500th post!

“41 today and to mark the occasion I have started this blog. The idea is to post a picture a day up to my 42nd birthday.
For me this is quite a commitment. I hope this will stimulate my photography and keep me off the streets.”

So started this blog around 2 ½ years ago and now here I am writing the 500th post.

I started the blog to mark an important year for me, a way of making the year stand out in my memory, it turned in to a life changing event, something I never envisaged when I started it. To understand what happened you need to known a bit about the old Brett pre the blog.

I was always a photographer, from the moment I picked up my first camera I was hooked, it just took a few years to realise it and to learn to use my skills properly. Going to night school to do a photography course tipped the balance and set me on the road I’m on now, since then I have always thought of my self as a photographer.

Other than the photography my life was pretty normal, I was (and still am) very happily married, I was stuck doing a very soul destroying job (and still am), I was recovering from a long term illness, stress, which had effected my whole life for over 2 years and had left me feeling worthless and with no confidence. My future was looking to be a repeat of my past and in my mind I was getting just what I deserved.

So how did blogging change my life, well it started with a photo, the first photo I posted on the blog, because the next day I need to post another one that was the same quality, but different. I chose one of the best photos I had for the first day; it was typical of my work and so by default ruled out the use of most of my other best shots for day 2 as they were too similar. This left me with a problem I had never faced before; I was a good photographer but only in the small field that I took photos in and a year of very similar photos would soon look very boring, I needed to stretch my boundaries and quick.

I had never really worked on my photography and all of a sudden I needed a photo a day, every day, for a year and the standard I had set was at the top end of my skills!

And that was the easy part, the other component of the blog, the words, was over looked by me at the start for a very good reason, I could not write or spell, in fact other than for work my written communication over the past 5 years would not have filled ½ a sheet of A4. Now I had loads of blank space to fill every day and worst it soon became apparent that people were reading it!

Months after the start of the blog I discovered I was dyslexic (not as thick as I thought) and coupled with the success of the blog, Blogger Blog of note, I found a new confidence and my photography was improved beyond all recognition.

Now 500 posts later I’m on the verge of going full time as a photographer, I run 3 blogs and a web site, I’ve had 2 exhibitions and a number of commission for my work. I still lack confidence, but have decided to scare myself on a regular basis by saying yes to things I would normally say no to.

Oh and I still panic at the thought of having to write or show people my photos.




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