Introduction: rediscovering Zen one picture at a time on Steepshot

I have, of late, lost my photography mojo. Disheartened with Instagram and its follow for follow or, worse, follow to unfollow, I have been floundering on what it is exactly that I'm doing with myself photography-wise. This makes me sad as it was photography that dragged me out of the depths of despair when I lost my sister in 2016 and held my hand as we wandered down the yellow brick road to discover a love of writing.

On my other Steemit page (@onethousandwords) I use words to share thoughts as I traverse this beautiful earth. The pictures there are not always my best work. They are, however, the best match for the words. I would like to return to photography as a craft rather than a supporting act. With this in mind - and after a great deal of getting lost on the internet looking for how to do this ethically - I've made this second Steemit account. Here I want the photographs to tell their own story, it is time to break my words and pictures free from their co-dependent relationship.

There used to be a moment when I was outdoors and became suspended at the top of a breath. The inhale held steady before the exhale released. The sound of the shutter in the space between. It was where all the things that caused pain dropped away, where my body was held in its centre. Photography was my meditation, my escape, the place I found myself steady and still for one moment. And then another, and another ... until I was OK again. Instagram has been sucking the life out of me and moved me away from that place. So it is that I enter the world of Steepshot.

As I get to know the Steemit platform I am drawn more and more to the diversity and power contained in the collective here. This will now be my first point of posting for all new images as I work on rebuilding my approach to the craft and finding my voice in pictures again.

I camp as often as possible however am currently grounded by a new 9-5 corporate job. I choose to embrace this as an opportunity to expand my photography world. Able to travel only a few hours from Sydney once a month, I need to look for new ways to photograph what is around me. I am forced to find a way to make suburbia beautiful and to see often captured places in a new way.

I am excited about separating my words and pictures for the first time since I crawled out of my private journals into the bright light the Internet. Here's to a new adventure.

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I also put pictures and words in the following places:

@onethousandwords | Instagram | Blog | Facebook


You can find me on LinkedIn

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Welcome to Steemit @onethousandpics!

I wish you much success and hope you find Steemit to be as rewarding and informative as I have.

Here are some links you might find useful.
Your stats on SteemNow
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How to use Minnow Booster
How does Steemit actually work?

Introbot is hosted and managed with donations from @byColeman to help make your journey on Steemit truly rewarding. Your feedback is always welcome so that we may improve this welcome message.
Oh yea, I have upvoted you and followed you. Many blessings from @introbot & @bycoleman

Nice to meet you. I hear you about IG. I'm really glad you are hear - I like your writing style and would be really interested to hear what else you have to write about.

Thanks so much. I am super grateful for your encouraging words and support ❤

Grief is a terrible thing. Your sister's heart attack sounded very sudden. My sister had a heart attack at 36 - young, fit, healthy - but she was lucky enough to know it was coming and they got her in time. It's been a long road to recovery. Our mortality is challenging.

Yes it was sudden. I am glad your sister made it.

Recibe una cordial Bienvenida a Steemit, es un placer poder compartir contigo.

Thanks so much ❤

I came for that amazing picture - I'm staying for more amazing pictures. 😊

I was just talking to someone yesterday about how Steemit helped to rekindle my photo mojo. I look forward to seeing where your new adventure takes you.

Thank you! I appreciate your kind encouragement. It is already working wonders for me. I am digging through my archives and playing with all kinds of new subjects.

You're very welcome!

For me, I was pretty uptight about not filtering/altering my photos in any way. After joining Steemit, and participating in the color photo hash tag thingy, I learned the joys of editing. Just that alone helped! Happy digging!

I was the same when I started until I learned that a good edit can work magic. It is the same as developing film. Images come out of the camera flat. You have to do a little to lift them. Recently I have been moving back toward trying to capture as peefectly as I can in camera and keeping the editing minimal.

That's an excellent point. And wow - just realized how many years it's been since I was in a proper dark room... 😲 😆

You're way ahead of me. I've never been in a darkroom. Its all been LightRoom for me.

Way ahead, old as dirt - po-tay-toe, po-tah-toe... LOL!

Really nice to read. You're very expressive with your words. Good luck for now and for the future!

Thanks. That is very kind of you to say.

Welcome! You have great works! I believe you could strengthen the photo community on steemit!
Please check this post by @gabyoraa about Useful information for new photographers on steemit.
She did a great job collecting everything together!

Awesome! Thank you so much for sharing that resource. I will definitely take a look. I really apreciate your generosity.

NIce photo! the reflection of the water is prime !

Thanks! That water was like glass. And for Outback Austrlis it was surprisingly cold.

Hello @onethousandpics ! Welcome to steemit, glad you could join us!
I do hope you enjoy yourself here in our community.
I'm into writing, drawing and even coding a video game if you'd like to check out my posts. I'm also fairly new too.

