Did you get up early this morning? What is the earliest you ever got up to get your day going? For me, my day began precisely at 12:00 AM on the money. As the old saying goes, "Ya snooze, ya loose." That is so true in the world of wildlife photography. Starting out today are some major revisions to our website. My blog is now private. It requires a password, so if you are reading this we have sent it to you via email. We appreciate our website members not giving the password out to others. We would like those who want to view the blog to subscribe via their email so we can have some ability to filter out those who do not have good intentions. With a private blog, I will start sharing more spiritual content.
Today marks our official move away from using social media as a primary platform for posting content. We will now only post on social media updates about content we have shared on our website. Over the past fifteen years we have used social media to share photos and written content to inspire our viewers towards living lives devoted to Jesus. Along the way we have created series of post dedicated to a specific themes or topics. Several of our post have been devoted to celebrating those who have touched our lives along our walk about. At one point we had nearly 8000 connections via Instagram and Facebook. On these platforms we connected with athletes and people from all over the world. For the first decade we were dedicated to growing a virtual community for sharing the gospel and discipling those God connected us with. This included hosting bible studies and even virtual conferences via Zoom.
Like everyone our lives would ride the roller coaster of life with times deep in the valley of struggle and times on top of the hill enjoying rest and happiness. There were some moments where the fires of life burned everything down so Jesus could reshape and build us into the servants He needs. Change is a sure thing in life. No change = no growth, but with change comes pain mixed in with growth and hopefully happiness. As we root ourselves deeper in God's Word we learn how to have joy no matter our circumstance.
Many do not realize we stepped away from social media for several years. At the time we felt the call by Christ to give up what we had become dependent on. Social media became a place of hiding, at the same time it was a place of causal fellowship. At one point it became an "idol" in our lives and it was then the Holy Spirit started working to loosen our grip. Some social media connections were an extension of face to face friendships. Many were not. Through the years it became obvious our desire to share love was often not reciprocated by those in our virtual world. We stepped away when the world blew up with the "woke" movement during covid.
After years of lockdowns and isolation we longed to reconnect with those we were blessed to meet in our years of ministry in college volleyball, friends from church and even family members. So we would recreate social media accounts on both platforms, though most of our interaction remains through Instagram with athletes. Over the past four years, our country has become more divided and plagued with loneliness, frustration, anger and depression. During covid our world was turned upside down. Friends we knew in life to be extremely loving would use social media to spread hatred being spewed out by the "woke."
As covid lifted, Lisa and I would both become deathly ill in the same year. By the grace of Christ alone, we would not only survive, but return to athletic ministry in volleyball. 2023 was a year of healing for me from spinal surgery and a year of tremendous growth as a professional photographer. During that year we got our business going and technically opened in the last couple of months. Though retired as a physics instructor, I have been constantly learning about website development, writing, processing and publishing. Though it has been a busy year in learning, it was filled with loneliness, which I will dive into in future post.
A few months ago we decided to do an experiment and invite our friends to do the same. We challenged everyone to not use or view their story feeds on social media until New Years. Our world has become hooked on pictures and video. Many have become so dependent on social media for interaction, they spend hours everyday on virtual platforms watching short video clips and viewing pictures in quick story feeds that disappear in 24 hours. Our world is evolving into consumers of this type of content devoid of true fellowship with those on the other side while eroding quality time with those sitting at the dinner table. During this two month period we found it hard to be away at first.
All we allowed ourselves to do was to view actual post to someone's page that didn't disappear the next day. We found, of our current 2500 connections, less than 5% actually posted to their pages and not story feeds. Of the 5% that posted to their pages, less than a tenth of a percent actually wrote something to go with the video or picture beyond a few sentences. Though we would have upwards of a hundred views of story pictures in months preceding this, an extremely small fraction of our connections actually took time to like something we shared and only a select handful of regulars posted a comment. We have less than five people we know that actually comment on our post. Our feeds were inundated with commercials, many of which we found to be inappropriate. Most of the content placed in our news feed on Facebook was from people we rarely interact with. Over 85% of the content shared on FB was simply someone reposting someone else's content. The bottom line was we found very little content written by our virtual friends that encouraged us in our walk with Christ.
We checked into our story feed a few times. Most of the content shared was extremely self centered. Most times it was someone sharing a picture of themselves in their best "light." Though we are connected currently to over 2500 people, less than 20 people actually share spiritual content focused on God, Jesus or His Word. We found even those we know in ministry, used their platforms to mainly share photos of themselves. Alluring photos or videos where modesty was not a focus often garnered huge amounts of attention through likes. Even those we know very well in life, rarely spent time making efforts to engage our content, to write us personal message or comments. Then there are those occasional friend we devoted tremendous energy in loving in face to face relationship who simply deleted or blocked us. What fun! Stepping back allowed us to see how social media is an accelerant, if not the cause of depression, loneliness and disillusionment many feel, like us.
Over the past four years, more than ever, it has become obvious there are many corporations and media outlets focused on censoring, manipulating, and destroying what is good about America. There is a serious effort to destroy the family, Christian values and a way of living that glorifies God. At the core of this are social media companies like Facebook, Instagram, Tik-Tok, X, and on and on. The sad part is a numb society that refuses to step away from bad actors and not empower them through buying their products or using their services. Many including are friends we know. There are some companies we must do business with to survive, like grocery stores, but there are those in entertainment, media and social platforms we can do without. Where you put your money says a lot about what you value! On top of this are companies trying to claim they own your pictures, and what you write. Nothing you post on social media is safe. Those in control of our government, and other bad actors, collect data from your social media activities for nefarious reasons, while destroying individuals rights and freedoms. I could go on and on, but I will stop at this point.
Hopefully, you have a good grasp on why we are moving away from social media to share our content. Our focus in 2024 is authentic relationships. We are investing our energy in growing relationships with those we interact with face to face and by phone and letter. Our mission for our business and ministry, 2024 Fellowship, is to share the love and gospel of Jesus through content we create and relationships we form.
Thank you for your support and most of all your friendship. If you see something you like, please let us know. Write a comment, like or send us an email. We appreciate your efforts to let others know about our website, my blog and our business. If we can be of service to you in this new year by helping tell your story through photography, give us a call.
Drop in now and then to look at our limited edition work. We specialize in HD Aluminum and fine art prints. Every print we sell comes with the story behind the print, my signature and personal service. As beach volleyball begins, we will be out on the sand documenting the season. In volume alone, sports photography occupies a large part of our time. Contact us if you need a sports photographers for your athletic needs. We will be sharing photos from volleyball tournaments on our website. Digital copies and prints can be purchased of these photos.
Finally, we are now booking portrait sittings as well as weddings. If you need a photography company dedicated to personal service, and excellence, give us a call.
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