I Don’t Rewind Anymore

She said, “It’s not now or never
Wait ten years, we’ll be together”
I said, “Better late than never
Just don’t make me wait forever”
Don’t make me wait forever

I saw a photo on Flickr the other day that so deeply resonated with me that I felt compelled to reach out the artist to tell them how much their art had touched me. This isn’t something I do regularly. As I told them, I would normally just comment and move on but the image has played over in my mind.

It got me thinking about how we all interpret images differently, and take different stories from them. They haven’t shared with me what their intended meaning behind the photo is but I am confident it’s not what I took from the image.

This then led me to start thinking about all of the different types of photographers and artists we have in Second Life.  I started blogging in 2015 and took photographs in order to blog items. The priority when blogging (and this honestly might be news to some) is to showcase the items you are blogging IF you are intending to, or are blogging for the creator.  Sometimes that means that a lot of items in the same photo need to have equal focus. So, you design your view, shots and angles to achieve that showcase. Yes, you want a nice picture. Yes, you want people to stop their scrolling and look at it. However, the artistic merits of the photo aren’t your first priority as a blogger. It’s important but not the first priority.

Over the last year or so I have taken a big step back from blogging. I did not have the enthusiasm and more and more I was taking photos just for fun. This photo, for example, I am not officially blogging any item in this photo. So I could approach the scene, angle, look , in a way that was completely different. Oh boy, did this mess with my engrained blogger photographer mind. I really want to embrace a more creative and artistic approach to my photography in instances like this but I find myself constantly having to challenge my process to reprogramme my learned habits.

It’s something I definitely want to work on and improve in 2026 so watch this space!