Welcome back and good morning if you are reading this in the morning and if not hi! 👋🏻

So this week I have not been up-to much. As I mentioned last week I am at a powerlifting competition today, so I haven’t been up-to much this week want to make sure no injuries happened. Like no rolled ankles or anything like that.

So this week is going to be short and simple.

What I actually learned from the past couple of months of preparing for this is how to prep the mind. There has been highs and lows throughout. Dieting, training consistently 4-6 days a week. Days where I did not want to train and been tired, sore, cranky. But! I made it through it. However I actually realised that the mental discipline it gave me was great, especially now I am going to be getting ready to walk the camino so it is going to help me there. The fact that I have the mentality to get over the hard parts and keep pushing on, is the best benefit from this.

In other news.

Regarding my work. I have gotten out and shot around Slieve Donard Forest Park and those images will be released over the next couple of weeks on my socials as I want to work on them.

However with the news this week coming out that Instagram is now letting you select “following” and “Favourites” may put a slow down on people seeing my work as I hope people do put me in the “Favourite” category. But this has me ask this question. Does it now actually matter the following you have? If you have thousands of followers but if you are not in their “Favourites” now the companies will not get that reach anymore.

I seen this and thought how great the simple things can be. Something that we would walk over but as I did not have to rush I was able to slow down and think about my shots. It added a great feeling to it. The shot I called “Life” as it is the perfect representation for me. As the roots resemble the vascular system in our own bodies. I loved how simple but complexed it is.

Anyway there is going to be more imagery from this trip coming out and I look forward to showing them to you. They may not all be portfolio shots but that is what social media is for.

As always I love reading your comments, so feel free to comment your thoughts.

Socials:

Facebook: pepper images

Instagram: pepper_images

Twitter: S_P_Photo

So this maybe a bit of a rant and if it comes across like this I have given you fair warning 😁

Is social media actually discoursing?

Ok so this is just my thoughts on this.

I think it is a case where it is just a highlight reel for everyone. I'm not sure about you but my social feed is just constant highlight after highlight after highlight. I now just primarily follow 3-5 people as they actually don't flood my feed ever single day and even though they have thousands of followers but they just focus on the work flow and they may post to social media once a week or even longer & I like that. It means they take the time on their work and are not racing to get the next post up.

For me personally I find myself like stretch armstrong

I have been working on a few images and letting them sit (marinating) and I go back to them. I find it a great process for my work and it helps me see things I’ve missed 1st time around. But this is my dilemma, I love this method but then when I see everyone posting couple of times a week I can feel the pressure of wanting to keep up. So, that can be my issue with social media. Also for people who are magicly fake on it and buying the following boosting their numbers by bots. Ah sure thats just my own thoughts on it. Also and this will be the last thing on this subject for me is that why do people find it hard to share other peoples work especially people with a low following. I see photographers share other photographers work but then not share others. It’s like been in school again if you’re not part of the popular kids you get ignored, But thats life I suppose! that’s my opinion on this subject I did mention that it was going to be a rant but thanks for letting me rant 😁.

On other news, this week I kinda struggled putting this post together. But happy that I was able to put the mind together to actually get it posted. Next week I am away to a weight lifting competition in Limerick so not sure on what post will be up but there will be one.

I’ve read a great quote from a site I follow “Word Porn”

So in reading that thank you for your continued support. 🤘❤️

As I mentioned above next Sunday I am doing a weight lifting competition and a lot of my focus has been going on preparing for that so after that my plan is to be on the camino so there will be a lot more into prepping for that. However I do love reading your comments.

Facebook: pepper_images

Instagram: pepper_images

Twitter: S_P_Photo