This moment was long in the making. I’ve been in the creative industry for over 25 years but apart from (way too many) social media channels, I did not have any “official” Net presence. I was probably the only creative on the planet without a website or a blog. And now, I have both. How did it happen and why did I wait for so long? I don’t know. Let me break this down.
When I started experimenting with photography back in 2008 with a tiny compact camera, I never imagined that one day I’d practice the craft to earn my living. You know, I was starting out and I didn’t think much of the photos I was producing. I thought they were mediocre at best, which in retrospect, they were. I definitely didn’t need a website to share this with the whole world. I was still a full-time 3D computer graphics artist at the time and photography was a weekend hobby. Once I had a few thousand shots on my hard drive, I decided to shoot a few thousand more, just to be sure. The more I shot, the more questions I had. I needed to know things and I was insatiable. I read an entire library worth of photography books, pretty much all the internet, every blog out there, every post, magazine article and watched every Youtube video I found. Facebook was great to reach out to the audiences with my work, to find and hook up with people like myself. I learned a lot from many great visual artists out there and the knowledge they shared directly with me or indirectly was invaluable to my own growth as an artist.
Then I practiced some more; a lot more. My hobby turned into a passion and then, into an obsession. I took pictures every single day and eventually, I got better. Years passed. I started taking paid photography jobs, my work was published in newspapers and magazines, I produced viral time lapse films, I was offered to conduct workshops and I even won a few photography contests. But none of this was enough to convince me that, perhaps, it was time to face it: I was becoming a ‘professional’ photographer and a time-lapser. I hated that adjective and I still do. So I thought I’d wait a bit more before making my own website, because if I had one, it would somehow formalize my occupational status.
This denial lingered for a few years until, one day, I couldn’t imagine myself doing anything else but take pictures and make films. Just like that. So I got my act together and here it is, my very own website. It was quite a task to get it done. Going through all that the data and selecting my best work made me realize just how much material I’ve produced over the past 10 years! But here I am, looking at a website where the past 10 years of my professional life are neatly packed and stacked.
What comes next? For starters, I plan to be active here. I’m hoping to remain ‘alive and well’ on social media channels but I intend to channel the focus back to my own website which will be regularly updated with the latest news about my projects.
I also intend to game-up my YouTube channel with gear reviews, tutorials and my latest time-lapse films. That’s it.
Do you have any ideas or suggestions for me? What kind of content would you want me to produce in the future? Any feedback on how I can improve this website? Whatever thoughts you may have for me, let’s see them in the comments section. Thank you for taking all that time to read this. You have more patience than you imagine :)