5 Years Later

It all started with a candle and a clock on the day 5 years ago, it was also a Monday but we had no snow then and I knew a lot less about photography or blogging.
This below was the very first picture of my 'Ricoh GR Diary' blog.

When I started this blog I needed something to keep me taking pictures every day rather than just carrying a camera back and forth and never using it. It was always planned as a personal project and I highly doubted anyone but me would even look at it. But a few comments from Wouter and other bloggers later, I realized people were actually looking at my blog.
This made a big difference, for one it inspired me to keep on going even when in doubt or when I did not have enough time but also meant there was more pressure to not just post any picture but a picture I can share with others. Over the years this was at times a very difficult task as some of you who are doing a similar 'photo-a-day' project have experienced.

One of my biggest surprises came while visiting Photokina in September 2008, not only did I get to talk to Ricoh representatives there but they actually knew my blog and were following my impressions of the Ricoh GRD cameras. While meeting them I also first played with the idea to write camera reviews, met Pavel from the Ricohforum and decided to plan our very first Ricohforum meetup and got the invitation to visit the Ricoh factory in China.

A lot has happened in 2008 and this was very motivating, not least meeting some fantastic people from Ricoh, Photographers and Ricoh enthusiasts at the Ricoh meetup and through my blog in HK and Macao. I realised that my blog does matter and it pushed me to keep on going even on days when I was not inspired or had not enough time due to work.

Over the years there have been a few more Ricoh meetups and I have written quite a few reviews of Ricoh cameras, the reviews are always the top posts on my blog when it comes to views and comments which is nice considering the work it takes to write a review although I would prefer to get more views and comments on my pictures ;).

Some of the best things that happened to me through my blog, next to meeting some fantastic people from all over the world, is Ricoh asking me to do a promotional book for the Ricoh GRD III, you can see and order the book here, Ricoh using my pictures to advertise the GRD III in Germany at Foto Koch, me selling some pictures to use for CD covers by Nancee and Clever Stranger, having one of my GRD I pictures chosen for all promotional material for a concert at the Barbican (see picture below) and again to meet some great people through my blog who kept me going.

I have tried to make some changes and even temporarily split the blog into two, one for photos and one for reviews, tried to move it completely to Wordpress and even took a  few short breaks to figure out what to do next, just to end up back where I started. This goes to everything as even my design has not changed much over time. Sometimes keeping things simple is a good idea and so far it has worked well for my blog.

Having said that, there is always time for change and I believe the time has come to make a bigger change this time. I am not completely sure how or what exactly needs changing and most important, when I will have the time to do it but I know a big change is in order and this will be soon.

There are some photography related projects I have in mind and some I had in mind and wanted to do for a while but work usually got in the way so I will try to take the time and get them done this year.

What do you think, what needs changing on my blog and what do you like and would prefer to leave as it is?

And finally in order to keep up with the theme of the blog a picture from today.

GXR A12-M, f8.0, 1/3000, ISO 200, RAW, 42mm (Ricoh GR f2.8 28mm L)