Saturday, September 20, 2014

Where in the world is Rav Holly?

Hi,

Pixel Peeps, this is a little video I produced, the last video I did in my studio back on August 31st before closing, and moving out of my studio permanently.

I was MIA the month of August, and needless to say my phone, and email was blowing up with calls, and text messages from concerned friends, and family wondering where I had went, and what I was up too. If I was OK, or even still alive.

I actually produced this video to answer those questions, but it's a little rough around the edges, so, I wasn't completely confident in putting it up in my social media circles. I'm still not completely comfortable in front of the camera. I kinda laid low, because I was struggling to figure out exactly what I wanted to do, after finding out a very lucrative ad campaign that I had been campaigning for, for the last three years for an amazing company based in Paris had decided to go with another Photographer for their new ad campaigns, which would have been my saving grace, and would have afforded me to stay in Long Beach, and keep my studio open. Once I learned they would only use me for one Photoshoot, and only as a lighting consultant, and assistant, my boat was sunk.

Pretty much since 2012, after one stroke of bad luck after another I had lost one commercial client after another. 2012 was a banner year for me, and I just couldn't see anything going south. I was traveling the world for a month with A list celebrities in private planes ordering room service in 5 star hotels from Paris, to Rome. It's only suppose to go up from here, I thought. Well, unfortunately I was completely wrong.  

After expanding my studio, and taking on the additional cost of an office, and gallery, the phone from my existing bread, and butter clients just stopped ringing. So, after much debate, and making very little money at all for a three month stretch here in 2014, the added expense of traveling to Texas, twice, once in February when my Mother passed away, and just a few months later when my youngest son was shot. I just decided it was time to try something else. For years now I have been wanting to concentrate on my YouTube channel, and I have been seriously wanting to do a PodCast for the last five years, or so, but with the amount of stress I was under because of all the overhead I had accumulated, I just never seemed to be able to find the time to make any real attempt, at making either of those a reality, and when things were good, I was running around Hollywood, and LA spending money faster than I was making it.

So, I decided to close my Photography studio, and move to the desert, and Joshua Tree, CA. Take a break from the madness of what is LA, which can eat you alive if you're not careful. So, here I am writing this blog, and enjoying a much more peaceful existence. The ironic thing is the work is just rolling in now. I went three months with absolutely nothing, and now I am booked up until the end of the year with some very lucrative projects. The funny thing is I am completely financially stable once again after downsizing, and moving, and have no worry, or stress about work, or money, and now it just seems to be pouring in like a water faucet left on. For that I am forever grateful, it's just funny to me, to look back just a couple months ago at how desperate I had felt at the time, and just saw everything crumbling around me I had worked so hard for since moving to California, but once I just let it go, and found peace within myself, and coming to the realization that things could be so much worse, and it would all work itself out, it really seems to have done just that.

I am getting back to my love for Photography, not the money of Photography. I plan on hiking, camping out overnight, and roaming the High Desert in search of beautiful landscapes to photograph. That is about the last plateau, the last thing as far as Photography I have never done. I've never really been very good, at capturing the landscape around me, but, I think setting my mind to it I can change that, and if not, I will have fun trying.

So, out here in the desert I am gonna concentrate on producing decent videos for my YouTube channel, producing my weekly podcast show, *Image is Everything* I have my podcast studio 80% complete, and just waiting on a few missing pieces of equipment to complete it. I can already record, and have enough equipment, and have done, and published my first podcast, so that goal is been met, and I will be editing clients Photos, and traveling to LA, once, or twice a month to work as it's booked. Life really couldn't be any better right now, which is a little worrisome. I'm always worried the bottoms gonna fall out when things are so good, what could go wrong now to ruin my zen?

Anyway, I let some of my closest family, and friends see this video when I very first published it to get some feedback, and critique, and my sister had the best advice, she told me not to move my hands around so much because I reminded her of a car salesmen, so, next video I promise not to move my hands around so much.

I hope you enjoy the video, and please be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel. It's pushing 100 subscribers, and 90,000 video views. So, help me out!!





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