Going Back, Moving Forward

Having some time on my hands, I've been going back over some of the shots I've done this past year.  I can appreciate the work I've done, the images I've captured and all that, but I guess it's a bit on the frustrating side when it seems to go nowhere.

Am I looking for fame and notoriety?

Yes.  To lie and pretend to be a martyr and that I'd starve for the pure pleasure of creating art is fanatical and lunacy.  I'm going to an art school that majors in commercial applications of photography.  Art is a by-product of it all.  At least for me - for now.  If the artwork becomes more lucrative, then that path will be explored and followed.

Is this to say that I'm only going for the Benjamins and not enjoying the craft that is the artwork that I create?  Not in the slightest.  If I was, I think I'd be putting WAY more effort in developing a 'style' and pumping that style into every nook and cranny of the interwebs and cyberspacing my ass off.

I just hear of so many that have been "discovered" by others and when I look at their work I go "Really?!?" Is *that* their idea of artwork?  Maybe I don't have the same artistic eye for the composition/mood/lighting/hue/chroma/form/gagmewithaspoon-over-the-top images that are being sought after.  If there was some sort of definitive ... umph to the images I saw that were lauded, I'd get it.

Maybe that's just it - I don't get it...

Model: Levi Ward; 02/20/10; Canon 20D; ISO 200;
f/5.6; 41mm focal length; Auto White Balance (AWB);
 strobe lighting with snoot and light box.
Darkened and sharpened with Photoshop.