I haven’t touched my cameras all of September…
It’s already September 12th but the days have disappeared between heat, rain with heat, Labor Day long weekend, being with my girlfriend, and no gigs.
August was great. There were a ton of gigs. It started with a tour, followed by some food photography in Rosarito, then with a baptism and party photoshoot. It was paired with a cover story I wrote and more photography I did for the magazine. I did other personal photoshoots just for fun. I went camping with my girlfriend and it was fantastic times with lovely memories. And the month ended with me getting interviewed for a podcast. That also went swell.
In that last week of August, I also interviewed a bunch of people to write another cover story. Something my editor asked for. I sent it last week. I inquired about it today. He told me he will let me know tomorrow.
It’s about Tijuana and my ten years here and what it looks like now. I hope it gets accepted. If it does, I am worry-free for a while.
If it doesn’t… Ooooeeee. Some poor times ahead.
September continues to be empty.
My third nephew’s birthday is in two days. He is turning one. I have that this week. And I have a tour on Saturday.
The tour comes from Michigan. And hey! I lived there. So that will be easy and fun. I already got paid for it. I already spent the money.
Money comes. And I spend it almost immediately.
And none on my debt. Or rent. I owe rent…
Good thing my landlord is chill. I have the money to pay, but I haven’t gotten paid cash and I haven’t crossed the border all of September, so he will have to wait. I hope he is chill about it. He usually is chill… If not I’ll just do the chill trend on TikTok and he will chill. The world works like that in 2022. Right?
That’s two things this September. And a dude I know from Reddit who I interviewed also paid me in advance for a photoshoot. A dude shoot. Those seem to be a thing.
Dudes shooting dudes.
Like always. I have so much fucking content and I get overwhelmed and do nothing. I was just going through a wedding I covered years ago. There are some amazing pictures I took that I never posted. That the bride and groom never posted. It wasn’t my business to cover weddings. I didn’t really care. It’s still not my business. But there’s money. And I want it to be my business. Or part of the many things I can do in photography.
I took over 3,000 photographs in two days and delivered 800+ in four different albums. 200+ in only the party pics alone. This is just two photos from that wedding:
This is what I looked like that night.
Yes.
Wedding Photography.
Especially in Ensenada. Especially in Valle de Guadalupe. Especially in Baja or Tijuana. Especially for Gringos.
Lleve lleve barato barato!! Fotógrafo de bodas en Tijuana y Ensenada that speaks perfect English and Spanish!
Links:
Both those pages need to be fixed. They will be soon. And I need to write more.
That’s the dream.
The Ensenada dream.
Repeating my own plan for later and to avoid depression. I have shit to do. I am talented. I will get paid. I will win an 8 game parlay in the casino betting on NFL.
Ok. Probably not the latter. I’ve been close so many times. Getting seven out of eight right. But never won the prize. I was way wrong this week. Four out of eight. I let my girlfriend choose the scores. I chose which eight I thought she chose correctly. We didn’t choose correctly. Next week I’ll try again.
That’s the plan for gambling $10 per week. That’s no real plan.
Nah.
The real plan.
Ensenada life.
There is so much to achieve before I can make the move. I am hoping to make the move in early 2023. I need to do more writing work. I will get some of it done as soon as I’m done with this stupid blog.
I need to post more content. Maybe sponsor some.
Do I need more subscribers for my YouTube?
I need to reach 1,000 to monetize. But that will be pennies. Perhaps a full dollar a month. At least, more passive income. My Patreon is still a great passive income.
Thanks to my subscribers on Patreon.
I owe you a lot of content.
For every picture I post, there are hundreds that I discard. That. And full files. As well as more personal stories are on my Patreon. And also, you can see me naked if that’s your thing.
I need to do a giveaway of one of my prints. Those are also accessible on Patreon. I have to gig stuff to my patrons! Make some Matingas merch as well.
The Ensenada plan:
Cover one or two weddings a month. $1,000 and up. It can be anywhere, but obviously, south of the border is preferable.
Write one or two articles a month. $500 or more. I need to find more clients for that. The Reader might not suffice.
Do any type of photography. $150 per job. $200 in San Diego. That’s going to be sporadic. Same with tours. I need to get more expensive. Soon I will.
Beer Tours in Tijuana. $200+
Beer Tours in Ensenada. $150+
Part-time assistant brewer somewhere in Ensenada. Little to no pay. Just free beer and experience.
Total of $3,000 a month plus passive income. Or more. Hopefully more.
Now I just need to do it all.
It can be done.
That’s the Ensenada plan. And still work in Tijuana and San Diego. Whenever I mention I want to move to Ensenada people act as if I was moving to another state. It’s as if someone from San Diego moved to Encinitas o Carlsbad. Yeah. It’s a drive. But it’s not that far.
Fantasy football is back!
And if you’ve read my blog before, you know every year I’m in a league with friends. It’s boring stuff to you. But I love it. And I like my team. I got Saquon Barkley and everyone laughed at me. Who is laughing now?!
I’m also back to doing my parlays as I mentioned. And my girlfriend helped. We went drinking Saturday night at La Republica de Hops. A very underrated craft beer bar in Tijuana. We had three each, then went to the casino to place a bet to find out that sports betting closed early. We went back home and took a shot of disgusting rum called Castillo. I tried making a shooter with lemon juice, sugar, and club soda. But failed. That shot was disgusting. We went drunkenly to bed.
