Four Years

Four years ago today I started Creative Splurges with the theory that having somewhere to post the occasional creativity I had might encourage me to do more with it, rather than letting it languish unloved or uncompleted on a computer. I still don’t really understand quite what happened that January that I suddenly had a burst – a splurge, if you will – of energy to not only do more creative endeavours, but organise them, curate them, and blog them. I think a bunch of different factors all aligned at the right time and boom, I was a blogger all of a sudden. It didn’t work out entirely as I had envisioned, however. Originally I’d intended to cover a lot more facets of creativity, such as doodling and cartoons, videography and, believe it or not, app creation (I bought a book and started learning some basic programming). Photography quickly became my focus and my passion, rekindling a love I’d forgotten about for several years. Doodling and videos still turn up from time to time, of course, but they – the latter especially – are never as well received as the photography. And since I genuinely enjoy photography more I can’t really complain.

And the rest, as they say, is accessible from the ‘archive’ dropdown menu at the bottom of this page. Over these four years I’ve published 271 posts, containing countless words and thousands of images between them (and on the way spent two years curating a side blog posting a photo a day that managed to pump out 685 single-image posts over almost two years before it became more of a burden than it was worth). If you were to be patient enough to read all 271 posts from the beginning I think you’d see four years of progression into something more resembling a passable photographer. In the last year I’ve moved beyond getting my photos on walls to being actively invited – and paid – to take photographs. I’m getting there, but in the next year I need to be a lot more proactive.

This post is also a nice opportunity to thank you for taking the time to read this post and this blog, and also for liking, commenting, and sharing. Your contributions are always appreciated. Every comment makes this whole thing feel a little more worthwhile.

A note on the image at the start of this post: It’s now an annual tradition on January 14th for me to take a self-portrait in my bathroom mirror to accompany my anniversary post. I’ve been doing this for four years, before the word ‘selfie’ was even a thing, and nowadays the theory is that each year I’ll be able to improve on the concept a little based on what I’ve learnt over the last twelve months. This year I’ve focussed a bit more on composition, admittedly styling the shot on the clichéd portrait of a photographer. Still, I haven’t got any images of myself like this, so it’s nice to have one in my portfolio, even if it is a bit unoriginal. Unlike the previous mirror portraits, this time I’ve reversed the image so it’s the ‘correct way round’, and not a reflection. I’ve also ben assisted with technology this time, using the f/1.4 50mm lens I hired over Christmas to get the shot (I’ve since bought one for myself). Whilst trying to get this image I tried a few variations, and also a shot that’s pretty similar to years past, which you can check out in the gallery below. Of note is the second image, in which I chose to keep the camera in focus rather than myself, which is a bit different from the usual sorts of this image I’ve seen. You’ll also note that some images have been reversed and some haven’t; this is a completely stylistic decision based on the composition of the shot and, occasionally, how legible the logo is on my camera.

1/100, f/1.4, ISO 640, 50mm

1/80, f/1.4, ISO 640, 50mm

1/80, f/1.4, ISO 640, 50mm

1/80, f/1.4, ISO 640, 50mm

1/125, f/1.4, ISO 640, 50mm