I’ve been struggling with this blog for a number of years. I think once I started really looking into photography and realised that it was more than over-processed sunsets I struggled to find purpose and content for the site. Was I building a blog about Liverpool? About architecture? About street photography? A tech review site? I couldn’t decide and indecision held me back. Last year I had a portfolio review and the woman doing the review simply told me to keep doing what I enjoy. Don’t be something I’m not. It’s taken a while for that to really really sink in and I feel like it’s starting to have an effect. That’s why I’m trying to take pride in this site again.
For the most part it feels like the world has moved on from blogging to podcasts and YouTube. That’s where the ad revenue has gone so it is easier content to monetise but they’re also intimate mediums. A podcast strips away all the noise leaving only a voice through which passion is heard. It’s a medium I really enjoy but doesn’t work all that well for a single person. But blogging does. So I blog.
Social media has been around long enough now that people are having the 7 year itch. The excitement has gone out of the relationship and privacy concerns are becoming more and more of an issue. I’ve never felt at home on Facebook but I have on Twitter. Recently though I’ve found myself crafting a toot only to copy the thought into my “To blog” folder in Ulysses. Sometimes 140 (280) characters is enough to spark an idea and sometimes that idea shouldn’t be dropped into the stream that is Twitter. Sometimes it should be expanded upon and kept in a place that I’ve built. Somewhere that can easily be searched, tagged, archived and basically somewhere that I control. That’s here.
I’m taking pride again in this site. I’m taking pride in the photography and the words and I plan to add to that with audio and video. Who am I that my voice should be heard? No-one really but photography has taught me that what we photographers do is go “Huh” at things others might not. This site is a place for me to put those things.