Lately I’ve given a lot of thought to what is my brand. Two or three things coinciding set me on that path. Watching a video tutorial on it helped to put the thought there. I wondered “What exactly is my brand?” I thought the key to deciding that was to work out exactly what I do. I’ve always seen myself as primarily a landscape and nature photographer with one or two side interests. Photographing the boats that come in and out of the Port of Greymouth has become a major interest. I’ve still thought of it as a side interest but something that happened recently called that into question. I had posted a photo of a bird on my Facebook page and one of my followers commented that that was different to the usual. She was probably right. The ‘usual’, at least on my Facebook page, has become the boats which I regularly put up. It was a shock that someone thought that was my main focus. It was even more of a shock to realise that she was right – in terms of numbers I put up more photos of boats than of anything else.

That brings me back to the question of what is my brand. I still want to photograph landscapes – I have in mind several ideas I want to achieve. I’ve had them ‘in mind’ for too long. I still want to do nature photography and I need to be better organised to get out there when the birds are nesting and when the plants are flowering.

The third thing that happened at about the same time (yes, there WERE three) was that in organising my websites – consolidating mostly on one now that I have narrowed my field of interest (that’s probably worth a post of its own) I realised that my best photos, particularly landscapes, were nearly all older ones (2014 was a good year). To be fair to myself my bird photography has improved tremendously – I just need to be more consistent in getting out there and doing it. Landscapes though are something else. I haven’t added any significant photos in quite some time. That has to change if for no other reason than that I LOVE to do it. Do I need any better reason than that?

So, getting back to the question of what is my brand. My brand needs to reflect what I do. Part of consolidating what I do has been deciding what I don’t do (or don’t want to do). I’ve dabbled in all sorts of things – events, weddings (I’ve now decided I hate weddings), portraits, sports, rallies, parades, races, and goodness knows what else. That’s not to say I won’t ever do any of those things again (except weddings – did you get that I hate weddings? Actually, that’s wrong, I love weddings and I’ve got some great wedding shots but I hate the pressure that goes with them. I think I’m just too old for it).

Out of all those incidental things one in particular has emerged that I do enjoy and that is photographing dance. I did it once for the local paper – I nearly said no as it was outside of anything else I had done. I knew I’d have to learn different techniques to handle the challenge of stage lighting while still capturing movement. I had quite a lot of time before it was to happen though so I thought maybe I could do it. I also pondered that in my guidance counsellor role I often challenge young people to push themselves out of their comfort zone. Time to take my own advice perhaps? So I did. I was able to go to a couple of practice sessions and a dress rehearsal, checking what settings worked and what needed to be adjusted. By the day of the show I was confident I knew what I was doing and the results were very satisfying.

Anyway, getting back to my brand (I keep wandering off), What is it I do? It’s landscapes (I want to do some big panoramas), it’s nature in the form of birds, animals, plants, etc. but it’s also the boats and sometimes it’s also people doing things (dancing, whitebaiting, etc.) and it can be anything else that I think might be fun. With those things in mind I am defining what it is I do and from that what my brand is. My brand should represent what I do and I’ve been looking at those things in the process of redesigning my website and my logo. I’ll probably write another post about those.