Before I ‘kick off’, can I just say thank you for taking the time to come here again so soon after my last witterings.
I decided to follow hot on the heels of my last blog having listened to a friends instagram live thingy this morning (Friday 22nd March) which resonated with me as the subject matter had been on my radar to write about for a while.
In also reminded me of a Picasso quote which I now recognise is pretty bang on the money given my recent experience.
Initially I wondered if this blog would be read or liked by anyone as it followed soon since I posted the last one.
It's like a second album following up on a debut album but just a week later. And without the music.
But then again, this is the whole point of the blog as you will see.
So back to my friends instagram live broadcast.
Each Friday morning at 9am, Paul Sanders, a highly respected professional photographer goes live on instagram from wherever he finds himself in the world (time zones allowing) and muses over photography and usually his own work.
Paul speaks from an informed perspective.
He was the picture editor for The Times newspaper and prior to that had been a well known and successful professional photographer for many years.
I’ll take the liberty of calling Paul a friend now, but won’t say too much more about him, as the next blog delves deeper into both our orbits.
His broadcasts are not an arduous listen/watch whatsoever (unlike this blog).
He keeps it punchy and relevant.
I've put a link to his post below if you want to get a better flavour.
It’s a refreshing take in a world full of opinions on photography.
So I tuned in this morning and immediately connected with what he was saying.
It's something I've had strong feelings about for ages, so in essence have brought his musings and my two penny worth to your attention.
It's about the importance of creating work for yourself. Not an audience or for likes.
You’d be surprised at the creative freedom this provides, which in turn opens the taps to inspiration.
For example, in the previous blog I said I’d not had anything to write.
On reflection I probably should have said ‘share’, but what I did have was of interest to me but I'd felt probably not to anyone else.
Yet Paul broadcasts his musings each Friday morning. He has no idea if anyone will join him let alone if they will be liked!
He does it because he has a passion for photography and understands the ruts people can get in.
He also understands the pressure photographers feel to take and share images that will be liked.
And the most popular forum for sharing any creative output is instagram.
Let’s be honest, hands up all those who have felt ‘pressured’ to keep their social media feeds active/relevant and have posted something they really didn’t have their heart in?
I’ve just put both hands up, but as I can’t type with my toes, I’ve had to bring them back to the keyboard.
The pressures to get likes or more followers can be, well one way to describe it is addictive?
Likewise, a photo that doesn’t get many likes, disheartening?
There are those who seek a large following that may attract advertisers to their door.
Thats their choice. If it works for them. Fair play.
I understand it’s a new world, it’s the best, fastest and cheapest way to get ‘stuff’ out there.
Marketing companies will advise that you need to post regularly. Keep it active. If you pay them they’ll help you do that.
But having tens of thousands of followers can put undue pressure on someone, likewise those with very low numbers may feel 'inadequate' and pressure themselves to keep posting to net more followers.
This has a danger of people creating ‘fluff’ or more of the same stuff to please that following.
To keep that following.
Which curtails the creative mind from experimenting and diversifying.
I actually follow a couple of professional people whose posts I generally miss or scroll on by as they post SO much fluff, sometimes 5 times a day AND on the story thingy to keep the bots happy.
They probably haven’t given more than a few seconds thought to the post. That puts the real thing they want to share with you at danger of not being seen.
Now contrast that to the occasional snapper of iPhone pictures. They wont post much, but when they do, it’s generally because they’ve seen something that’s really caught their eye.
It’s not a technically perfect or artistic photo, but there’s a sense to it that it meant something to them at that time.
As they post periodically it makes sense (to me anyway) to stop and see what it was that made them want to post that set of images.
That’s lead me to change my social media scrolling method.
After a minute or so, I’ll go in search of the people I find interest or inspire me. It saves a lot of time.
And I feel I’ve come away with something new and not wasted my time scrolling through ‘fluff’.
So putting work out there that you know and feel isn’t really a true representation of your art, just because you feel you need to post something is actually counter productive.
Because when you do have something to say, chance are the very people who like your art may miss it, unless they are employing the same method as me.
This is where my ‘regular’ readers will smirk.
Whilst my long standing ‘issue’ with photoshop remains - I’ve looked at it with a new perspective (again more about that in my next blog)
It’s not the product, it’s the ‘sameness’ of images people produce from it that then flood the image world I take issue with.
However…. If the person who has created a digitally designed image from photoshop and they truly in their hearts love it then stick it out there. Then fab!
In fact, there maybe a chance I like it too - if it has a uniqueness to it!
So the bottom line, remain authentic to you.
By doing that and continually practising your favoured art, I’m certain it’ll inspire you to create meaningful quality rather than adhoc quantity.
As Picasso said “Inspiration exists, but it has to find us working”.
It’s that inspiration that finds you working that may actually lead you to your next masterpiece!
Picassos words certainly rang true as I found my vibe again at the keyboard and with the camera and ideas starting to flow. Not that I’ll claim them as masterpieces by any stretch of the imagination, but they’ll mean something to me.
As such I’ll be posting different images from my usual fare, ones that I’ve held back for fear of likes.
Here's the link to Pauls posts. https://www.instagram.com/discover_still/
Thanks for reading yet another blog!
