Like Kalli, I have no authority whatsoever for telling you what to look at or how to think or feel about what you look at.

All I have is a rather intense and ever-growing obsession with photographic ways of seeing. With the way in which a camera, effectively employed, can compel us to really see what the eye might otherwise slide past without regard. And, of course, a long-cultivated habit of foisting my enthusiasms upon others.

I have a rule, which I almost always fail to live up to in my own photography, and which I don’t always even do a great job of sticking to when it comes to the aforementioned enthusiasms, but it may provide a sense of where my head is at.

Here’s the rule: Clever isn’t good enough, beautiful isn’t good enough, interesting isn’t good enough, smart isn’t good enough. If you can apply that and you still have any f***ing photographs when you’re done, you’re on to something pretty spectacular.

With any luck, maybe we’ll be able to point you towards some photographs that stand up to that test.

I’m not sure I have to make excuses for “blogging without experience”. If it’s a crime it’s certainly common enough but I still feel I should clarify that my level of photography expertise… well, there is not expertise, I’m a rank amateur. What I have learned, however, during my two years of sweating the photography bug is that thinking about photography is learning to photograph. There are few things I know which make me think more than to write.

So, setting up a blog about photography is a way to force me to think about photography. To form thoughts into words and also to make me look up more material to post, again forcing me to look at more photographs. Looking at photographs is about as good as thinking about photography.

I might also have an ulterior motive which I’m only coming to realise as I write this. I want to give (a tiniest bit) more exposure to photography that goes beyond the “wow factor” of Flickr Explore, et al. My motives are thus incredibly selfish: I want to become a better photographer and make people more appreciative of photography I like. I wouldn’t mind, though, if I could at least entertain someone while I’m at it.