The following morning we went to the casino together. And I spent the day watching NFL while explaining to her what NFL is. She doesn’t care. But just to be with me, she listens. And gets on her diary to draw and write and does her own thing. Unlike me, her diary is private.
Saturday afternoon was spent playing video games. And cooking for her. And the night I described.
Friday was rainy. Hurricane Kay hit Tijuana. It was minimal. Light hurricane. I picked her up as soon as she got off work. We bought a couple of LA Cetto wines and a big pizza from Suprema Pizzería and stayed at home.
It was a great weekend. I love my weekends with her.
The prior weekend was similar. I spent all weekend with her. Spent the week writing.
The rest of September continues to be empty despite so many promises of photoshoots. Then nothing happens. I need gigs. I need wedding gigs. I need food photography gigs. I need writing gigs. I need money for beer and tacos. I’m good with one or two tours a month. I have one this Saturday, I could do another one. But more than two a month is too many. Same with weddings. I’m good with a couple a month. More than that, I’ll get burnt.
I always try to do everything.
My padawan has been covering Xolos games. He makes a bit over $100 per game. I asked him if he can get me a similar gig. The last game is this week. There is no more on that.
Sports photography. I can easily do that. Any type of photography I can do.
I managed to somehow get two gigs in September. That’s not nearly enough. I need way more. I don’t have any gigs in October. Or November. Well… I have one in November and I already bought the plane ticket. And in December I plan to go to Houston. All of that is approaching fast.
And I don’t really have gigs with the magazine. I can see the future. More like I have access to the schedule. And it’s already set for the upcoming weeks. Work is minimal to none. And they are experimenting with new photographers in case I move and can’t work with them anymore. That’s still not going to happen. They are my bread and butter. And there’s not much bread or butter left for me.
Blissful Husky came over to visit me. That’s his username in DotA. Hence I call him Husky. His real name is Rodolfo, but Imma call him Husky still. I never met him before. He is a friend of a friend and a friend through playing DotA. Though I quit playing DotA, I spent hours playing with him so I feel like I know him.
He arrived Thursday morning from Monterrey. Early morning. I was at the airport at 6:30 a.m. to pick him up. After not sleeping. I planned a tour for us. But it was early. It was hot and damp outside. It was supposed to rain. I never do tours this early. My tours usually involve drinking. It went alright. But it could have been way better. Starting early really threw me off.
We played Smash Bros and he beat me. This makes me realize I need to practice Smash a lot. It’s a better game than DotA. I didn’t know Husky played other games. And him beating me… Yeah. I didn’t like that. I mean… I did cuz I enjoy the challenge. But I’m better than that.
I was going to do a TikTok of all of that. But TikToks are hard and they stopped being as rewarding.
I just want money.
I should finish my book and order more copies. There’s also that. I need to create more photo portfolios and prices. And post more. And more.
I have a shit ton of work to do if I want money. That’s the point. I’m always waiting for the jobs to come to me and I never seek them out. And it somehow works out. Getting two gigs by not searching them is great. I need the appetite for work. And it’s getting there. I need more work.
So I’ll stop blogging for now. I’ll post more on Patreon later. Especially the ending of the new book. New naked pictures. And more stuff.
The internet will give me money. Give me money. Sign up for my Patreon.
Subscribe to my YouTube, I’m 20 subscribers short of 1,000 and supposedly I can monetize after. Follow me on TikTok and all other social media. Buy my books. I should post more about my books.
If you read this much of my blog. Leave a comment, share, hit subscribe, or something. Or buy me a beer.
I appreciate you.
Thanks.
More about my books.
I’ve written two books. You can find them both on Amazon, both physical and on Kindle. I have no physical copies left. I sold or given away all.
The first one is called Tijuana Adventure: Confessions of a Tour Guide. Find it HERE.
It’s about my tours in Tijuana, how they came to be, and all the other stupid shit I’ve gotten myself into. It has generally great reviews! Be one of them.
The other one is called Paparazzi Daze: Celebrity Encounters. Find it HERE.
It’s about when I used to be a paparazzo over a decade ago. A lot of people still find my blog searching for paparazzi information. The most complete information about those days is in my book. This reminds me, I got an email about that. I forgot to reply. Fuck. Then I get emails about work and I forget.
I definitely need to work more.
And this post needs a picture.
Here’s me and my girlfriend from that camping trip. People love a good love story. So this will generate the clicks of all the curious people who just come to see this picture.
Not gigs in September, but at least I got love.
About how that picture happened. I set up the camera on a rock. It was crooked as fuck, I didn’t have my tripod. I forgot what the aperture was, but on the Sony, I’m mostly shooting Av or aperture priority mode when I used to shoot Tv (shutter priority) or Manual (depending). My girl saw the camera but didn’t really notice my intentions. I just grabbed her and told her to give me a kiss. That was the result. On the first try. I didn’t think it was going to be that cute or that good. But it was.
To read more about that trip, then read my other blog post.
Looking for gigs all of September, October, most of November, and most of December. I need gigs. Hire me for your photo needs. Or a tour. Or a writing thing. Or if you just want to talk to me.
Matingas 