New photo workflow

I have a new photo workflow. I'm pretty pleased with it as it now means I can keep all of my workflow on the tablet or phone. Here's the thing I've realised that my main love of photography is not for creating incredible images. Sure some of my work is better than others, but I'm more about documenting the moment. This is why I have soooo many photos 20k and counting. I also have really taken to blogging. I just want to leave a mark on the planet with words, images and video. When I'm dead and burried that is all that will be left.

I've discovered a pretty cool tool for batch editing snapshots. Perfectly clear. It's exactly what I've been looking for. Here's the workflow.

1. Shoot photos
2. Delete the naff ones
3. Run through perfectly clear
4. Tweak any proper lush ones
5. Rename files
6. Upload to Flickr, Google Photos, FTP
7. Publish to blog if I feel like it

A pretty simple and slick process all in all. Frankly stuff that comes straight out of the camera these days is so good, that post-processing is a bit of a waste of time. Worth a go though.

Test

The infamous HELCH making the news

Spotted this news article this morning from the Guardian - Who is HELCH? How one graffiti artist made a lot of enemies 

A funny little article, but makes you wonder who this guy is. Most significantly he destroyed the well known work on the M25 - "GIVE PEAS A CHANCE"

I shot this pic in august 2015 (from the passenger seat). I must admit I would aways look for this and chuckle on the rare occasions I drove past. (It's not often I use that stretch of road).



I think it's pretty funny that people are getting up in arms about graffiti replacing graffiti and it's interesting how older familiar stuff can become iconic for some people

I'll be keeping an eye out for some of HELCH's stuff on my travels. I shoot a lot of graffiti and street art as I go about my life, so I'll see one of his (or her) work soon enough.

One thing that did make me giggle, was that some people don't want to remove the HELCH work because they think it might be Banksys, so would look to cash in if that ever was the case.

Be a net creator

Black Mirror, London

Since the internet came about, I've been dumbly consuming content like everyone else. On the whole though I've managed to be a net creator.

If you totalled up the time you spend contenting content vs consuming it, what's that look like?

For me I've always been a net creator. That's just the way I've been wired. I'm not saying that all of my content is worthy of accolades, I just like to be productive and create stuff. I get bored if I'm not writing, thinking, taking photos or creating digital art. Always experimenting. Way back in the day I was a moderator of a now dead minidisc forum, even then back in the day I guess that was creating - around 3k posts on that forum. I also used to trade minidisc mixes, building and curating playlists. Loved that back in the day.

Roll forward to the smartphone era, and wow am I going kinda crazy on content creation. 7k+ images on flickr, 3k+ images on instagram stories, loads of daily insta stories, blogs, Picsart, LinkedIn, youtube, tweets. LOADSA CONTENT! Where the hell does it all go and what's the point? Well mainly it goes into walled gardens that are the big internet companies, who then sell ads. I've alwasy been careful to have a back up of all of my pics and vids, so I'm not a slave to these companies.

I create content for me first, if other's happen to like it then all good.

So that's the real point. I just love creating new content. Trying new styles, apps and platforms. I'll continue to do so as I find the freedom in creativity one of the most positive things a human can do. Being a net consumer is soul destroying. Get out there, live life, look around, enjoy the moment and always be creating.

Black Mirror, Train

Why are commuters so miserable? Men in Black International

This big old advert is currently in London Waterloo. The idea is that you sit in the booth and get a picture from one of the agents. I didn't really hang around to find out. What I did observe is that most commuters we just blanking these guys like they didn't exist. Now I'm no raving MIB fan, but why not stop for a laugh.

I'm assuming people are just too busy, self conscious, or miserable.

I wish people unleashed a bit more fun in themselves and had a bit of a laugh. Commuting is soulless enough as it is!

Maslow's Heierarchy of Needs - Social Belonging

Maslow's Heierarchy of Needs

I've been thinking a bit this morning as I've woken up about Maslow's hierarchy of needs and where I am on the pyramid. I've definitely got the basics covered.

