In the Beginning….

There was a time when people frequently asked me what my dream job was, or some variant of that question, and I had an answer for them. I wanted to write a column with which I got to ponder whatever I happened to be obsessing about at the moment. I fulfilled that ambition to a degree when I sustained a blog for a few years in which I chewed over things that were important to me. I loved writing for the blog and always had a glut of ideas for posts, but eventually I allowed it to languish.

What I am doing here is not just a resurrection and extension of my old beloved blog, but I hope a radical reinvention of it. While I am more myself than ever in terms of ideas and philosophy, my life has changed greatly. Last year, in July 2013, I bought a Canon 60D, and a new obsession was born. Not a passing obsession, but a growing one. I have learned a great deal about photography and continue to learn daily. Being a freedom seeker, I have ruminated on how to bring the seemingly disparate strands of who I am together in a new way. As I begin this project, I am neither a professional photographer nor a widely published writer, but it occurs to me that a lot of people are in my shoes, and why not write about what I’m learning?

Since getting the camera and conjuring the dream of making art with it, I realized it requires not only an intimate knowledge of photographic concepts and my individual camera, but (depending on whom you ask) a reasonable knowledge of a good editing program. I have, therefore, taken on the task of learning Lightroom and Photoshop. Needless to say, I have been on a very steep learning curve! Since deciding to embark upon this website and strive to have at least part of my income derive from photography-related endeavors, it has gotten even steeper. It has thus far involved stumbling through Word Press and its attendant themes, plugins, and tools; navigating ebook publishing; and learning social media that at one time I never intended to use.

Dawdling is one of my flaws, but since I have a lot to catch you up on, I hope to skip the dawdling this time around. I want to not only catch you up, but keep you up with what I’m learning as I move forward. I suspect it will be a Herculean task, and perhaps I won’t be able to cover it all, but I am strategizing a way forward, and will tell you about it soon!