"A move to the West Country with my partner Graeme and our rescue dogs has found us in a rundown old farmhouse and with a major renovation project on our hands. The renovation has been my main focus and as a result I've found I've been picking up my camera far less than I would like."
Since moving to Cornwall I've been so swallowed up the house and it's renovation that photography has fallen by the wayside somewhat. We live a beautiful part of the country, have our own piece land with a section of the River Inny running through so really there is no excuse not to feel inspired.
The vast majority of my pictures over the last couple of years have related to the house and the work done here. As time has gone on my confidence has lessened and my motivation has dropped as a result. I look at other photographers work and feel in awe of the images they produce and the skill they have. This should inspire me even more but in some ways it has been having the opposite effect
The vast majority of my pictures over the last couple of years have related to the house and the work done here. As time has gone on my confidence has lessened and my motivation has dropped as a result. I look at other photographers work and feel in awe of the images they produce and the skill they have. This should inspire me even more but in some ways it has been having the opposite effect
Before moving to Cornwall my small dog photography business, 4MuddyPaws Photography, (as in small business, not small dog!) was going pretty well. As well as the dog photography I have a love of the natural world and found great satisfaction in photographing wildlife and nature. I know I can take decent pictures, I've taken lots of decent pictures I just find it hard to shout about them.
Since moving the dog photography business has been put on the back burner as other things have had to take priority. It's tough to get established in an already saturated market and without the time to give it 100% so it's best left ticking along in the background for now. When the renovation is complete I hope to get that back on track but in the meantime I just want to indulge and enjoy my passion for taking pictures.
I've been revisiting various photography websites lately and have found myself more and more motivated to take pictures for no other reason than just because I like to take pictures! In particular there are a handful of local photographers, mainly landscape photographers, whose work has made me wish I could take pictures like they can. I would dearly love to take great landscape pictures but they never quite turn out as I hope.. maybe with a bit of time, patience and effort this will change. I'm looking forward to trying.
As part of my drive to find new inspiration I have decided to set myself a "365 Project". One photo a day for one year; a photo that should reflect an aspect of that day. I'll be trying to set myself themes as I don't want my picture to be just a 'random snap', although no doubt there will be a few! Ultimately I want take myself out of my comfort zone, learn new skills and tackle different subjects.
It might take a little while to get into the swing of things but if I overthink this I'll never get going! Above all this is supposed to be an enjoyable, fun project and not a chore. Most people who undertake a 365 Project start on 1st January and many follow a particular theme throughout; I am starting on 1st February 2013, I'm not going to set any hard, fast rules and I suspect my overall style will be' fairly random'!
In addition to 4MuddyPaws Photography I have kept a sister website, AJP Images, for non-dog related photography. It seemed to make sense to run this blog under the AJP Images banner. I also use Flickr and will be including my daily photo in My Flickr photostream.
Oh... and as part of the house renovation we will have an awful lot of bare walls and it would be fabulous to take some pictures that would be worthy of being displayed!
