Landscape Photography
Portrait Photography
“A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person.” Wikipedia

Do you really call yourself a photographer?

The one thing that we should get straight from the start is that I don’t describe myself as a photographer and I don’t really have aspirations to be a photographer. My aspiration is to get better at photography, to spend more time taking photographs and to be more mindful about the photographs that I take.

In my bio, I describe myself as an occasional photographer and that is probably about right. In South Africa they have spruits, pronounced spraits, and towns named after spruits like Nelspruit. A spruit is an occasional river. If there is enough rain there will be a river and if there isn’t, there won’t. I really like this idea of giving a name to something that happens occasionally. This is how I think about my photography, if there is enough motivation I am a photographer, if there isn’t, I am not.

Currently, June 2019, I am pretty motivated so you are seeing this stuff. It bothers me that, given that I take so much satisfaction from photography, I don’t spend enough time getting out and taking photographs which is one of the things I am looking to address with this photography blog.

So you aren’t a photographer, what else isn’t going on with this photography blog?

Before we get to what this photography blog is perhaps we should continue the theme and cover what this photography website isn’t.

This site isn’t a photography portfolio. I am not touting for photography gigs, I am not organised or motivated enough at this stage to be offering photography as a service. This site also isn’t a shop. I am not looking to sell my images at this stage because, maybe like most people, I don’t think they are good enough, or organised enough for people to want to buy them. That isn’t an excuse for you to steal my images, if you would like to make use of any of the pictures on this site please contact me to agree terms first.

Maybe in the future, I will produce photographs that are good enough to sell, maybe I will get organised and motivated enough to offer photography as a service, but I am not there yet. I would love to generate some income from photography but I am very particular about how that might happen, so that is something for the another day, perhaps.

Why call this photography blog Super Sharp Shooting?

We also need to address why I have called this site Super Sharp Shooting.

I don’t claim to shoot super sharp photographs, in fairness I don’t even try, because for me that isn’t the most important thing. I am more focused on taking photographs that capture a mood or provoke some thought. If I were proficient to shoot super sharp, pixel-perfect photographs, like my buddy Nick, I might feel differently about that, but I am not, so it really isn’t an issue.

I have called this site super sharp shooting because I think its a bit wanky to name it after myself, and I think Super Sharp Shooting is a funny little pun, and I really like this tune 🙂

So, wtf is this photography blog actually about?

So that brings us to what this site is.

This site is a photography blog. I have been dicking around with it for at more than ten years, I may have first registered a domain 15 years ago.

Way back then I lost some photos that I really liked and it occurred to me that I needed another place to put them to avoid photographs getting lost in the future. Services like Dropbox weren’t available at that time.

I was also learning stuff every time I went out to take photographs, but not shooting regularly enough to embed that knowledge. It made sense that I started making notes each time I shoot to ground that knowledge and have something to refer back to. It is probably also true that the photographic challenges that I was facing: storing photos, editing photos, getting motivated, learning the kit, the techniques etc, were probably issues that other hobby photographers were facing and so I felt that it might benefit others to share, especially if i found solutions 🙂

I  don’t position myself as a photography expert because I am certainly not that. If you are looking for photography experts you should leave here immediately and check out Peter McKinnon, Thomas Heaton or Gareth Danks. The final issue is that if you take photographs and leave them on a drive it a really is just an expensive form of masturbation, you might get an immediate hit but there really isn’t any real, ongoing value. I think essentially any artistic or creative endeavour only really makes sense if it has an audience, this site is part of my investment in building an audience. In the real world, where we have to make money I am a Digital Marketer and Digital Marketing Trainer, I will be applying some of that knowledge to this site and if I can get that working I will be sharing that also.

What are you hoping to achieve with this photography blog?

What this photography blog is really about is getting my shit together, being more mindful about my photography and addressing my photographic challenges. My photographic challenges are:

I don’t leave the house solely to take photos often enough anymore.

I don’t take enough photographs.

I take too many photographs.

I don’t do anything with the photos.

I am too self-critical of my photography.

I am not self-critical enough of my photos.

I am colour blind.

I am hoping, maybe even optimistic that this site will give me the structure and the motivation to overcome these challenges.

Please let me know if you have any feedback or tips for me and my photography blog in the comments. Or you can get in touch if you fancy a chat 🙂

Martin henley

Martin henley

Occasional Photographer

On a mission to become more active and mindful with my photography; to leave the house more often with the intention of taking photographs; to find attractive, interesting and engaging ways to share the images, videos and solutions I discover with others.

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