📷Learning New Things - and my Steemit Journey 📷

My Steemit Journey

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Steemit vs Facebook

The best thing about Steemit in my mind, is the built-in incentive to improve. I came here with a vague idea of what I would post: namely all of those things that I used to talk about on Facebook. Really? I can make a little money (I never did envision tons of money), by doing what I do now on Facebook, but on a different platform? Awesome!

Of course, as we all soon discover, it isn't quite that easy. On Facebook, I often just shared articles from other news sources with a simple comment such as "interesting". Or maybe lift a meme that I enjoy, and share it. Sometimes I would share family photographs. Never once did I consider whether or not I was actually contributing anything by using my time this way. And guess what? I wasn't! I was nothing more than a news aggregator who was driving traffic to media sites, and making other people advertising dollars!!!

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Well that just doesn't cut it on Steemit. So what to do? First, invest in some Steem Power. Next, read every post I could find about how to succeed here. And then I sat in front of the screen. And waited. And waited.. And waited.... But, I had no idea what to write about!

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On Facebook, I was a consumer of content. Here, I had to be a creator of content, but I had no idea how to do that. So what did I do next? I did what every smart man does when he is stuck, and asked my girlfriend for advice. Well, @tammyp is a pretty smart woman, and she advised me to find what I love, and share it. So, that is what I did.

Photography

I started to share some of my pictures I had taken over the last couple years, and made a couple cents here and there. More importantly , I really started to get into taking pictures again. I got my camera back (that's a different story), and in the process, I picked up a long forgotten hobby! And I am totally enjoying myself. Thank you @tammyp (did I mention how smart she is?).

Great, I have an old hobby back that I have always enjoyed, and I am taking some good pictures again. Here is my favorite one I've taken recently (yes, it did appear in another one of my posts):

I plan on having my best ones framed, and even plan on canvassing some local coffee shops and restaurants to see if they will hang them for me to sell. But what about Steemit? Can I make a little more money here than just a few cents, or a couple dollars? What else could I do?

Minnow Support Project and Community Interaction

So right about the time that I discovered that yes, my camera still works and yes, I can take a pretty good picture sometimes, I came across the minnow support project. Now if you are new here, and you haven't heard about the minnow support project, you must be Steeming with your blinders on! To make a long story short, Steemit user @aggroed created a community who's sole purpose is to grow minnows to dolphins, dolphins to whales, to basically change Steemit from a great place and into a truly AWESOME place. Here is an example of what they are up to: MSP Recent Announcement.

So I joined up and registered, used their bots for a few upvotes, but wasn't really giving back to them - so I backed off a little. I tried and tried to get Streemian to work, but no matter what I did, I kept getting an error. I didn't have a lot of time to chat in their Discord Channel either, so I never resolved the issue, and I never moved from being registered to being a member. That's not really fair of me to use their community and not give back, so I am really excited that they are thinking of moving away from Streemian and into a new method where we can delegate SP to the community.

The other thing I did was to interact with everyone who commented on my posts and upvote their comments because I was so happy to have them there. Also, I started to comment on posts I found interesting with thoughtful comments to contribute to the conversation. Finally, I stopped trying to maximize my curation rewards, and started to support photography I enjoyed, and the many minnows who were creating it.

With these changes, I was gaining followers, and was now earning rewards around a dollar a post - a huge improvement!

Kaizen - Continous Improvement

My frustration with trying to get Streemian to work really highlighted the fact that I have trouble navigating all things IT. I used to laugh at my parents because they couldn't program the clock on our betamax, and now my kids laugh at me because I can't get the latest app to work. Karma's a bitch. Their computer skills are way more advanced than mine - and do you know what? So are the Steemians who's posts are generating the most income!

I looked at my posts. They suck. I have nice pictures, delivered with lazy posts. I don't know how to format, my writing is uninspiring, and I am taking nice pictures, but not improving my technique or expanding my subject matter very much. What the hell is markdown anyway?

I decided that I am going to win. I love this platform. I want to give back to it. I want to create something. I want to stop acting like I am on Facebook! I want to learn!

I began to practice using markdown editors. Some of the results you can see on this page. I bought books on creative writing - I am opening up more and finding my written voice. I am learning new camera techniques by following others here, as well as literally taking hundreds of pictures.

Every day, I will be better than I was yesterday! And in the end, I will reach every Steemit goal I have made for myself, and I will give back to this community every step of the way!

Minimalist Photography - a first attempt

The other day, I came across a minimalist photographer here on Steemit: @prakashghai whose work I found very compelling. He has put up some absolutely beautiful photographs, and his subject matter and style are so much different from what I usually shoot. I urge all of you to go and check it out! He also has a website - (http://www.prakashghai.com/)

My favorite thing about his photography is that it reminded me to slow down, and to look around. After all, photography is not just sharing what we see, but also how we sit. What is it that I focus on? How much do I miss? Can I look at the world in a different way, and perhaps discover a world that I previously did not know?

Well, in my effort to continuously learn, I took about a hundred pictures yesterday trying to develop a minimalist perspective. I am nowhere near as good as Mr Ghai, but I had an absolutely great time capturing what I did - I will get better, I promise. As Charles Caleb Colton once said, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.", and here it is:

If anyone actually made it all the way through my post, thank you so much for sticking with me. Please do go check out the minnow support project if you haven't already, and also go check out Mr. Ghia's work - you won't be disappointed.

If you enjoyed this post, please feel free to upvote and resteem or comment and say hi - I always interact with comments that aren't obviously bots. More importantly, if you didn't like this post, or have ideas on how I can improve, comment below and give me the benefit of some constructive criticism..

P.S. If you happen to be from the minnowsupportproject, and you know that it has changed over to membership through delegating SP - please, please, please come by and help me set that up!!! It might take me a week otherwise. I promise I will return the favor by stetting the time on your betamax!!!