What a whirlwind of a year it’s been! And on the photography front even more so. Crazy to think, this time last year I was tweeting my very first photo with an Olympus camera…
A quince in my mother-in-law’s garden on Skye. As I tweeted the pic – I was on a tech high, as I was using the Stylus 1 which also has the brilliant wifi app – not in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that a year later I would be working as an Olympus ambassador alongside some of Europe’s best bloggers.
Aside from discovering the life-changing Pen E-P5 and its little brothers & sisters, one of the most exciting things has been pushing myself to learn more and produce better photography. And it’s so lovely to hear from readers and friends how they’ve seen my photography progress. For me, this year’s real highpoint was selling one of my photographs to a lovely lady who got in touch having stumbled across my portfolio. I’ve since had a couple of requests to shoot for brands which although I’m nervous about is something I’d like to step into.
Trips abroad with Olympus have been great fun, as has meeting their team – full of camera knowledge! – and photographer ambassadors and visionaries. The more I talk to people about the cameras they use and how they use them, the more I realise people are after smaller cameras that can do what the big DSLRs do. Well, the micro-four-thirds system, as pioneered by Olympus, do exactly that and I think we’ll see more and more photographers, amateurs and professionals moving to smaller equipment and not just for a second camera.
This year I hope to bring you better photography, beautiful and inspiring, on all the things I love about life – clothes, travelling, eating and home life. As blogs become more like mini-magazines, showcasing some of the best digital publishing out there, I want to take mine forward as best I can. I’m starting to think about a redesign to reflect the diversity of topics I like to cover but to keep up with the spontaneity of daily blogging (almost daily!).
Blogging as a job is one of the best out there. Dare I say, it’s the job I’ve been waiting for, encompassing all the different things I like to do – write, communicate, create, curate, photograph, shop and share. I’ve met so many incredible people through blogging, people who have become real friends, loving and supportive. The only fault I can find is how consuming it can be, but that’s slightly down to my obsessive, all-or-nothing nature and a balancing act I need to improve on.
Going forward, as the blog enters its third year and I can seriously say this is my full-time job, I plan to take things a little slower, be more considered and more focussed. I am such a magpie that the blog will always be a crazy mix of this, that and everything and I hope that’s what you enjoy about it! Anyway, back to the photography which is very much the engine of what makes this blog work… Please let me know if I can help with any advice on the equipment I’m using, I love talking cameras!
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