Yeah, it's definitely been a while since I've posted on this thing - sheesh, way too long. Especially for the amount of posts I actually thought about and wrote in my head during that time. It's been a busy few months for me as I've been shooting football and basketball with some assignments for Chapel Hill Magazine mixed in. It's definitely time to start this up again.

One of the main things that motivated me to start writing here again was calling in to the "On the DL Podcast" with Dan Levy yesterday (thanks to Dan and Nick for having me on, by the way). It's a podcast that often hosts a variety of media personalities - a great listen if you follow the sports media at all - and I called in to ask why they had never had a photographer on there. I wasn't trying to be overly critical, and the question was well-received, but the answer was pretty simplistic and straightforward, but managed to be very revealing. When I asked Dan why he hadn't had photographers on the show, he simply replied that it's natural to talk to writers and TV personalities because they already use words on a regular basis to tell their stories, and have become very adept at doing that which translates a little more naturally to an interview than someone who tells their stories through pictures.

First off, good observation, and second off, it immediately got me thinking - with the state of the photo industry and especially sports photography experiencing a variety of crises (see Vincent LaForet's most recent blog post, "The Perfect Storm has Arrived" for a reference of what I'm referring to and a conservative outlook from a well-established industry professional) one of the things we as individual photographers must be able to do is not just express ourselves through our photography, but express ourselves well verbally and in writing. These communication tools may seem extraneous but in all reality they're probably an essential element as so many types of media begin to blend together. Photographers have to learn to be able to communicate the story they're telling to get people on board, to sell themselves to potential clients, and to bring home what their work is about.

I've been struggling every time I think about putting up a blog post recently because I think there are so many more productive things I could be doing with my time. But that one simple interaction with the On the DL guys made me realize that what I do here is indeed important, if for no other reason than to keep working on my skills of expressing myself effectively.

Thanks for bearing with me.

And by the way, if anyone's interested, here's the podcast I appeared on: On the DL Call-In Show

Many thanks again to Dan and Nick for having me on.