community is everything - the search for greatness

There is an old African saying; "One tree does not a forrest make". African is in italics because I've encountered this saying elsewhere outside Africa. It's a universal truth, and is one of the bases of our humanity. We are meant to be in a community, not alone.

In an older post, becoming truly great - hiatus interrupted, I mentioned "hard work" as one of the ways to be great. In the time I have been looking into this greatness concept, I have found another to be community. The adage "Your network is your net worth" speaks of that power of community. 

I'm quite the loner myself. I like to do things alone - photography and other things - without seeking help or participating in groups. I don't really like team sports or games that rely on other people to play a part in the plight for collective glory. Like many, I probably exhibit some social awkwardness when in a large group.

Well, change is here. I attended my first ever meetup this weekend. It was the World Wide Instagram Meet 13 and I met up with the group Instagramers London. Over a hundred photography enthusiasts stormed North London, starting at Alexander Palace and walking all the way to Finsbury Park via some paths I didn't even know existed. I was glad to see I wasn't the only one with a film camera - The Olympus 35RC. There was an ancient polaroid, a Canon AE-1 and an Olympus OM-10 in the mix.

More than the photography itself, it was the sense of community that I most enjoyed. I met some very nice people and chatted about photography and cameras, of course, but about many other things too. It was a wonderful day spent with like-minded people. Needless to say, I also made some great contacts and grew my Instagram following quite significantly.

So what has all this got to do with greatness or success? Well, I did mention that I grew my Instagram following didn't I? While I'm nowhere near great, yet, :), I can see a clear path to it via community. Many of the so called "influencers" on Social Media with hundreds of thousands of followers have done so by leveraging the power of the community around them. They have basically served their community, consistently delivering value. In return, the community has made them great.

Comments

  1. Anonymous7 May 2016 at 15:08

    Community and solitude all in the right balance. As for the photographs, I LOVE the one at the top. And how you have to physically scroll down the stairs to see the entire stair photograph on my 13 inch screen.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ade13 May 2016 at 14:41

      :) Thanks for the compliment :)
      There are other meetups imminent. Can't wait.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

boots 500AF - part 1

Image
Much displeased am I to report that my nostalgia project isn’t going as smoothly as I expected. Why is it that in a mostly plastic camera, one of the only metallic parts turned out to be the least durable? The source of my said displeasure is a thin little strip of metal. Thus the story goes. Camera number 3 finally. I was excited about this one, as it was my first ‘good’ camera. Branded ‘Boots 500AF’, it has a 34mm f4.3 autofocus (hence the ‘AF’) lens. Come to think of it, both the 34mm (as opposed to 35mm) and f4.3 (rather than f4) are quite obscure values for a film point and shoot. I have no way of telling, but I assume the ‘500’ in the name denotes the maximum shutter speed of 1/500 the camera can achieve, but that’s pure speculation on my part. It has an auto flash, and the lens does a faux zoom action when turned on. Very cool indeed. I read somewhere that it was a rebranding of some Japanese camera, but again, I have found no evidence of this. Oh how...
Read more

praktica bx20

Image
Up until the camera showed up in my life, I had only been using rangefinders and point-and-shoot cameras.  I had gotten used to the parallax error compensation ‘slightly to the left, slightly up’ movement during composition.   I had also given up on all on-camera metering and usually shoot full manual mode, relying most of the time on Sunny-16.  That’s great of course, if all you’re doing is street or travel photography outdoors when you are mostly shooting at distances at which parallax errors don’t matter much, or the minimum focal distance don’t ever come in to play, and you have predictable good light. Like anyone else, I occasionally get the unexplainable urge to take a photo of my feet, or my coffee.  This urge is impossible to resist.  There’s nothing more photographed than own feet and cups of coffee.  If you ever wondered why this is, there is your answer, once and for all – it is a natural urge like thirst or hunger. Ba...
Read more

10 christmas gift ideas for film photographers

Image
The holidays are around the corner. This means peace on earth, joy in heaven, and of course, presents! For that ( analog ) photographer in your life, what do you get them for Christmas that they would appreciate a great deal?  Here are some ideas; [This blog post, as usual, contains affiliate links to Amazon.  I may be compensated if you make a purchase via a link I've provided.] 1. Film This is the obvious one. If your loved one is an analog photographer, or enthusiast, one thing they're constantly buying is film . Find out what camera he/she uses and figure out what film format it takes. The most likely formats are 35mm or 120 (medium format) . You can probably find film at any local camera store - if you're in the UK, at Boots , Snappy Snaps or at a supermarket like Asda . Otherwise you can buy them online like on Amazon or eBay. 2. Polaroid Camera Unless your loved one develops their own film at home, they would usually have to wait for ...
Read more