Starting a Blog Nobody Asked For

Every photographer eventually starts a blog, and every photographer eventually asks themselves why, usually around post three, staring at a blinking cursor, wondering if anyone actually reads these things or if it's just SEO whispering sweet nothings in my ear. Probably both. Probably mostly SEO. But here we are anyway, because apparently having a website isn't enough anymore, you also have to have opinions on it, in writing, on a schedule, like some kind of accountable adult.

So consider this the awkward first day of school. I know where the bathrooms are, I don't know anyone's name yet, and I'm pretending that's fine.

Here's what I actually want this thing to be. Not a portfolio with extra steps. Not a list of "5 Tips for Choosing the Right Photographer" that I clearly wrote to rank on Google and not because I believe five is the correct number of tips. You've read that post already, on somebody else's site, and you didn't finish it, and neither would I.

What I want is somewhere to put the stuff that doesn't fit on a services page. The shoot that went sideways in a good way. The restaurant owner who wouldn't stop talking about his grandmother's recipe until the light was gone and I got the best shot of the day by accident, ten minutes past when I'd planned to pack up. The difference between a photo that's technically correct and one that actually does something, and why I'll pick the second one every time even when it means breaking a rule I used to think mattered.

I've been doing this professionally for a few years now, after a couple decades in film production and a life that took the long way from Tennessee to Los Angeles to a small town in New Hampshire I'd only visited a handful of times before I owned a house in it. I've got things to say about light, about running a shoot without making it weird, about why "just take a nice picture" is a much harder assignment than it sounds. I'll probably also talk about my kids, my dogs, and whatever mildly insane thing happened on set that week, because pretending this is only a business and not also a life feels like the kind of dishonesty nobody's actually asking for.

So that's the plan. No promises on frequency. No promises this stays useful. But if you're a business owner in Portsmouth or anywhere up and down the seacoast wondering whether it's worth hiring someone to make your place look like what it actually is instead of a stock photo of somebody else's — stick around. I'll get to that. Probably right after I figure out what I'm doing with this blog.