Saturday, 5 February 2011
Friday, 4 February 2011
Blogging and photography
Blogging – refuge for the angst ridden? Platform for the socially inadequate? Soapbox for the self opinionated? Having a voice however small? Money making advertising sideline? Personal blog, cultural blog, topic blog, business blog, science blog, moblog, collaborative blog, eclectic blog, educational blog, directory blog, forum blog, spam blog……..the list goes on and on. One thing for certain is that the types, motivations and perceptions of blogging are as diverse as the planets population and that in the world of blogging everyone is shouting at the same time trying to be heard.
This blog is, well, potentially a mix of all the above! However, if I can keep it on track, its main aim is photographic with perhaps the occasional and hopefully objective observation on life in the Western Isles of Scotland. I should add at this point that although I live on the Isle of Lewis I’m not native to the islands, I ‘blew in’ from England a while ago. It doesn’t really matter how I came to be here, for the moment it’s sufficient to say I’m now living in a place the population of which is only marginally larger than the number of staff and students at the university where I used to work. Many people wax on lyrically about the Western Isles, some of which is justified, but it is a real place with real people and real problems. A point worth remembering if you are planning a visit or want to 'live the dream'.
Anyway, back to the photography, unlike many photographers and other creative’s for that matter I’m not precious or pretentious about my images nor do I have an ego that needs massaging. I shoot all sorts of stuff both when the urge takes me and when I have to fulfil a client brief to scratch out a living. That's not to say I don't care about what I shoot, very far from it, but after years of shooting I'm still left a little bemused sometimes about the images that people like and those they won't give wall space to, also those that sell as stock and those that don't. It's all in the eye of the beholder as the old saying goes, all I can do is take the shots and if I can trigger an emotion then that floats my boat.....helps if it sells too!
This blog is, well, potentially a mix of all the above! However, if I can keep it on track, its main aim is photographic with perhaps the occasional and hopefully objective observation on life in the Western Isles of Scotland. I should add at this point that although I live on the Isle of Lewis I’m not native to the islands, I ‘blew in’ from England a while ago. It doesn’t really matter how I came to be here, for the moment it’s sufficient to say I’m now living in a place the population of which is only marginally larger than the number of staff and students at the university where I used to work. Many people wax on lyrically about the Western Isles, some of which is justified, but it is a real place with real people and real problems. A point worth remembering if you are planning a visit or want to 'live the dream'.
Anyway, back to the photography, unlike many photographers and other creative’s for that matter I’m not precious or pretentious about my images nor do I have an ego that needs massaging. I shoot all sorts of stuff both when the urge takes me and when I have to fulfil a client brief to scratch out a living. That's not to say I don't care about what I shoot, very far from it, but after years of shooting I'm still left a little bemused sometimes about the images that people like and those they won't give wall space to, also those that sell as stock and those that don't. It's all in the eye of the beholder as the old saying goes, all I can do is take the shots and if I can trigger an emotion then that floats my boat.....helps if it sells too!
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