Dear All

Six months ago in my blog, I was hoping when we arrived at this point that we could have moved on to some kind of normality and whilst things are better, we are still living in a difficult time, which will probably only change once a vaccination has arrived.  As a professional corporate and event photographer working in Edinburgh and around Scotland, the events industry is only slowly starting again and mostly at limited capacity, often without the need for conference and event photographers.  However, as with every difficult situation there are always positives and things we can learn.   I thought it would be a good idea to list a few of the lessons learned and these are indicated below:

1. We have all learned that nothing can be taken for granted.  Nothing is exempt from this kind of emergency.  Some of the sports photography and cultural events have experienced cancellation or postponement for the first time since the second world war.

2. There are always options to diversify.  I have spent more time learning new skills and improving areas that I haven't worked in for a while.

3. Photographers have had more time to explore their creative side.  I have done a lot of infrared photography during this period and the time has been beneficial from a fine art photography point of view..

4. You can explore where you live from a photographic point of view.  I admit this is probably a bit easier if you live in a lovely scenic place like my home town of Dunbar, but I imagine there are opportunities wherever you live.

5. communication with our peers and clients has been vital and we have all had the opportunity to explore this more during the lockdown and immediately after.  I certainly have tried to be more focussed on social media and communicating with my fellow photographers.

6. This may sound strange but I have also used this time to explore all aspects of my camera and software.  I have tried to use the free time to ensure I know my software and equipment inside out.

7. This period has been a valuable to time to think your financial and photographic strategy for the future.  We should all be doing this anyway and as a newspaper photographer in the past I had to do a big re-think of my photographic priorities and strategy when this aspect of the market diminished somewhat.  This is one area that we all tend to ignore when things are busy, but it is good practice to continually evaluate your strategy.

Anyway, more on this soon. I will leave you with an infrared photo I took recently.

Until next time.

Kind Regards

Colin

Colin Wright Photography

www.colinwrightphotography.co.uk

www.edinburghphotographer.com