We have liftoff........finally
My first substack posting 🥳
Happy New Year and greetings from Toronto.
A couple of days ago,
asked his Substack followers what their New Year’s resolutions would be. I responded to him by saying I wanted to become more engaged with Substack instead of lurking in the shadows. So, here I am. Out of the shadows and into the daylight.My photographic journey began when I was 8 or 9 and my dad occasionally allowed me to use his camera (a 35mm Agfa Optima). From there I progressed through a succession of point and shoot cameras until I acquired my first SLR (an Olympus OM10) in my early 20’s. I’ve used Olympus cameras for many years, both film and digital, and a couple of years ago added a Nikon to my arsenal. For me though, photography is nothing more than a hobby. A hobby that I find therapeutic, rewarding, good for my soul and addictive, not to mention sometimes expensive. A hobby that gives me an escape from day to day life and that allows my creative juices to flow.
Over the years, I’ve shared my photos on a number of sites (Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, Eyeem to name but a few) and currently I’m posting on Vero (link in bio) which I quite like. However, I’ve often found those social media sites lacking and not rewarding for a variety of reasons. Mainly, I believe, it’s because it’s all about the scrolling and algorithms which doesn’t leave much opportunity for creating avenues for dialogue or providing in-depth context/background information regarding an image or a collection of images. So, how did I end up here? Well, a couple of months ago, my friend and occasional photowalk companion
told me about Substack. I decided to take a look and here we are. So far, so good but time will tell. Currently, the photography community seems quite small but I’m hopeful it will continue to grow and provide the engagement and creative environment I’m seeking. Having said that, I also understand that I have to do my part and no longer “lurk in the shadows”. Ta da! Here I am!Finally, as I wrap up this initial attempt to start a blog, I want to mention a post by
that I recently read (but just realised that I neither liked nor commented on his post…….sorry Wesley😔. Note to self: must do better with the engagement if I want others to be engaged with me).
Anyway, having previously attempted to do a 365 project and failed miserably, I’ve now been inspired to try Wesley’s approach and keep a daily photo diary. And, what better time to start than the first day of the new year. So, here are some photos I took today while out for a walk along the Humber River in Toronto’s west end. Nothing too fancy, just a nice memory of a walk in the snow to clear the cobwebs out of my head.
Thanks for reading and stay tuned for future posts.
P.S. Please forgive any spelling/grammatical errors. It’s been a while since I wrote anything more than Christmas or Birthday cards.
Nice to see you here Mark. I too, have been around the bock with various photo websites. Usefilm, fotolog, Flickr. Each one seemed to self distruct. Then I moved to Facebook where at least I had a real relationship with my audience. But I still long for a community of photographers. Substack is the most real platform I've found to date. I like the idea of using words with pictures. It's another way to slow me down and to be more thoutful about what I'm doing. And it's more about relationships than likes. That's becoming increasingly rare and ever more important these days. I look forward to seeing how you use the platform and how it affects you.
So glad you are writing... two things you said resonated with me: photography as therapy! I love the feeling when I return home from a great photo outing... and failing miserably at the 365 challenge. I started my on January 2... and made it two days... sigh... maybe I'll try again down the road a bit.