VSP Workshops Blog

The all new singing and dancing VSP Blog

Hello Everybody – drum rolls, the anticipation, take the phone off the hook…life will never be the same again….
I suppose in the grand scheme of things, VSP are a little late getting into the blog swing of things.  I’ve personally been reading a number of very interesting blogs over the last few years, and often wondered how we could make our own contribution to the bottomless pit of cyber self-publishing.
I take my hat off to Mr McNally and his very enjoyable blog – funny, informative, and well, really just like sitting down next to him for a chat.  Note to self – be funny, be refreshing, fun and informative, don’t post too often….

But there are also some blogs out there that have guided me as to how to be a little different – how to carve out a bit of a niche.  Sure blogs have a sordid commercial goal behind them – in fact little do you know, but this blog is utilising an experimental subliminal digital frequency developed by the CIA – you’re feeling very sleepy, yet also very entertained.  You feel a wave of photographic knowledge every time you see our logo, you want to reach for your wallet and book a workshop…..don’t fight it…

Seriously though – sure we have commercial goals, but from what I’ve seen, a blog needs to carve out it’s own vision and identity for people to want to be part of it.  And so maybe this slightly late arrival into the world of blogging allowed us to have a good think about how to make this something that you the photographer, will find fun, interesting and educational.

So – what can you expect from the VSP blog in the future?  Well we want it to be first and foremost about photography.  Not the equipment, but the photography.  From time to time we’ll talk about kit, but what really interests us at VSP is the process of making images.  These are the kind of things you can expect to enjoy in the VSP Blog in the coming issues….

• Critiques – we’ll write up a critique on a photographers work and post it for everyone to benefit from.  We’ll select interesting images from photographers all over the world and explain in detail what works, what doesn’t and why
• Image Showcase - we’ll present the work of a variety of photographers – some pro, some not.  We’re big fans of audio-visual storytelling and will be making use of that to show you a selection of inspiring projects and images
• Story of an Image – every image has a story.  How the idea came about, what the challenges were, both creatively and technically and how the image was eventually executed.  A bit like a case study but hopefully much more interesting
• Tips & Tutorials – As the name suggests we’ll be posting tips on a wide variety of photographic subjects
• Workshop Diaries – this will be our way of giving you a view into the world of workshops.  We’ll post from workshops so you can see what a photo workshop is like, what people are learning, what images they are taking and what some of the quite unique locations we visit are like
• Guest Blogs – we’ll invite guests to post on the VSP blog to add new perspectives from time to time
• Equipment – We’ll occasionally talk about various items of photographic equipment that we use at VSP

Since we started life back in 2002 running our first workshops in Venice, we’ve come quite a long way.  But the real joy has been the people we’ve met along the way.  I hope that with this blog, we’ll be able to stay closer to our customers, reach out to a wider audience of photographers, regardless of whether you’ll ever do a workshop or not, and create a forum for interesting, thought-provoking discussion on photography.

I’ll leave it at that for blog number one and I do genuinely look forward to keeping in touch with you in this new way…

Take photographs, enjoy it, and never stop learning……

All the best

Jonathan Maher

VSP Founder & Director