@lilcoffeekitty

Thanks so much for the welcome. I'll be sure to check out your blog. I've been here a little while on my other account so I already know I enjoy it :)

Welcome To Steemit! Your biggest challenge now is how can you grow from a minnow to a dolphin and then to a whale. Fortunately, it’s not as hard as it seems.

If you post great content and involve yourself in the Steemit community you’ll grow a large following in no time at all.


SteemitVideos is a project created by @spencercoffman dedicated to helping you grow on Steemit. All videos will be posted here directly from the YouTube channel.

Thanks

You're welcome! I hope the videos will help you out!

welcome onethousandpics,Happy steemit
#Steemit-Indonesia

Hello, @onethousandpics, and Welcome to Steemit.

Steemit will definitely bring back your mojo, particularly through your -double-barrelled approach of words and pics.

It's surprising that you made your first Steemit blog word-centric, not photo-centric. For me (a language teacher, writer, editor), I found that photos get a better response and are often more appreciated (read, "lucrative") than words.

I aint much of a pro photographer, but with some proper framing, composition, and focus on a few interesting details, I can snap some decent photo that are "appreciated" on my blog.

Since you're clearly more qualified than I am, any photo posts that you upload here will most likely be seen and "appreciated."

(I'm following you ... but only on Steemit ☺)

Below are a few basic points of advice re posting on Steemit.

  1. Longer posts are more lucrative than short posts. If you make a post of 20–30 paragraphs, it's more likely to earn rewards.
  2. Include some photos, images or graphs, to complement the text.
  3. Make sure the text and photos are formatted properly, so that your post looks attractive and appealing.
  4. Be yourself.
  5. Be interesting and informative.
  6. Create quality content. Steemit is intended to be a platform of quality content. (You will see many insignificant posts with meager content and no quality. Most of those of posts [called “shitposts” by Steemit whale Stellabelle] will earn few rewards and soon pass into oblivion.)
  7. Get online and start curating. Read various posts, comment on those posts you find interesting, and upvote those posts. That’s the best way to attract followers.

Hope this helps for now. Good luck, and Full Steem Ahead!

I guess I already had a platform for my images but wanted to work on my writing. Hence the first blog being about words. I have been looking for an alternative to Instagram and I think I've found it in Steepshot. I am now questioning my setting up of two accounts though - I've already lost which one I'm on three times today lol

Thanks for the tips. I do the longer form posts @onethousandwords - I think I'll keep this to mostly focus on the images. I may include the odd longer post from time to time.

Good luck keeping your 2 blogs separate ... in your own mind.

Such a dual-entity would probably confuse the hell out of me, unless I devised a strict system to keep me focused on the proper one at any given time.

Also, here are links to 2 photo contests. Submitting regularly to these and other photo contests is a very effective way to get exposure and attract followers.

... @photocontests ... organized by @juliank
... #tepchallenge ... organized by @theexplorer

"May a hundred flowers blossom, and may a thousand pics ... be viewed by the Steemit community."

p.s. I also wanted to rave about the above photo. Wow!

Thanks for the info on the comps and your kind feedback. You've made my day.

You're welcome, and thanks for the appreciation.

I was gonna say that I'd "make your year," but I'll leave that up to Steemit ... and you!

Onwards!

What a great photo!
Nothing beats steepshot. Although a great platform, Insta is a bit non-serious I believe. Steepshot has the potential to be for serious work. It's important that photographers like you jump onboard and post daily. Even if they are past photos. The way I look at it, if you increase your ranking and build on your steempower, you can easily make a wage out of this. I'd love to do it, but Im still caught between the old and the new. I still print a hardcopy of our magazine. I wish I can move funds that is meant for printing and boost my steempower. Since we are sort of late comers to the party, I think it may be important to build up our steem power fairly quickly. Any thoughts?

Hi, thanks for you thoughtful comment. I am not focused on the cash side of things so I probably am not the best person to ask. I've been focused on using Steemit to work on my crafts of writing and (now) photography. I do have some older content that I will post here as well just because I love the images and they remind me what I'm working on getting back to.

I don't think we are late comers to the party. The platform still has an enormous amount of growth to come I suspect.

True, we are not too late :) I can see a lot of bloggers who are giving their everything to Steemit and linked platforms like steepshot. I'm sure it's a worthwhile journey for all :)

I hope it is definitely that for you. It is my favourite platform

Hello, @onethousandpics! It was so nice of you to comment on my sunset photo. It's because of thoughtful messages such as yours that I continue to persevere (here in Steemit) even if I only get a few ups.

As I get to know the Steemit platform I am drawn more and more to the diversity and power contained in the collective here.

I am also new here, and ever since my first post, I have considered this to be my main social media platform, if not the only one that I ever use now. I'm liking it this way because it's less crowded, so I can breathe better.

Keep at it. You've got a lot of really good content. I shall follow along ❤

As you know, I very much like your rather unique approach of combining one thousand words with one picture. But probably splitting words and pictures helps to stay focused. And then there is of course the old saying:
“A picture is worth a thousand words.” Might be a perfect motto for your new adventure. 😊