Getting outside again, and being creative
This past month or so has been pretty rough on the sleep. With the heat, sickness, and just generally having so many things to do, I was often waking up about an hour after falling asleep and struggling to get back to it. Most of the time having either a sore throat from sickness or just being so warm from Armenia's 40 degree weather that I'd end up waking up constantly, moving to different rooms where it may be a bit cooler and more comfortable. I haven't been doing as much photography as I'd like to, I miss it. I have been more focused on documents, registering things, and opening accounts. So much chaos that I'm too tired to really think of being creative with the camera, let alone even go anywhere with it. Despite all of this, I am happy that many things have been in motion. It's an exciting time despite the sickness and exhaustion. Especially knowing what I'm working towards and for myself.
I've been trying to stick with Hive but I can feel it slipping away a little. More happy to take days off and not care for the potential missed rewards. Not feeling like I need to open it so much. I think it's a nice change given the past where I'd constantly feel that FOMO, especially in crypto and financial markets which thrive on making people feel like they're missing out on something big. But these days I can't say I really care for it, and I think that's just with creativity becoming more important in my daily life. Caring a bit less about money and being more interesting in the types of things I can create, especially if it leads to money in another way. It certainly feels a bit healthier to live this way. I'm also noticing more interest in art, which is something I've always found fascinating, but it feels heightened as of late. Just more interest in different types, whether it's architectural and historical, or something more modern.
I always gravitate back to the cameras though, and I love it. I always miss not having one with me or I begin to feel that itch to get outside and try to shoot something different. With so much time inside, most of that has been spent trying to find ways to photograph things indoors, checking out product photography and building my portfolio with the limited gear I have at home. Though I also have that interest of photographing and filming people recently, both in a creative and documentary style. A few ideas sprouting within my head, but I'm not sure when I might take the leap to create them. Time is still quite thin at the moment, and some of the more busy weeks are yet to come. A good thing is that 40 degree weather does seem to be on its way out, and getting outside won't be such a struggle due to that heat. I am certainly looking forward to the autumn atmosphere, at least.
This intense heat is a problem. HIVE does not bring tangible income to most. But here you can hold HBD with a good percentage and sometimes chat with old friends.
Yeah the lack of humidity in Yerevan makes the heat really intense. You can't really go out for long, it's quite dangerous. Especially with the strong UV!
For me it's more the time spent here and not so much the income generated. I'm not a big social media person in general, and recently I have so many other things I both need and want to do that it's becoming harder to justify spending much time here at all. I'm very bad at staying at home these days, I just don't like doing it anymore, I just get that itch to get outside and do things. So the past few weeks of being a bit sick have been torture, stuck inside and forced to watch things when I'd much rather be out there connecting with the actual real world and not at the control of algorithms.
I think it's also an age thing. Just the older I get, the more I want to spend time in person with people and not online. I'd much rather go out somewhere and see and do than stay home and waste away playing games, watching something or trying to game social media.
It is quite attractive. Especially when dollar yields have decreased massively in the past year. I've slowly been building mine up again with the little post rewards I have. Unfortunately (but also fortunately) my current investments lean more towards camera gear for work.
Me parece muy valioso lo que dices sobre alejarte un poco de HIVE. Es una señal clara de que estás priorizando lo que realmente importa: tu bienestar y tu creatividad. Esa pasión por la fotografía y el arte que tienes, es algo que definitivamente no tiene precio.
Espero que el clima mejore y que puedas salir pronto con tu cámara a capturar toda esa inspiración que tienes acumulada. Saludos. Cuídate.👋
It does feel a bit cooler here suddenly, and I'm enjoying it. Still feels like summer, it just isn't so dangerous to step out. You can walk around without getting too uncomfortable quickly.
But yeah the heat and being a bit sick for about three weeks really set me back a bit. I was bored being stuck inside for so long. And I'm loving that I am able to get out again, it's really fun. I've missed just walking with the camera and stumbling across random things to capture. Yesterday I stumbled into a wine festival and photographed that, it was really fun.
Me alegra que disfrutaras el festival. Cuídate.🤗
Same! But in my case it was just insomnia x_x
That's probably a healthier way to be dealing with it anyway. As far as crypto goes this is the only one I actually deal with because it makes some sense and doesn't feel stupid. I like crypto more than stock markets in theory but basically as fart as I'm concerned everything financial is a pain in the system.
Glad things are in motion and hope you feel better soon :)
I think I'm just a bit bored of finance stuff in general. I don't touch anything crypto beyond Hive as I just don't care for it anymore. I don't have the patience nor the interest, especially when 99% of it are scams. I also haven't touched any stocks in a long time either. I'm fine just having a savings account in cash that earns around 5%.
I think I'm also just growing up a bit and having more interest in actually creating something, more for myself. I think I've been growing out of Hive for a while as well, but my problem is I enjoy writing and sharing the photography. Especially with a bit more text than what other social media allows. But I've been building some outside places for this over the past few months as well.
In general I think it's just me wanting more physical connection with people. Being face to face. Not stuck inside at the laptop for most of the day. I'm really bad at staying inside now, I just can't do it. I always have the urge to just pack up my backpack with batteries and get out there to explore something.
Hope the savings account is enough. Investments are pretty much a requirement over here now if you want to retire never mind it be "comfortable". I'm a bit clueless so all I have is hive and I'm not doing it "right" (and I stopped caring some time ago because it made it less fun).
