Rewards and VERY important topic post! [hope, you'll read it]

Hello my Sweethearts!

Today is finally reward day! We’re little by little getting on our feet after illnesses and a lot of work. There were only two days in October, when I slept properly. And I hope November will finally bring peace in my heart. At least for some time.

Please enjoy rewards and I’ll get back to you soon with Velma progress.
I wanted to talk about one very important thing with you. My patron friends brought this topic several times to me and, after doing something, I can finally talk about it. If you were part of my patreon for a long time, you know that I prefer not to talk, discuss or share things before I actually did get some proper results in regard to the situation/topic/project.

As we all know, there is a big war happening right now between Russia and Ukraine. The war that was cruelly started by russian side. The conflict involving big politics started a long ago, but until the last few years there weren’t any visible signs of what might happen.
At least this is mine and Tao’s perspective. All we were focused on is what project to work on next and how to grow as creators and our audience.
When the war started it felt like being struck by lightning. Rage, fear and feeling of weakness. There wasn’t a single day when we didn’t check on what’s going on in Ukraine. Melting from stress and depressive thoughts.
But we felt that we need to do something.

Both me and Tao didn’t want to participate in the conflict. We didn’t want to support the war with our taxes and with our lives. That’s why we decided to start the process of leaving the country.

First thing we did was shut down our “Self employed” tax status, so not a single cent would go from our work. Another step was to “seal” any payments coming from platforms we worked on at the time, like Patreon, Gumroad and Etsy. We started to do so, before the war, so I think it was a wise decision. These platforms allowed us to save all earned funds on account without withdrawing. Later companies like Etsy and PayPal shut down our accounts themselves, so we didn’t have to worry that any money would get in the country. This also happened to other money transferring platforms like Payoneer (long before in 2020), Paysend etc. Later russian banking system was cut off from SWIFT and Visa/mastercard card systems.
Technically all we had is what money we had at the moment on our hands.
We also didn’t take any commissions since than (which was easier, because there weren’t many offers in the first place).

Second step of our plan was to prepare our photography for the future. You can’t go anywhere without preparations, because it’ll mean only a dead end.
We started to gather all projects that were waiting for their turn, but didn't have a proper model, idea and place to shoot. This process was started a year before, so all we needed was to make final negotiations with our new models and shooting schedule. You may read about this in my December 2021 - March 2022 posts.
When preparations were finished we decided to split projects into two halves. First was shot this April. You might also read about it in my posts and find some backstage photos on my almost dead Discord. Second half was left until autumn, because we needed to do something very important in summer first. By the way, last week I finished shooting the second half. October was extra hard for me, because this time Tao wasn’t around to pull half of the work on set. As you know from my posts, he was occupied with other important tasks, like survive and “build the base”.

Let’s talk about “something very important in summer”. From my summer posts you already know that we were in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, trying and doing our best to solve the financial side of our work. Banks, cards, new tax status, information about potential residency etc. If your goal is to change country, you should be ready to spend a lot and be able to actually pay. And, once again, we don’t want any taxes to go into the war budget. Most importantly we don’t want our works to be part of the war.
We spent two months finishing this step of our plan.

Third step of the plan was to relocate all our side jobs to different countries. For example the company I was working with for some time already relocated most of its employees to other countries, which partially happened to me too.  Partially, because it’s left on employees shoulders, but with some small financial support. Actually, only for this financial help we were able to shoot the second half of photoshoots we left for autumn. Now, when I’m thinking about it, it was like gift from the gods of photography.
Taking in consideration how expensive tickets are, how much money any documentation costs and medical treatment one of us is getting - all what was given disappeared in thin air.
But most importantly no funds from patreon and gumroad was spent at the moment in the form of taxes since february.

At the moment of writing this post I’m no longer in Russia. We are currently in our “waypoint” country. Place to catch a breath and start our long road to the place we want to be in. And truthfully said to make final decision where we want to be.
I’m tired to the core of my existence and the only thing I want is to get in my “girl cave”. Eat, sleep and not overwork. But, I guess it won’t be possible to rest properly, because I left my mom and grandma in russia, who are both having some medical issues at this moment. There should be surgeries, but what really sucks is when they’ll happen because of the medicine and doctors shortage in the country. And how we’ll be able to transfer any needed financial support…

I got swayed in depressive thoughts a bit. Sorry about that, too many things are happening and I barely can respond to life hits.

The purpose of this already big post is to say one thing:

No funds from your support went into support of this war from its start. Not a single dime. We did all in our strength to make sure that it didn’t and won’t happen.
I want your hearts and minds to be at ease.
I fully understand your thoughts and will respect any of your decisions towards support of Dzikan photography.
Being creators from russia makes support of our works unsettling in the minds of all people, who don't support the conflict. This war is absolutely cruel and shouldn't happen in the first place. I talked about it a lot, and our position hasn't changed since then.

Being russian nowadays means being labeled with war and nazism no matter how hard you try to not be one of the cogs of the war machine. Even if people see your efforts, it still doesn't sit well with them, because there will be thoughts "it feels like I'm indirectly supporting the war".

It saddens me greatly, but I can put myself in your shoes. I really do.

We will continue to work hard and bring many beautiful projects. But no longer as creators from Russia, but creators from different country/contries. Until we’ll settle in one place.

I hope you’ll continue to enjoy our works to your hearts’ content. But from this moment without any worries.
Dzikan photography is still exist because of your love and support, and I and Tao will never get tired of thanking you for opportunity to create.
There are so many photoshoots are on the way, I can’t help but to be excited. Hope, you’re curious too.

If you read this post, thank you very much for your time. I hope it wasn’t a tough read, because my mind was skipping from one thought to another. I spent almost 6 hours writing-rewriting this post. )

Once again, I hope you’ll enjoy October’s rewards. We’ll do our best to be more effective with November projects and not make you wait.

Have a great day! And please be safe.

Links: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-Z5EhDJRcrXu0DNHiUj4J9f6Z-07PjU4/view?usp=share_link
https://drive.google.com/file/d/17yFai6USxtB-yiBamsPm8Lu5YCm80g9a/view?usp=share_link