My entire life relies on my ability to be connected to the internet. Through my day job running an online marketing company and my side hustle as a landscape photographer, as well as the many other projects I operate, the internet really is the backbone of my ability to stay connected with my clients, my social media audience and to continually drive forwards with any ideas I may have. I am extremely lucky to have access to the NBN in my local region, and the high-speed connectivity has allowed me to to stay focussed on the creative process of creating great imagery and content to share with my audience, as well as my existing and potential client base.
Cape Hauy in Tasmania is a stunning location no matter how you see, but definitely incredible from the air.
I travel and spend a lot of time away from home, and something that constantly frustrates me when I am on the road is the lack of a reliable high-speed internet connection. An internet connection has become an essential part of day to day living for me, and when I have connectivity issues and limited bandwidth and speed, it really is limiting in what I am able to achieve. As photography has become a much bigger part of my life, my reliance on being able to upload and share images, tell stories, stay connected to my social media profiles, run my blog, backup RAW and processed image files to cloud storage, transfer large audio files for podcasting and continually test and trial new software and new and emerging techniques has become much greater that it was before my photography side hustle really started to take off. More often than not now, I limit the processing and backing up of images and anything else that is reliant on transferring larger amounts of data until I am at home, and with the amount of time I spend travelling this is quite restrictive on my creative process.
The amazing afternoon light over Fortescue Bay in Tasmania is something you should experience at least once in your life.
Recently I have been experimenting with new forms of content creation like Cinemagraphs created using Plotagraph. The process of animating the images to create an end product happens via cloud computing, so the software itself is essentially a window to the process and computing power that is operated remotely. For the software to be effective, a lot of data is transferred between the computer I am using to operate it, and the servers that convert the instructions I am providing it with into the end animation. This is an extremely bandwidth intensive process, and when I first attempted to use the software I was on a road trip and was using a mobile data connection for my connectivity. The first Cinemagraph I created used just over 2GB of data. That much data over a mobile internet connection in remote Tasmania took quite along time to transfer back and forwards between the remote servers and the client software. All up what took me just over 4 hours to achieve while on the road, takes me approximately 5 minutes from home on the NBN. I can be so much more productive and focussed on creativity when I do not need to think about limitations caused by slow internet connections.
Plotagraphs and Cinemegraphs are just one example of emerging photography techniques that the NBN has enabled me to experiment with.
Ever since I was a very young child, I have been heavily involved and influenced by technology and photography for me is not just a creative art, but also a highly technical skill. I have a constant desire to continually improve my knowledge of all aspects of my photography knowledge and skills. Photography is so much more than just a set of images – it has become a way of life for me. It has enabled me to visit incredible places and to connect with people through compelling stories. It has opened doors to opportunities for me that I never dreamed could possibly ever happen. Photography has enabled me to to meet incredible people from all over the world and to share stories and images that inspire people to explore and chase their own dreams. I am able to help people improve their own photography skills and connect with people in ways that I never imagined before. There is so much more for me yet to experience and to learn and I look forward to every opportunity I have to use my camera. Being reliably connected online is a huge part of this, and I am certain that my passion for photography and my drive to inspire others to chase their dreams will grow the more I can stay focussed on being creative.
There are no words that can truly express the beauty of Tasman Island on the Tasman Peninsula in Tasmania.
