My 100th Post!!!

I still cannot believe I have done 100 posts! Being that this is my 100th, some careful consideration went into what I ought to write about. Music? Photography? Food? Fashion? All wonderful topics, and all topics I have written about. But for this I particular post I thought it would be best to write about me and my journey as a blogger.

I started this blog two years ago…that in itself is hard for me to believe, I originally started this blog to promote my photography. Honestly I never thought that I would be writing about anything other than my shoots, mostly because I detested writing. Writing required too much time and effort for me. I was that kid in school who complained about having to write a multiple page report on a book because I could sum it up within a few sentences.

“They killed themselves because they were dumb, that sums it up. You’re better off not reading Romeo and Juliet! The end.”

Being a freelance photographer you have moments where it seems everyone and their cousin wants you to take their pictures, but more often than not, there are those times when it seems no one on God’s green earth wants to hire you. So what’s a photographer/blogger to do? Well I havent any shoots to share, so I ought to write about something…anything! Just so I can get my name out there. That’s where my love of blogging began.

Yes my intentions were purely selfish…but that’s kinda what a blog is right? A blog is about you, whether you want to admit it or not. So embrace your selfishness in this regard. Writing is probably one of the few activities out there that can be completely self-serving and beneficial to others all at the same time. At least that’s what I tell myself when I am afraid I’m coming across too self important. 😉

Thanks to blogging I have made some great business contacts, made some really great friends, developed a love of writing, and discovered a little more about myself. Nothing is quite as eye-opening as writing, there is always a hint of you in what you post. If you’re writing about dating/relationships you’re typically writing about what you’ve been through, in my case it’s typically about my chronic super singleness haha. If you’re writing about music it’s almost always about a band, song, music video, or whatever that you like. I know it’s that way with me, a little Music Monday anyone? If you’re writing about style there is essentially no way to leave your opinion out, style is purely subjective after all! One cannot see the big picture when they’re too close, that’s why I think writing is key to understanding yourself. You realize what your likes, dislikes, and even beliefs are when you see them in front of you in black and white.

So I just wanted to say thank you to WordPress for being an excellent blog site, and for giving me the tools I need to share my life with people from all around the world. I also wanted to give a huge thank you to all of you! Yes you, you who are reading this post! I cannot begin to express how delighted I am to have people interested in what I have to say, and how lovely it is to get feedback and encouragement from someone I may never meet in person! Blogging has helped me grow and all of you have too. If you’re considering starting a blog I say go for it, it may drive you completely mad, it may seem no one is reading it, and you may want to pack it all in sometimes. But if you stick with it and really write on the things you care about, it could very well be one of the most rewarding things you do. I hope you all enjoyed this post and that you will continue to read my blog, and that you all have an incredible Friday and weekend! I love you guys. Thanks for helping me get this far.

15 minutes…

Hey guys I know I have been MIA, and that I had promised to start posting more regularly, isn’t that always the way? You make a promise, promise is impossible to keep because life happens. First I was without internet service for a long while…may actually have this problem again quite soon, internet providers are not the most accommodating of companies, and then my computer would not turn on, oh lovely. So I am currently using my mother’s computer whereas yes technically it serves the same purpose, it is a good deal slower,  I am without photoshop, as well as all of my pictures I had spent hours editing. All of this on top of other life things has been shall I say distracting me from my blogging duties so to speak.  So I thought I might write a post today since things aren’t that crazy.

I believe it was Andy Warhol who said something to the effect that everyone will have their 15 minutes of fame. Which got me to thinking, if this is in fact true are my 15 minutes already over?

Oh no my time is up!!!

Granted I am not gracing the covers of magazines, nor am I the topic of gossip columns. But I have been freshly pressed, and wow was that something else. I couldn’t believe my stats! Never had I imagined my blog post would be read by thousands from all over the world! I also never could have anticipated the loving words I would receive, or even the down right rude ones too, you know who you are ;)! I honestly couldn’t believe it! I like to think I handled it well, without any diva entitlement attitude.

“All right Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up”

Then another blog post of mine was read by thousands, no not because I was freshly pressed again, but because Keith Harkin retweeted my blog post on twitter, yet another reason for me to adore him hahaha. Keith has some rather serious fans I must say, because almost as soon as he retweeted it my stats sky rocketed, and his fans started sharing my blog via social networking sites. I was stunned yet again! Could people really be this interested in what I have to say and the pictures that I take?

 

One of the pictures I took of Keith.

Or did I just get lucky with the freshly pressed post, and were people only interested in the pictures of Keith Harkin because well…It’s Keith Harkin? Then I realized I was placing too much interest in the number of people reading my blog. My thought pattern had gone from “what do I want to write about?” to “what do I think will get me the most views?” Of course every blogger wants their blog to be read…it’s kinda the whole point. But you shouldn’t lose who you are as a writer or worse as a person. Defining your value through the number of readers you are getting is very dangerous idea, why do you think so many writers end up killing themselves? Sorry that was a wee bit morbid. But honestly, measuring yourself through someone else’s eyes will always leave you with a distorted image of yourself. This ties back into my other post about knowing your own value. It’s something I have been working on during this season of my life so that’s probably why it keeps manifesting in all my posts, sorry if it’s getting a bit old for all of you. I just feel like it’s something I should write about. So regardless if my 15 minutes of fame have come and gone I will continue to enjoy my life, work hard, and even work on the occasional blog. Because whether I make it big or not, I want this one life I get here on earth to be a great one, even if I am the only one who knows it. I hope you all enjoyed this post and if you didn’t I don’t really care 😉 hahaha just kidding… sort of. If any of you have had similar experiences or anything to add please feel free to share. I really love hearing from you all. Happy Happy Tuesday.