I Need Your Help

In This Week’s Post

  • Where Have I Been?
  • I Need Your Help With Something.
  • I Have an Update About My Photo Club.
  • Video of the Week.

Where Have I Been?
It feels like a long time since my last newsletter and a few weeks ago I missed a Wednesday video upload. Well, I feel like this is the place for honesty and a glimpse behind the scenes, and it’s nice for me to get things off my chest every now and then. 

The problem with working alone is that if something happens at the wrong time and I am unable to work, the knock-on effects can be huge. 

After an amazing trip to the USA (still more to come from that trip) I returned home for a couple of days and then went on a 5 day break to Madeira with my wife.  The plan was to use this time to recharge and plan the next month or so of work. 

The day after returning home from Madeira, I got sick. So much so that I went to hospital twice. I have no idea what the issue was, the doctors were not concerned and I am 110% now, but it meant that I was in bed for well over a week. I was drained and could not do any work. I basically slept for a week. I didn’t eat and during that time I lost 4kg in weight (That’s a body and a lens). 

The result of this illness meant that I fell far behind on work. I was already behind due to the USA trip, and even further behind due to my week off in Madeira. Throw in a 10 day illness and it was game over. I missed tax return deadlines, I lost sponsorships, I neglected this newsletter, I am behind on editing, the list goes on. 

This is not the first time I have experienced such knock-on effects, so I have decided to make a few changes in the hope of preventing such things in the future. One of which is to become less reliant on video sponsorships.  

The truth is, I don’t always like doing them. They can interrupt the flow of the story and they can be a pain to fit into a video as well as putting pressure on me to release content, even if I’m not happy with it.

When I have no sponsor on a video, it is bliss. However, I need the sponsors to fund the videos and to make a living. So, how can I slowly move away from sponsors? Start a photography club…

Before I talk more about the club, I need your help with something.

It’s that time of year again when I need to place my 2025 Calendar order with the printers.

As always, my calendar will be available for pre-order and all pre-orders will be discounted and hand signed.

But, I need help selecting images for 4 of the months. 

My wife and I can’t agree, so I thought I would put it to you and ask for your vote.

I have created a simple poll in Google forms. Click on the link below and simply select the image you prefer. 

Image Poll

You will need to be logged into a Google account to access the poll.

The images in the poll are quite small, so I have copied them below for a better view. Click on them to see larger.

Your input is much appreciated.

April
May
June
September
November

My Photography Club
A few months ago, whilst alone on a wet and windy trip to Harris, I was inspired to start a camera/photography club. Well, I have been quite busy. 

No longer can I call it “My club” because I have now partnered with Simon Baxter. Simon is one of the most passionate photographers I know, and when I ran the idea past him, it was met with great approval.

He had so many ideas and suggestions that I immediately said – ‘Why don’t we do it together?’ I would like to introduce you to The 617 Club. 

The club is far from ready, however we do have a logo.

A few things to note about the logo. The colours are RGB. The dots are 6 red, 1 green and 7 blue and the aspect ratio of the central frame is 6 x 17.

The club has 3 main principals: to get people out shooting more, to encourage members to make real connections with each other and to help members thrive as photographers.

How do we plan to do this?

  • Themed Photo Challenges with Rewards.
  • In person Meet-Ups.
  • Educational Content.

There will also be lots of features within the club, such as ‘Member Maps’ so you can connect with other members near you. Image feedback forums. Weekly Live Streams with guest photographers. Monthly photography articles as well as access to Elements Photography Magazine, the list is constantly growing.

Simon and I are very excited about this and will have so much more to share when the club is ready and open. We are planning to launch our first season this September, so watch this space.


Video of the Week
At the end of 2023 I took part in a photography documentary, filmed in Andalucia. I was 1 of 10 photographers, and it was an incredible trip.

Finally, the documentary is complete and it’s well worth watching, not for me, but for the other talent in the film. 
Thank you for reading this week’s post and if you managed to take my calendar image poll, thanks again!