How do I remain sane?

OK, after a two year sabbatical I have fully returned and am committed to being a photographer. And now I am overwhelmed. I am crazy busy and I have not even begun to promote myself--the most important part of being a photographer. I have taken on Final Cut Express, which is a 1/5 the cost of Final Cut Pro, yet the learning curve is nearly as steep. I purchased FCE rather than FCP, figuring you don't buy a Porsche if you don't know how to drive. Yet FCE does not handle the Canon 5D Mark II media at 24 fps. More about that in future posts. I have spent at least thirty hours on it, and I have yet to cut a video. Simultaneously I am trying to learn Aperture 3, which I won as a door prize at Palm Springs Photo Festival. I spent 3 hours trying to make a damn contact sheet-see above. Yet, recently I have my doubts, because Joan Paul Capionigro told me at a ASMP workshop he did with R. Mac Holbert, that I should sell Aperture 3 and buy Lightroom 3. Yikes. Then yesterday, Amanda Friedman, another very talented photographer, told me Capture 1 is the bomb. Yikes again.

So yesterday I fell upon Emily Shur's blog, and it inspired me to write more about my experiences returning to photography. Besides being a very talented photographer she is a damn good writer. Now I must learn how she links every one and everything she writes about without writing out the entire URL. Digital, has not made photography easier. Oh yea, it has made it easier to make an interesting photograph, but to stay on top of what is happening it has made being a photographer much more complicated, time consuming, and expensive. Yesterday evening, after a day in front of the computer, which is where I spend most of my days, I was exhausted. Yet sleep was light last night because I was haunted by nightmares self-doubt. Oh, and I have decided to post to my blog first thing in the morning rather than at night. It's much too difficult for me to write anything sensical when I am exhausted. Cheers for now, but I promise to be consistent, and write what I daily learn.

This is the contact sheet I was working on yesterday. It's part of my Lakewood project....