Eagle eyed readers will have noticed that firstly there’s not been many blogs for a while and secondly the site has had a name change. The latter is due to ‘tog.co.uk’ moving on to new owners. As much as I liked ‘tog’ as a photography domain, the price was right and it’s sale paves the way for a few more camera goodies.
One thing the sale does mean is that the blog will need an overhaul as many of the images are tagged with the old domain. Perhaps there’s a lesson there – use a simple watermark on your images and not a domain name just in case you need to change things at a future date.
Why The Lack Of Blogs
The lack of blogs is due partly to being lazy – something I intend to address – and partly to spending a few months convalescing after an emergency operation back in December. That also impacted on how much getting out and about I could do – but thankfully I’ve still been taking a few shots and the good news is that I’m getting back to full health.
My health emergency kind of screwed up the aim for 2016 which was (and still is) to try and get out more. I want to try a few workshops and hopefully use the experiences to move my photography up another notch or two. I do have some things lined up although sadly did miss a Dorset date with Dawn2Dusk Photography in March.
Their workshops book up months and months in advance so it was gutting to have to miss out again. I couldn’t go in 2015 because of dislocated shoulder! Fingers crossed that nothing gets in the way of a trip to the New Forest with them later in the year.
Photography Competition Challenges
On the more positive side of things – I was Photographer Of The Year at Llanelli Photographic Society. Over the year we hold digital and print competitions and you pick up points for finishing in the top six. In 2015 I picked up the most points across both categories. It’s nice to win but it’s more important to use the comps among fellow club mates to learn and challenge.
Another aim for 2016 is to enter a few more competitions. I really need to find a list of competitions and set reminders so that I make the effort to enter. Mind you the quality of work out there, especially when you see winning images, is quite daunting. I regularly try the Wex Photographic #WexMondays weekly competition – the standard is incredibly high so even getting on the short list for that would be a good achievement.
I did win a local competition held by Lee Waters, the Welsh Labour & Co-operative Assembly Candidate for Llanelli. It’s nothing that will shake the photography world to the foundations, but it’s nice to get work recognised and it does boost confidence. The image appeared in a local newspaper that was delivered across the town so not a bad way to get your name “out there” for a short moment in time.
So that’s where things are now.. next I’ll get back to blogging about the shots I’ve been taking.
