Welcome!
Firstly, hello and welcome everyone! This is the first post on my new blog, but it's not just a new blog- its a whole new site!
Those of you who have known me for a while now will know I've had various sites in the past, including blogs and portfolios, but they've never really had any focus to speak of - so how will this one be different?
Nowadays I have more focus in my life, I've explored numerous forms of photography, from Weddings, Commercial Product Launches, Events, airshows, charity work, stock photography, with subjects such as macro, landscapes, portraits, animals and so on. Now, I know I'm going to pursue the passion, rather than hunting for a pay check. Sure, I'll take on paid jobs - of course I will - but I am going to focus on what I want to do, to develop this site, and to earn a bob or two along the way from prints as well as commissions.
The last couple of years have seen me working with analogue photography once again, and I love it! I have learned to develop my own black and white, colour C41, and colour E6! This has, however, lead me to be a little negligent towards digital, and I kind of stagnated a little.
To combat this, I began a 365 project at the start of 2020. If you're not sure what a 365 project is, its where you take and upload one photo per day for a whole year. I did this not only on a leap year so there was an extra day to account for, but also during the outbreak of COVID 19! It was challenging and good fun at times! Other times, I'm not going to lie, it was a real pain, but I did it. all 365 days. I did a year - but sadly not a leap year! I missed one day. Damn! Never mind!
If you fancy seeing my 365 Project, click the image below
As the New Year rolled in, I dusted off my Nikon D750 and started shooting Digital, and fell in love with digital photography again. I enjoy using my filter kit to get shots in the field, and using Lightroom less. Sure, you don't need filters this day and age, but it gives making photographs that little tangible edge again, similarly to how film photography does with loading a roll, and I like that.
So, this brings us to today. A new site was born today. I've been looking around at portfolio sites which have both a store and a blog. I've been after one that is easy to learn (I'd rather be shooting than coding!), and I feel I can customise it how I like. Most of the other sites I've looked at don't have a blog integrated. I know they're a little 2005 but it's somewhere to write about my photographic thoughts and experiments.
I've contemplated starting creating videos for YouTube explaining how and when I make certain photographs or my photographic adventures, and I may well do this in the future, but I'm a reader, not a watcher, and I like to be able to re-read something if I want to, to be able to quote it easily etc so that's the grounding for this new blog. It's somewhere I can show behind the scenes shots of pop-up studios, or to explain things in written form.
That said, I have created the odd video, and I've got a few concepts to explore in time, so here's one about some long exposures shot in the woods not that long ago.
So there we go, that's where we're up to in this next chapter - I hope you like it, and feel free to throw your thoughts my way!
All the best for now!
Olly
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