Hello world!

Hello World!

Welcome to my first ever blog.

I’ve always wanted to be a writer.  Or more properly put, I’ve always envisaged myself as a writer.  I also love photography, especially photojournalism.  Having flirted with a few Facebook posts which combined the two, I thought it was time to put the photography and the writing together in a more meaningful way.

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Now that I’ve officially retired from the world of commerce, I’ve decided to attack my bucket list with a vengeance.  The idea of photographing far away places where things might be a little different has always been particularly intriguing to me.  Although some of these places might be beyond what most people think of as “vacation” destinations (think Armenia or Antarctica, for example), they certainly offer the opportunity for unusual adventures (think hand-feeding wild hyenas or walking in Shackleton’s steps).  As a result, I’ve taken up a new career as a Bucket List Adventurer…

This website is nothing more than an attempt to share these adventures, and encourage others to seek out interesting places for themselves.  In spite of what most of us gather from the media on a daily basis, the rest of the world is not really a scary place.  Yes there are some places that you’d be ill-advised to go at the moment, but there are many others that are just waiting to be explored.  Moreover, no matter how strange the destination might first appear to be, things are mostly the same everywhere in the world.  People are just people.  Their lifestyles and politics might be different, but inside we’re pretty much all the same.

Capturing this universal sameness is one of my main goals in photography.  Of course I like photographing unique landscapes and documenting strange things, but it’s the people I mostly gravitate to.  Hence I often shoot with a wide angle lens, up close and personal, where you may have to develop a relationship with the subject before you can get a good picture.  This makes me more of a participant, and less of a voyeur, and seems to work well as long as you remember that this technique should be used mainly in friendly situations, and certainly not when shooting wild animals.

While the blog portion of the website is mostly intended as a way to allow me to express my (sometimes) unique perspective on the world, don’t anticipate finding any earth-shaking takeaways here.  My thought processes tend to meander somewhat, so I expect the theme of the future posts will do the same.  If you’re okay with that, stay tuned for irregular posts as the spirits move me.

Welcome to Mike’s Meanderings.  Enjoy!

Mike O’Connor

Calgary, Alberta, Canada

 

 

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Mike O'Connor
Bucket List Adventurer