Thinking in Blog Posts

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There are times when writing blog posts is so easy.

And of course other times when it’s just about impossible: staring at the screen thinking it’s been too long since the last update, yet completely unable to string a coherent paragraph together.

But there’s no doubt I’ve been finding it more difficult as time goes on.

Sometime in the next month or 2, this blog will be 4 years old. I’m also getting close to my 500th blog post, so the obvious conclusion is I must be running out of ideas.

And yet, I know that’s not it. I never run out of things to talk about with my wife or friends: if we’re living, then things happen to us.

What it's all about is how we frame the world around us to make sense of it.

My early blog posts were much more written stories, which reflected my intention to become a writer. But quickly I discovered I could use the blog not just as a place to post wee tales, but try out different styles of writing. This blog was titled “Ramblings…” quite simply because there was no coherent focus; it could go in any direction at any time. Much like my mind, for that matter.

Then, after stumbling into a blogger sub-world of bizarre characters - talking apes, blue furry monsters, robots and evil geniuses, for a while I began to view the world through a filter of comic characters. A few months later I set up Blunt Cogs to reflect blogging life in 3 frame cartoons. Unfortunately it didn’t really survive much beyond its first year. Collaborative projects can only work if enough people are joining in.

But during this time I did realise I had begun experiencing life in terms of blog posts. I would notice little snippets of conversation and tuck them away for later. I would see events and wonder how I could explain them in a short, concise, preferably amusing or thoughtful ways. And it was an absolute lifesaver for those times which would normally be hideously embarrassing – simply put, the worse the situation, the better blog it would make.

Whenever something odd, humorous or unexpected happened even my friends and family would start saying, “you’ll be blogging about that then.”

I even found I could use it for a certain amount of disciplinary control over the children: “If you don’t apologise and clean up that mess right now, I’m going to put this incident up on the blog…” It worked wonders.

However, things have been changing over the past several months. The fact is I’ve stopped thinking in terms of blog posts and begun thinking in terms of photography.

Now I find I’m constantly looking at people’s faces and thinking how I would photograph them. I see textures and colours that need to be captured. I’m suddenly aware of how telephone lines would spoil a landscape if I were to point the camera from this angle.

My wandering mind is filtering the world through a camera lens rather than 200 word narratives.

This isn’t to say I plan on giving up blogging any time soon, only that I’m aware my posts are becoming less frequent.

Maybe the way round this is to start blogging a bit more about the photography.
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