Hello Again
Holy moly, here we are again. Trying to get a blog, portfolio, website thing, whatever you want to call it together. It's something that has come and gone over the years and never stuck. Be it time, energy, ADD or life in general having a place for my work and my thoughts never was a priority. I never really needed a portfolio really, once I started working in the creative world I never needed one again. I don't plan on leaving my current job any time soon so why now?
Social Media Sucks
See, my day job I am glued to social media 24/7. Unplugging is something that is hard to do, but I try to force myself to turn on "Do Not Disturb" and just enjoy life sometimes. Because of being on social media all day my desire to focus on my own accounts and sharing my own work has dwindled over time. I love sharing things and I love working on my own projects, but anyone that works in the creative world will tell you that it's damn hard to work on personal/fun projects after you switch off day job mode.
Because of social media burn out I have been yearning for another outlet, something that can spark my creativity again. Luckily I produce a dope podcast with some of my best friends over at Shift Beers which helps, but I need something visual. I need to use my camera for me, not as a hired shooter. So I've been thinking where the hell do I go? Back in the day Flickr was the place for me. It was such a cool photo sharing website, even had some dope community features, but over the years after changing owners multiple times it just lost it's appeal and focus. Then there was 500px which seems to have turned into only a portfolio site with not many community features. Deviant Art is more for art nowadays and I don't really shoot for any publications. Don't even get me started about the sad loss of forums as a way to connect. Everyone is now on Discord.
The Solution
So what the hell is someone to do, I thought to myself. I pay for a server every year, I own my own .com (and .net) and tons of other domains. Why not take a crack at doing a photo blog? Something that I control. Something that I have the power to shape into what I want it to be. I don't have to worry about if I'm posting at the right time or if I'm using the right hashtags. I don't need to do any growth hacking or whatever else you want to call trying to entice people to hit that follow button. I can just write what I want to write, post what photos I want to post, maybe share it out on social and if people want to check it out they can, if not, then that's cool too.
This honestly came to me because of a friend, Ronny Salerno, who wrote a wonderful blog I followed for years called Queen City Discovery finally decided that just focusing on urban exploration was a little too narrow focused and morphed his site into an all encompassing blog and photo journal. I love flipping though his posts because I don't know if I'm going to be reading about some abandoned building, some crazy restaurant or a trip to a far off place. Frankly I don't even have to read the words of his posts all you have to do is follow along with the photos and let them share the story. The words are just a little extra context. That's what I'm really aiming to do here. So sorry for stealing your idea Ronny, not like a ton of other photographers have done it before <3
A Journey Begins
I don't know how often I will be posting, but my number one goal will be to start taking my camera everywhere I go from now on (as long as it makes sense). I've even been toying around with the idea of getting a nice compact rangefinder or a point and shoot that still shoots RAW to make it easier. Phones have come a long way when it comes to photo quality, but you still can't beat the look and quality of a real camera. You'll never convince me otherwise.
I have a few projects in mind already, but I don't want to force them. If this ever becomes something that feels like I NEED to do it then it defeats the purpose of why I'm here. With that said, if you've read this and you want to take this journey with me thank you! I hope this small corner of the internet will be entertaining for you.