Never be afraid to admit who you are...

 

 So I'm sure it hasn't gone unnoticed around here but I've been very quiet in the blogosphere. And on social media. An on the internet in general.

And while I'd like to tell you that I've been so busy photographing all round the world that I just haven't had time, that's not exactly true.

Mind you, I have been doing a lot of travel. In the last year or so I've been to Bangkok, Japan a couple of times and a month or so in Europe.

And my local Cairns photographic work has also kept me very busy, but so busy that I couldn't find time to sit down and put out a blog post every week or so?

Nobody is that busy surely. No my true excuse is procrastination and denial. Procrastination in that I put it off, and put it off in the belief that nobody is really reading so there's not much point writing. True or not it's what I told myself.

And denial of the fact that I am actually a writer. Or more the fact that I didn't necessarily want it to be true. I was happy to be seen as purely a photographer. The thing is, editors don't see me that way. In fact I've probably written more articles for magazines in the last year than I have in quite a while, and some of them even ran without photos! So it seems that while I was trying to convince myself I wasn't a writer, the world around me doesn't see it that way.

So I'm dropping the facade of being the 'cool' photographer only and admitting that I'm both a writer and a photographer. And I need to write as a cathartic process. One that keeps me on the straight and narrow in a way that photography by itself can't do.

Photography is a very in-the-moment activity. You're looking through the viewfinder and totally concentrating on what is taking place. Trying to anticipate a moment and capture it for eternity. But you're often (in fact invariably) catching somebody else's emotions. People's smiles, frowns, laughter. A nod, a wink. Our job as photographers is to capture that moment of emotion, without necessarily injecting our own emotions into it. Or, in the case of commercial work, you're working to a brief and there is a detailed concept and layout in mind and you're working within that framework.

Writing, on the other hand, gives us the opportunity to explain how we feel and think. To explain why the image (or the moment that we captured in the image) was so important to us at the time. And the more eloquently and emotionally we can express that, the more we are able to connect with other people on a whole different level. Yes a photograph is worth 1000 words, but sometimes adding a few words to that photograph can make a world of difference.

So I will be back blogging. More as a process that I thoroughly enjoy and a way of self-expression than anything else. I don't know how many people are reading, or will stick with me, but I don't think there's going to be too much in the way of explicit education. In other words I'm not going to explain the difference between a wide angle and telephoto lens (which by the way is the most often searched for phrase that leads people to my blog!). Instead I am going to wax lyrical about photography and travel and present myself no-holds barred. Opinions will be freely given and damn the consequences!

Mind you I'm a pretty happy-go-lucky guy in general so don't expect anything too controversial but I will call it like I see it. To ease back into it I am going to post once a week. I've already written down quite a few ideas for future posts and I figure I can manage one a week without boring the back teeth out of you all.

So, if you've got this far, thank you for sticking with me through this long absence and I look forward to re-acquainting myself with you all. See you tomorrow.

Paul