Good morning everyone,
I wanted to do something a bit different today and fill you in on a couple of things that have been on my mind regarding this blog. But first, lest you think otherwise, know that Weekly Fifty is not going anywhere. I have no plans to stop doing the blog any time soon but I do have a couple of changes that I will be making and as a result I wanted to let you know what might be different in the coming weeks, months, and years.
When I started Weekly Fifty on March 8, 2013, I had been interested in digital photography for about a year and I realized that unless I used my camera regularly I wouldn’t exercise the creative muscles I needed to in order to improve. I tried a couple online forums with challenges, daily/weekly image posts, and other such avenues for accountability but none of them really fit my style. I settled on the idea of doing a weekly photo blog because it was just the right amount of commitment I could handle given that my wife and I had a toddler running around at home along with work and school commitments. (I was getting my Master’s degree at the time as well, which means I didn’t have a lot of spare time!)
I also only had one lens at the time, a 50mm f/1.8, which I still use to this day. Because of these constraints, Weekly Fifty was born and continues mostly unchanged to this day. And oh my goodness what a fun journey it has been, thanks in no small part to the incredible community of commenters who take time to leave thoughts, feedback, questions, and other input every single week. I don’t know if I can quite convey how much I appreciate the thoughts of all of you who choose to share them, but just know that it’s your input that really does keep this blog going. I don’t know if I would have the personal sense of drive to do it otherwise, and your comments mean so, so much.
Thank you. Thank you. And thank you :)
So what’s with the changes? Well, the original goal of Weekly Fifty was to help me improve my photography and I can say, without doubt or hesitation, that it has absolutely done just that. I’m kind of horrified to look back on some of those early posts and see how bad I was at creating compelling compositions, using light and framing to showcase subjects, and even just simple things like manipulating aperture, shutter speed, and ISO to get the pictures I was looking for.
I hope it doesn’t sound conceited to say that I’m a much better photographer now than I was five years ago, though along with that is also a realization of just how much I don’t yet know and understand about photography. The more I learn the more I figure out that I don’t know, and I hope to continue improving until either my fingers or my cameras finally give out. Which hopefully won’t be for a very, very long time.
Along the way I have picked up a lot of new gear as well, and the more I use it the more I feel like I want to showcase some of the images here on the blog. But since I’ve limited Weekly Fifty to just the 50mm lens, I have to go out of my way just to use that one piece of gear in order to meet the constraints of the blog. I’ve taken images I really like with my other lenses such as my 70-200, my 85, and even my new Fuji X100f with its fixed 23mm lens, but I can’t share them here because they’re not 50mm focal lengths.
Therefore I have decided to shift gears a little bit and post images here on the blog that I take with any of the cameras and lenses I own. I’ll still use the 50mm lens of course, but I have found that I enjoy using other focal lengths too and I’d like to showcase those pictures here as well. I’m not changing the name of the blog but it will become kind of irrelevant since it won’t be limited to just a 50mm lens, but the idea will still be the same: one picture each week, posted at 1am CST on Wednesday morning, along with audio commentary.
So here’s to many more weeks, months, and years of Weekly Fifty. The name and format won’t change, but the pictures might look a little different, and I hope that’s OK with you. I’m excited for the future, and I’m so glad to have you along for the ride.
-Simon