There comes a time when even the most risk averse person decides to do something out of the ordinary.

There’s a lot of dirge out there about risk. The first example is how taking a risk can lead to massive benefits and make you millions so just dive in and do it. It’s the standard business success story that starts with a guy who has nothing, sat in his flat, no electricity, no food. All he has is an idea and a hygiene problem. Then one day thinks, ‘I can do this and I’m going to show the world’. Bam! Multi-millionaire playboy with everything you ever wanted and here’s how to get it.

The second is that risk should be avoided and everything should be assessed and then, by following a simple 300 step flow chart that gets exponentially ridiculous, you can eliminate any and all risks. This lends itself nicely to every health and safety document published that you have to read at work. It’s also the reason everything you buy comes with a warning. Having just bought a coffee from Nero, I don’t need reminding that the contents will be hot. In fact they’d be making me another one if it wasn’t.

Then there’s the rest of us. The ones who sit in the middle, knowing that theres a decision to make about something we want but we’re not sure of the outcomes or their potential impacts. Chances are, if you’re like me, you waylay making the decision. That’s because it’s all a bit too hard, so if you wait long enough, events will take over something will happen and it’s easier to blame, fate, bad luck or some bugger else when it all goes wrong. And you hate the after event types, the “I told you so” mob.

I fall firmly in the category of wait it out and play the long game. Good things come to those who wait. Sometimes that holds true. Problem is it’s not always the case. Hence the reason why you’re reading this.

After being a corporate man for nearly seven years I’ve done nothing more than produce work to either make my bosses look good or be put in a drawer to collect dust. I decided to do something I liked the look of, to wit, start a blog. More specifically one about my photography and how shit I currently am and the learning process I go through to hopefully get better.

The risk for me is that it puts me firmly outside my comfort zone. Whilst I believe myself to be capable of being creative and producing things that make people go “That’s pretty good.” I don’t see myself as someone anybody wants to listen to. Nor do I see myself as someone anybody can learn from. There’s also the notion that I’m putting my opinions out there at the mercy if anyone with an Internet connection. Whilst I have strong opinions, I usually reserve them for what I consider the ‘right audience’. I’m always up for a good debate / early stage argument but I won’t deliberately stir it up unless someone is talking absolute bollocks. At that point, it’s go time.

I looked at blogging, the quality of blogs and the amount of people doing it, particularly in the photography realm and thought that there’s no way I can compete. Then I thought, sod it. I don’t want to compete, just join in. If nothing else it’ll help me learn and at least give me an outlet beyond Flickr to put my pictures out there.

I’m not intending to go professional. I enjoy earning a steady income and having the time to practice something that I enjoy. My ultimate goal is to produce work I’m proud of that I can hang on my wall. This series of accompanying rants is merely me writing down what bores my nearest and dearest.

I fully understand that there will be a lot of people who think what I produce is anywhere from absolutely average to utter pig swill. That’s fine. As long as I’m improving I don’t really mind. And that’s what this is all about. It’s entirely personal, but hopefully, maybe, it might help somebody in some small way.

It will also be an exercise for me in, researching, writing, planning and proof reading. Things which I am notoriously bad at. I may also subject you to the odd rant. But I’ll try and keep it relevant.

You will notice that this post is, for a photography based blog, distinctly lacking in photos. That’s because it late, I hadn’t planned on starting tonight, but I thought I’d take the risk and get started.

Thanks for reading.

Coops