Why blog?

I’ve been giving some thought to why I’m publishing this blog. There are many potential reasons why others may do such a thing – but why am I doing it? Is it because I believe there are some who might be interested in what I have to say or show? Is it because that’s what is expected these days in the newly connected world? Is there a vanity which I’m seeking to burnish? Is there a commercial motivation – print sales for example? I’m sure there is wealth of motivations that might apply.  But I’m more sure than ever that the reason I’m doing it was revealed to me when I decided to produce my photo blog of the Cotswold Way (now at www.thecotswoldway.blogspot.com) over a six month period starting in May 2009. It became a seriously motivating driver to keep going; to not fail part way through; to encourage me to keep up the momentum. It was not as if I expected anyone to follow my progress, and indeed hardly anyone did on a subscribed regular basis. But the very fact that I exposed what I was up to was a spur to keep going. The fact that I’ve now resurrected this blog which originally carried my Cotswold Way progress is at least in part because I want what I’m doing to be ‘out in the open’. In the same vein I’ve started another project blog to record my photography year on the Malvern Hills (www.malverns.blogspot.com). As a photographer it’s all too easy to take pictures and then show them to no one – or to just a small group. And I could easily do that as I take photographs entirely for my own interest.  I enjoy the whole process from end to end.  Through the planning and preparation right through the travel, the capture, the processing, the assessment and then the final presentation, whatever forms that takes. But, the periodic posting of new work and the occasional feedback it prompts is reward enough for me. I know I would do this even with the thought that no one may ever see what I do.  There is still the discipline of assembling my thoughts and material and attempting to make a good job of publishing it – albeit as a blog. I’ve thought about using facebook to communicate my photographic activities but I am not prepared for the gross intrusions and openness that is a part of the whole social networking scene. I have allowed myself a twitter account (@virtuallygrey) but that is strictly used in close association with this blog for the purposes of making known what I’m up to photographically. So, even the act of writing this entry helps my photography.