New Logo Perhaps?

One of the things that is difficult for me is to create a logo that easily identifies with the kind of brand my photography represents.  What’s the problem?  Basically, there are too many things I “like” and many of them sorta-kinda get close, but not really.  I think it’s also difficult because I know as a photographer, my style will continue to develop, and it might look a bit different in the future.  So I want to accommodate for that kind of development.

My original logo was quite different.  To me, it said fun, modern, and crisp.  I liked the dots, the swirl, and the parenthesis (sorry, no more picture).  It had a clean font and was easy to read.  However, I think it projected a bit too youthful of an image.  Perhaps it’s the color combo or the “lightness” of it, but it didn’t seem quite elegant enough for me.  Plus, the logo is pretty large and without the curly dots, it’s boring – so it’s difficult to adapt it to different uses (watermarking, stickers, business cards, etc.)  Also, added to that is the fact that it just seemed like something ordinary, trying to be cool, but not really getting there.  (Y’all can tell I’ve thought about this WAY too much, right?)

This is the second one I’ve come up with, which is quite a bit different.It actually uses some of the same font, but in all caps, which makes it seem a bit more mature and elegant, but still fresh and crisp.  I also liked having my initials since I could easily use that for branding.  The color switch I’m happy with – a nice inky blue-purple.  The only problem with this logo is it is SO similar (unintentionally) to many photographer logo’s out there.  None in my area, thankfully, but still…

I could possible add or change that with this…

Super original, right?  What do you guys think?  Do you like the new option better?