So Blogging 101 came up and gave me a reason to reassess my blog and why I do it.
I think it was forty years ago last week that I started my first job in photography, thereabouts anyway. I spent a lot of time in the darkroom in 1975 – with the odd cockroach floating about in the fix as company, but I was let out on jobs as well and started to learn.
Forty years on last week I was in Deal starting work on a project for Deal Pier Arts (photo above), some nice fresh sea air!
I still shoot, still work, still earn a living doing what I like best. I’ve worked for some major companies for good money and I’ve also worked for a small return or even nothing if the subject interests me.
Well a few things have come up recently that have made me kind of reflect on why I still take pictures, but the main catalyst was finding Vivian Cherry’s book, Vivian Cherry’s New York, in a charity shop and it made me look into her life. A really inspiring person who after a long break from photography – stopped in the 1950’s – took it up again later at the age of 67 (five years older than I am now).
I have also come across a fair amount of misinformation about photography lately on the internet and so I thought that rather than do the ‘see what a great photographer I am’ kind of blog – which seems to be everywhere ( and which I’m just as guilty of doing). I would give out some (hopefully) useful tips, information and how to’s. I’ve done that a little bit already, but I thought that now I should do more.
I’ve shot 40 years with film and almost 15 years with digital so I’ve a pretty good idea of how to do it. I’ve made plenty of mistakes in that time – (still make the odd one!) but I’ve also got it right a lot of times. If I get it wrong in the future then I’m sure that someone will let me know
steve hickey 