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| Bodnant Garden, North Wales |
It's been nine months since my last
blog post, and I confess (couldn't resist, sorry) that I didn't think
I'd be coming back. But after reading some posts about the Toronto
Garden Bloggers' Fling and especially about the talk Gayla Trail gave about
resisting/rejecting the urge to make money and/or accrue followers, I
felt the urge to rethink my approach.
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| Garden Path at Snowshill Manor in The Cotswolds |
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| Bodnant Garden |
Add to that the fact that I've been
riding the photography roller-coaster known as microstock since
January. This is the field where you get micro-pay for taking
technically perfect (at the friggin' pixel level) photos of stuff
other people might want to use to illustrate [fill in blank].
While
I learned a lot and improved a lot, I found myself taking way too
many shots of gravel, tree bark, doors, and hands planting flowers with lots of
space to the left or right. I also spent too much time staring at
noise, pixels, and things I had no names for and couldn't see at
reasonable sizes.
Even my flower portraits were reduced to colored squares and fuzzy stuff. There were few real ideas and
no love. And I was rejecting shots that didn't fit the microstock commercial mold or meet the technical requirements. But what about my requirements? They receded--as did I--further and further into the background.
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| The Glades, Surrey, Canada |
Maybe I'm approaching this all wrong.
There are just too many people with too many cameras to "compete."
Anyone can take a picture. Mine aren't the best or the worst, and
the somewhere in between is too broad and varied a field to even begin
discussing. But I still like to take pictures of things I like looking at.
I garden. Not well, not often enough for public display. But I like looking at plants and
digging around in the dirt. I enjoy growing things, and when I end up killing some of the things I tried to grow, I enjoy learning about why they died.
I can put words together better than
some but not enough words or often enough.
So I have some skills, and I have some activities I sometimes let myself enjoy. And I still have a blog--at least I still have the name and the space.
So I'm going to find a nice bench in a garden, sit awhile, and think my own thoughts. And enjoy the view.
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| Hidcote Manor Garden, Gloucestershire |
To hell with technically perfect photos. Do what you love and if you love blogging, then do it. I think these pix are amazing. :o)
ReplyDeleteThank you, Tammy! Sometimes I just need to kick myself in the head a few dozen times (did I mention that I'm pretty limber) to realize how much better not kicking myself feels.
DeleteI second Tammy's comment! I like to have an audience for my blog, but I wouldn't change my subject matter of personal voice just to get more views.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jason. Sometimes I'm just a little slow to realize what I really want and enjoy (and that they can be the same thing)
DeleteBeing one that wrote a post looking at the talk given by Gayla, I approach photography, gardening, and blogging differently than almost all the gardening bloggers out there. I would suggest you keep taking your technically beautiful photos like the last one. They can sell right off your blog and not for micro-money! Yes, there are far too many "photographers" out there and many pros have suffered as a result. Take the photos for fun and watch good things happen. As far as blogging "popularity", no predictions on that, but it can come and you will get no reason why all of a sudden it does.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, Donna! I'd forgotten how much fun it was to shoot what I wanted (and how I wanted) and to write for my own interests and amusement.
DeleteI just love looking at these. I can appreciate your concerns but I suspect that you are doing better than you think. A big part of the pleasure is simply seeing something well presented that I'd otherwise not easily experience. Louise might be aware of some of these locations but I certainly am not. Well, I have been to the Cotswolds but we spent most of our time being lost.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Leaf! And I know what you mean about being lost. Even with GPS, we got lost a lot, especially when we were trying to find a way to get back to the route the GPS wanted us on.
DeleteSo glad to see you back Emily! I missed you, I did try to find you when I switched from Muddy Boot Dreams to The Light Laughed, but there were no new posts so I though you had left for good. But I'm happy to see you back. Blogging, and photography is a journey, each of us has a different one to follow. There is nothing wrong with exploring, it just helps us grow. I don't think I've heard of micro-pay. Sounds like a real "pain" lol. Glad that you are now taking photos of things that inspire and fill you with love.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to seeing more posts from you!
Jen
Thank you so much, Jen! I'm glad I found you again on your beautiful new blog. They are indeed journeys (with the occasional weird detour). Hope you folks aren't getting any of the smoke from the BC fires.
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