FINDING TIME, TAKE TWO!

What can I say after a week away on holiday relaxing and also doing some photography, probably a bit too much photography if you ask my wife; it was supposed to be a holiday for us both and I got carried away. Hence the title; 'Finding Time'.  How to do what you like as an individual, but also share time with the one or indeed ones you love. We need to understand, and appreciate not everyone necessarily wants to stand around waiting for us to take photos. Don't get me wrong my wife is as very supportive and will come with me on some of the trips and also hunt out compositions, but it is my hobby and as such does not want to be involved days, or even hours on end. The lead up to Christmas is busy for us all and makes finding that balance even more difficult. This meant I chose to ignore my photography and do the family things, hence no pictures between the holiday and now, and nothing to write about on this blog. I have managed to slip out of the house on the 27th December when we had a bit of snow; the conditions were far from perfect being windy and very overcast. I went down to the Kennet and Avon canal and by the time the sun was due to rise, the snow was well on the way to thawing; so no great shots for next years Christmas cards.  I have included a picture from the trip but could not find anything that looked good given the conditions - the blur in the trees was from a long exposure (75 seconds), as I concentrated on smoothing the water.

I love the snow, so I guess I will have to  keep my fingers crossed for more snow this coming year (2018) and hope I also have time to go out and take pictures when it does.

So my take two is all about new year commitments.  I need to balance the family activities but, also get out there and practice my photography in order to progress and shoot better pictures. In some ways the later sunrises and earlier sunsets makes this balance more difficult; it impinges on the daylight hours when we want to be doing those family activities at weekends.  My other commitments correspond with the daylight hours during the week, making it  physically impossible to be in the best photography locations.

As the nights are now are starting to draw out again photographic opportunities should start coming.  I need to ensure I have a plan to get out there, take pictures, be inspired and share with those who want to see them.   I need to identify how to  grow my viewer base, so that more people view and appreciate the countryside around us in the mean time -

I HOPE YOU ALL HAD A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAVE A GREAT AND PRODUCTIVE NEW YEAR.

Social Media and Your Web Presence

First off bad week this week come down with a cold (man flu) so not felt like doing much, been some awesome skies this week, but not had the will power to get out there also being at work does not help but been editing more of the pictures taken during the sunrise shoot at the weekend.

My initial edits were put up on my social media sites, so why did I do this after the photography shoots, well if you read my bio my main reason for setting up a web site and my social media pages was to share the pictures I take with a wider audience. So to increase that audience of my pictures I need to post across a range of media sharing sites. I chose Facebook, Instagram and twitter but the choice is yours, I may choose to increase or change the ones I use to spread the word or in my case my pictures further depending on the hit  rates I have. I have also set up a YouTube channel with the intention of recording my photography trips, sharing my views and knowledge of the areas I am in and passing on advice and tips that I have or indeed have picked up by following other peoples media channels.

I don't know about you but I hate having my picture taken and standing pointing a camera at myself currently does not appeal to me so I have started off with a point of view POV approach to my video making, not sure if this is going to work but it is what I am more comfortable with at present. There is the added challenge of finding a suitable video editing "app" to use for the editing process, I may cover this in a later blog.

You may hear that the continued updating of you online presence is very important in maintaining a following, as I am just starting off I can not advise from a producer point of view, I currently have a small following, but I know from a consumer of content I can easily forget channels when you see little action in terms of content. This was why when I was not getting out taking new pictures I started sharing pictures taken in the past, to maintain that interest in my work. A refresh or adding of photographs to your web site will also do the same if people are interested in what you produce they do want to see that evolution else why come back?

Just to let you know maintaining that ever changing presence is not always a speedy thing to do, it takes time, so I would advise not to overstretch yourself if you are going to take the steps to an online presence chose sites that best suit your content, look at those already out there, what do they do? keep following and learn from them but also evolve into the producer you want to be so, as is my dream, people will start looking to you to lead.

My final statement on this post is I admire the daily posters,  those who post regularly and the ones in between as it takes determination and belief to be able to keep going. I applaud you and hope I can join you as a regular provider of content that is followed by many and most of all entertains those that look.