• Physiological needs
• Safety needs

Totally nailed if I'm honest. I can eat and sleep, I'm warm and I feel safe.
The next three I think is where I can work on:

• Social belonging
• Self-esteem
• Self-actualization

I don't know exactly how I would work on them or what I need to do to get to self-actualization. It's worth me pondering these over the next few days and weeks. Maybe then I can draw some conclusions on how to improve my life.

 Social Belonging : According to Maslow, humans need to feel a sense of belonging and acceptance among social groups, regardless of whether these groups are large or small.

I guess I do have that covered. I also guess that social media covered that for me a lot in the past. I used to be a social media fiend. I would post multiple times a day to Instagram stories. Sharing all sorts of mundane stuff, then check the views. What was the point in that. "Oh wow, my life is so amazing look at me" Fuck that, those days are over. I'm actually becoming more insular I rekon. I'm actually starting to care less about the wider world. I care less about social belonging on social media. I care less about Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Flickr. I really don't feel the need to share much more beyond this little blog here. But it's good to share and I'm relishing a bit of anonymity. Being online and in the spotlight of the world suddenly feels a bit creepy to me.

So how am I going to improve this area of my life? What practical things can I do to feel a belonging? Firstly I think it needs to start with my wife. She's the single most important person in my life, so if I start anywhere it should be there. Maybe I'll start a bit of a gratitude journal or something that will just improve how I think of our relationship. Maybe I'll come up with new ideas on how to improve this area of my life going forward

Marketing is difficult

Dear friends, I read this recently: Marketing is the only field I know where once a new strategy has been tried and is found to work, it completely stops working.  Absolutely nailed it. This is the single reason marketing is tough. Marketing is all about using channels, techniques and messaging in unique and creative ways that stand out from the crowd to get you mindshare for whatever it is you are promoting. As soon as you find the winning formula everyone knows about it and copy it, so so it's longer effective. That's what makes us marketers a little bit bonkers. We have to keep trying new things. Doing the same thing as you did before means you are effectively going backwards. Did you ever meet a successful marketer that wasn't trying new things, a bit of a risk taker? Pushing things forward to try brand new ideas can lead to challenging conversations in a business. How does a marketer build a business case that  demonstrates ROI for a brand new marketing strategy or programme? It's not easy and involves some guesswork and intuition. Two words that most CFOs seem to hate. Nothing in marketing is predictable. It sounds unbelievable, but I've been in a meeting where someone has suggested we "create a viral marketing campaign". Yeah, like that's something you can just roll-out. That said, the challenge of constantly trying to find a winning strategy is is what makes it a such an interesting career choice. Cheers and all the best - just another of my 100 days of writing challenge

The art of solitude

When was the last time you were alone? Truly alone?

I'm rarely alone. I'm always filling the void with other people's thoughts.

It all started with my first iPod. Music would fill any spare time I was alone. Other people's thoughts.

This is is even more the case today,

- Music
- Podcasts
- Email
- Books
- News
- Social media
- TV
- Gaming

I'm like most people. If I queue for a second I whip out my phone.

Solitude is becoming increasingly difficult in today's world. So what, who cares and why does that matter?

It matters because at what other time do you get reflect on things and think creatively without any outside influence? It matters because without it I'm forming the habit of relying on external things to provide me happiness. Solitude is not loneliness.

> “Being solitary is being alone well: being alone luxuriously immersed in doings of your own choice, aware of the fullness of your own presence rather than of the absence of others. Because solitude is an achievement.” Alice Koller

For most people, the only time they have solitude is in the shower. I bet some of your best ideas have been in the shower or whilst cleaning your teeth.

I'm lucky, I was born before the internet. I understand the benefits of solitude, I've just got to find the time and the place to practise it. It's tougher for young people. There's a lot of research that shows that the rising levels of anxiety amongst the iGeneration (born 1994+) can be partly attributed to the fact that these young minds never find solitude. Boredom is not a bad thing.

If that's the case, why not extend these periods of solitude? It doesn't need to be in a remote cabin in the woods, anywhere will do. I plan to re-learn the art of solitude again. It's not that scary to be alone with your thoughts. It's liberating. I'll keep you posted on how this goes.

So stop reading this, put down your phone and rediscover the art of solitude.

Cheers and all the best.