Return To Reality
Yet again time has flown since my last post, indeed I did not mean for it to be such a long time!
Many things have happened in the space of two weeks, and these are what I’d like to share with you in this blog post.
Image processing from the trip has continued, it’s no small feat sorting through thousands of images, processing them to just the right point – much like getting a large pot of pasta to an al’dente state. The pot here is quite large, with each image comes the two different export sizes – small and large, for posting on different forums and websites.
I’ve recently had to take a heavy-handed brutal approach because works of mine have been stolen by other “artists” who seem to think that copyright is just an arbitrary concept online, I’ve had to post any publicly-downloadable images with large watermarks through the centre of my images. It totally sucks because I’ve always been about sharing, but clearly others take it too far. With the many thousands of image-sharing websites around these days, the credit is very much not coming back to me as an artist, and honestly, this pisses me off.
Anyway, I’ve had some time to sit down and think about my last post. As the days go by, the reflections become a little clearer, my mind, less jumbled with all the overwhelming emotions of coming home and fighting the jetlag, of readjusting to life in Brisbane, and the mindset, of not being on holidays any more.
I think I was a little harsh on you all, I was not thinking clearly when looking at my site-stats. I appreciate each and every one of you for visiting and following my journey, the reality was that I had honestly expected loads of people from work to follow me, turned into me getting back and have most people say, “How long until you go to Iceland?” only to have me realise they hadn’t really noticed that I was gone, and therefore, didn’t even see the blog.
What has lifted my spirits, is an email from someone who found my blog though a series of clicking links off Josh’s 500px account. This reader took the time and effort to email me and thank us (myself and Josh) for writing such entertaining and interesting blogs about our trip. Below are excerpts from this delightful email:
Hey Josh & Mel, Just spend an enjoyable hour (or three!) reading both of your blogs of your Iceland trip, reliving my own time there this past summer in late June/early July….I live in Alaska, and this morning is all white with fresh snow, so reading your blogs in a warm house seems like a good thing to do on a Sunday morning…. I was intrigued by the visual differences between my visit in June/July and yours in September, but not thrilled by how much rain (and snow!) you encountered… I don’t remember having a full day of rain, and had only a few days with some rain, so I guess I was lucky….I’ve been following that nasty snowstorm that caught you and Iceland–did you read that after 4 weeks they are still finding buried sheep, alive? Amazing! More than just the people are hardy……. Anyway, I thought I’d drop you both a note of appreciation for such interesting blogs–I know how hard it is to spend time writing when you should be photographing, not to mention the logistics–as well as an excellent sampling of what images you found. If you’re interested, even if just to see what sunny scenics look like
, I wrote a short Trip Report for some family and friends:
http://martinwgrosnick.com/IcelandTR.html
Thanks,
Martin.
No, seriously, thank you Martin. You’ve reassured my faith in the power of the internet with regards to total strangers finding my blogs interesting. Please go check out Martin’s link above, the differences between the seasons, as he said, really are striking!
So the last few weeks have been a bit of rinse and repeat. Process photo. Upload photo, watch the trends for best times to upload and share, move on. I’ve been slowly picking through my shots trying to find new and interesting things to share, but I just keep coming back to all my Jokulsarlon shots. I think I’m hooked, the seascaper in me just loves them all and wants to share them all with you, but I think you’d get a bit sick of looking at pictures of ice on a beach eventually…?!
Naturally, I’ve processed more shots than I’ve posted. Strategy? Kind of. I just don’t want to flood everyone with them all. If you’ve been a bit slow to catch up, here’s the warp-speed version in the form of my shots all in a YouTube video. Many thanks to the kind folks at YouTube for not pulling the audio off my video, and instead, lining the video with annoying ads…. no really.. I’m serious… I’d rather show you a video with the audio intended for it, than some no-name composure. Of course I credited the creator of the video, and all is good and well in the world… Take a look!
Coming in at a late mention is news that I’ve made the finals of a Queensland-run competition by the Parks and Wildlife service! I find out next Friday (26th) at an Awards dinner as to whether I’ve won any prizes from the competition. I’ll endeavour to update you all on the results of the evening.
Well that’s just about it for tonight.
Be sure to watch as I upload photos to Flickr and 500px!