Yay for building outside places I think? XD I consolidated everything down to my blog and hive because I basically considered Facebook and Youtube a massive security flaw and and everywhere else I was on either died or I lost interest in it so I kind of get where you're coming from.
Nothing wrong with not staying inside, generally the opposite!
I'm in Armenia now and the cost of living is generally lower, so with a few different incomes it's not that difficult to live comfortably. A near 5% yield on GBP or USD is quite appealing. Hive generally takes more time out of the day compared to anything else, and offers the least growth. If I do a shoot of some objects at my home in a little studio setting, I can upload those to things like Shutterstock which sell over and over again, but those images also add to my portfolio. Whereas here after 24 hours your post is just buried and gone. The 7 day window is basically 1 day.
So the way I see it these days, it makes more sense to put that time elsewhere into things that maintain growth going forward and aren't just quick short-term profit.
I don't understand this.
Otherwise the 7 day payout is/was one of the biggest complaints about hive. Think the tipping/gifting thing (on Peakd, don't know about the other interfaces) was an attempt to get around that but I don't see it being used that much, or maybe I'm just not looking hard enough).
Then on the other hand I have this vague recollection on another (now defunct) site that was built on a similar concept but I don't think they had payout windows and there was some grumbling about how it was unfair that people that were on earlier would be able to earn more or something and some people wanted a "reset" of sorts to happen to "level the playing field" for newcomers.
I really didn't understand that one
I've kind of found the complete opposite to quick short term profit in this place. It is definitely a time sink but in my experience so is everything else, however I am in a different type of thing :)
It's not even necessarily that which is the problem, it's that there's a genuine punishment for curators that do vote on posts after the 24 hour window. So they don't do it. The 7 days still isn't amazing given your post could suddenly blow up elsewhere on the Internet a few years later due to the SEO and it won't make anything, in that sense I think ad revenue for people on here would be a good addition, and there were talks about that from the peakd guys a while back. But they said the amounts of ad revenue would be so low it just wasn't worth it then.
Ah I mean in comparison to other places, where once you post you're almost guaranteed to make something. It's quick in that sense. But then there is that other addition of the curation window ending and after that, that's it. I've been uploading things to shutterstock and other agencies and I'll upload something and it'll start selling months, sometimes a year later. To me that feels a bit more appealing given it can also be a time sink, but at least the potential of sales months, even years later is there. So that time sink doesn't feel as repetitive, it doesn't feel like it's to make something now and then that's that. Maybe that explains it a bit more? I dunno haha
Also I think I know which site you were referring to, I think it was maybe NRVE or something like that, which they based the crypto on. And then over time things sort of fell through.
Can't say I've noticed but I also don't care. I may have come for the money like everyone else initially but it's basically just another social media thing with several perks that suit my preferences (like being distributed and the crypto is basically bonus at this stage). And I have this vague recollection of something around that changing as well at some point.
If being considered for a passive income stream I don't think it's worth the effort (unless you want to get your autovote on and even then it's probably only worth it if people you're foillowing take off or you dogpile onto already popular people) and places like Shutterstock are probably better for that as long as you keep coming up in searches or whatever needs to happen to sell stuff.
Possibly?! I so cannot remember now XD I remember one used amps (I only clearly recall this because that one had no downvotes or flagging as a feature and it was a dumpster fire of stuff and attempts at telling people to post their own stuff was met with defensive screams of how they're "discovering" and "curating" and in one case "I just want to earn some amps!") and not much else x_x
I'm the same in that regard. If I see a post I like, I'll vote on it. I don't care if it's over a day or not. But yeah the reward you get (I can't remember exactly what the percentage is) decreases after 24 hours. So big curation guilds will ignore a post that is over 24 hours, especially the ones that are receiving HP delegations and pay to those delegators, because delegators often complain about the lack of efficiency otherwise.
That is basically how I'm thinking at the moment. I'm not part of any groups, I'm not on any autovote lists. Sometimes I get a very appreciated vote from curie. I'm also not wanting to suck up to curators and the likes. That's not what Hive should be about. And the shutterstock stuff is quite fun, I've really been experimenting with different types of photography and subjects to increase the spread of the account I have. So it's not entirely about the trending topics around the world, but also just casting a wide net. I've been shooting things I never thought I would, and it's really fun! Also good for my upcoming website/portfolio, since the more diverse works I have, the better chances at finding work.
I also really, really love photojournalism. It's something I'd do as a job if I could. And in some ways that supports it. Speaking of which, the Iranian president is in Yerevan... I should get out and photograph some Iranian flags. :^)
Things that encourage you to explore and experiment is usually good!
Is photojournalism one of those dream jobs that you have to be exceptionally good at to get into? Why can't you do it?
Have fun photographing flags XD
I think it's something that requires sort of throwing yourself into and then getting seen. Not so much finding a publication and then applying. Also heavily depends on what you're capturing
Seems like something you're kind of doing already :)
yeah kinda! but i have to be careful in this region because i wouldn't say the press is entirely free; there have been massive protests in georgia and i really wanted to attend those just to capture them, but journalists were getting arrested and beaten, british nationals were being detained and deported under espionage charges
armenia is a bit more relaxed in comparison, but the risk is still there of getting caught up in things i'd rather not
So yeh fair and also extremely depressing.
Anyone who can't handle criticism absolutely should not under any circumstances ever run anything at all never mind a whole country.