…’Omniscapes’? – May 16, 2023 (143/365)

I’m writing about ‘Omnipresence’ and I’m about to try splatting all of my thoughts down here in this one, regarding my approach in the visual arts.

I already had something posted, actually. It’s on Instagram, but I thought I’d dump it on here to see what else I could add, just so that I’m more precise and complete.

But before that. I stated Omnipresence, and as some of you probably already know, the name or brand I do have to identify all that I have regarding said visual arts is, ‘Omniscapes’. Or, well, at least that’s the name I gave my Instagram account.

I hate that name.

A little back story on this one – there was a time that I didn’t like what was going on in Instagram. There was a time that they were no longer allowing content creators to make scheduled posts and the only solutions that we found were in the form of other apps that claimed to do the scheduling for you, only to find out (and only after signing up and setting an account up with them) that they weren’t really doing any posting – No, they could only go as far as giving you a reminder to post at the time you wanted to. It still wasn’t automatic, and the apps were useless.

But then there was another option to take, and that was to associate your Instagram account to a Facebook Page, instead of a personal profile. Yeah, I think that’s how it went. Before all this it was my personal Facebook account that was linked with Instagram, and it was convenient for me to not only schedule posts, but also to post on both Facebook and Instagram at the same time, without the need for third-party (data grabbing) applications. The setup was nice, and I was happy to just keep posting… until that said change happened.

I needed to make a dedicated Page for my photos, and I was more or less forced to give a name to my venture, because I just didn’t want to take the cringeworthy, easier route of branding using my personal name followed by ‘Photography’. Ugh.

But this isn’t the first time I’ve had to think of a name. Because of my experiences with, say, 500px and similar sites, I’ve had previous attempts to separate my photography from my personal posts – And if I kept maintaining the appropriate GoDaddy subscription I could still have had my site up, which was named ‘Hope In Sight’.

But anyway… I was hard-pressed for a new name, and ‘Omniscapes’ was, in my mind, half-baked, and therefore as pretentious as I hoped it wouldn’t be. I liked the ‘Omni’ prefix which I assumed meant ‘all’… not a big fan of the ‘Scapes. But I stuck to it, if only to ensure that I had the privileges of scheduling posts and all that. And this is where we are now. That’s one of my thoughts regarding my work, my hopefully significant contribution to the virtual arts – I’m not really happy with naming it ‘Omniscapes’. Still praying to the Lord about that one.

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Moving on. There are things that I’m pretty certain I want to do, in the light of all that’s going on. I’ve plotted it all down in that last post I made on Instagram.

By the way, not liking how you aren’t able to see the caption to your post on Instagram web. But thank God for Facebook.

Here goes:

“I wanted to write a little more about this, but, well, here we are.

I believe I’ve come to a point where things need to change – or, correction – maybe things have changed already.

We’ve come a long way from saying that I wanted to shoot and delve in the visual arts to show and to indirectly prove what I believe in – that is, the selfless grace, eternal glory and everlasting love of God is seen in all creation. Given what’s been going on recently, and with the increase in happenings and consequent realizations, I’ve first noticed I didn’t have as much time as I used to; to, say, ride off to shoot the sunset.

Then I realized that it’s much effort for minimal results – that is, I find myself driving from one spot to another, rushing aimlessly just to shoot different perspectives of one sunset out of so many others that we see, if only to show how you stand out of the many other folks who have caught on to shooting and sharing the same scene – possibly from better perspectives, even.”

Let’s talk about that for a moment – ‘much effort for minimal results’. I’ll say it now – I miss travelling. I miss going somewhere different from where I’m used to, and at the same time, I miss going away from where I’m used to; Much as I’ve tried holding it in throughout the pandemic, I still want to see new places, see different perspectives, take new pictures, and have different experiences.

During the times that lockdowns were still a thing, I thought I was doing someone somewhere out there a favor by sneaking out and shooting the sunset. I’d go to my usual spots around the city, and now that I think of it my motive was to, well, bring everyone else with me by way of the photos I’ve been taking, even if they are of the same sunset.

Now that the pandemic is more or less over, and now that everyone’s more or less adjusted by way of going out themselves, I’ve noticed that I haven’t changed. My idea of shooting would still be to go to those usual spots, just like I did when there were far less people around, and I’d still shoot and share. The world has changed, but I haven’t – hence, the minimal results, even with all the time and gas thrown into each shoot.

The impact didn’t match the effort. But like I said, maybe things have changed already.

“…it appears I’ve moved back to doing what I did when I started all this – shooting what I like because I like it, and shooting and sharing to relieve stress. Not really caring if I use the phone or the camera, just shooting, and sharing.”

I hope you don’t mind, but I am looking at branching out – that is, looking to other platforms to establish direction and specification in my vision; in what I want to share, and where I want to share it. I assure you, you wouldn’t be missing too much – I feel as if most of what I take will make its way here still.

Much ado only to say a couple of things – I’m going to just be posting more day-in-the-life, mostly mobile shots on Instagram, while I look for other ventures to properly curate the photos I’ve enjoyed immensely in the past, as well as those I aim to take in the future. Maybe ‘Omniscapes’ will stay for Instagram, or maybe not – It appears I won’t be posting as much landscapes as I used to.

I don’t know, I thought it’d be a good idea to just blast all this out there, but looking through all of this, I guess I could have just kept this to myself.

I’m sorry, again. Just making the most of the free time I have. By rambling? Yes.

Until the next post, God bless you.