and had to really push hard to get some camera time. This is due to numerous reasons, but the main reasons are as follows:
- Conflicting Schedules: It's not always easy for me to find matching times with the models I work with for the site. Work, family, and life seems to be getting in the way more now than ever. It doesn't help that my model options aren't as wide open as they used to be.
- Less Models to Work With: Over the years I've had countless models decide to stop shooting for reasons such as work, family, or moving out of state. Usually I was pretty good about picking up new models to replace them. That hasn't been the case here lately. I've had to depend on a handful of models who have been carrying the load such as Kelsey, Abby, Allie, and Leah.
- Things Out of My Control: Weather is always a hinderance when it comes to doing outdoor sets. Sickness, deaths in the family, pregnancy, and a handful of other items have also popped up a handful of times over the last year. It's made planning shoots harder on top of the items listed above. For example, just last week I planned to do my first sets with Reese in years. We were both looking forward to it, but I got sick and one of her family members was facing some serious health issues. We decided to postpone, but this weekend was nothing but rain. So yeah... No photos yet.
- Change of Jobs: Back in January I began a new job. Well, it ultimately wasn't for me and this week I am returning to a job I held three years ago. My schedule will be changing again with the return.
- Camera Issues: During my last few shoots my main lens has been acting up. I thought about replacing it, but the camera is getting up there in age. It's probably best to upgrade at this point. I've been debating on going mirrorless, but I want to make sure I get the right camera. I also don't want to way overspend for something that I might not use. Budget is also a concern.
In the Meantime...
Facing all the items above I had to figure out what to do when faced with the weekly updates. I have never skipped a week since the site opened in 2004. I'm sure people would understand, but for me, I want to put something up. At first I thought about doing some remasters of older sets that are stuck in the 800x600 resolution. I did some of those during the 15th Anniversary Celebration a few years ago. The more I thought about things though, the more I wanted to do something else. Flashbacks.
Back in 2006-07 I posted a few of my older, pre-Soles of Silk era sets onto the site in their own section. These photos were all done on 35mm film and appeared on my old free sites in the late 90's and early 2000's.
From time to time on social media and email I am asked if I still have these photos and if I could share them. Well, I'm doing that for all of you who want to see them. I'm posting them in the current resolution I use for my main updates too. Last week I published a set of Amber, adding her to the Flashback section. This coming week, Wendy's page will be added.
Although I had a bunch of models on those older sites, you won't be seeing all of them published. I am keeping it to the models who also ended up shooting here on Soles of Silk. Those models include: Abby, Amber, Andrea, Carmen, Kellie, Kimmie, Kim T., Lauryn, Madison, and Wendy.
I hope you enjoy these older photos. Do know that my photography skill and equipment since that era have improved immensely. Still, I think there are those of you out there who will love seeing these sets. They're certainly a trip down memory lane for me.
I'll Keep You Posted
Even though this blog seems like things have been overly rough, I'm hoping they pick back up here again before long. I will keep all of you posted. I do know of one positive. Both Kelsey and I will have off on Mondays, so you might see her photo count rise even more. She's been my MVP for the last year, no doubt.
There's also a friend of Kelsey's who has been looking to shoot. We haven't been able to schedule yet, but she lives very close to me. Add in Reese and hopefully some new stuff with Abby soon, and I'll feel a bit better about everything that has been going on. Thanks for understanding everyone.
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