Hey hey, good Steemians, I'd like to say hello to you all and introduce myself if I may.
My name is Martin Sanders, and I live in Nottingham in the UK. I'm a creative, working mostly in street/art/social documentary photography and also as a blues/bluesy musician, performing regularly both solo and with my band and manage the best I can to get by on what I can earn from the two, along with some juggling .............. of bills, not balls, that is, lol.
I hope the above photo helps verify me, if you look at my music videos or fb profile pics you can see that I am one and the same. :)
A good friend of mine and fellow steemian popped up on one of my fb photography posts, and simply said "you should post this stuff on steem". This is the photograph, posted a few days ago that inspired my mate to make the suggestion. The photograph was taken way back whilst studying at college, it's a scan from an original 16 x 12 inch print that I made in 1982!!! Unfortunately the negatives are long since lost during a big life change 15 or so years ago.
Well, I'll be honest, I'd never heard of Steemit.com until then. I wasn't surprised I'd never heard of it either though, as such things do seem pretty much unheard of to most creatives, an uncensored, self curated platform with many like minds, where we can share our work and ideas, seek feedback from each other, and on top of that there is a chance to earn (real!!) money passively if enough people enjoy what you're putting out there. "No, no, that can't be possibly be true, surely?".............. well yes it's clear to see that it is indeed possible. I don't hold too high an expectation there, but if you good people here do like my photography posts enough to make my day to day living any easier or it helps contribute towards my next equipment spend (lenses), that would be pretty freakin amazing!!
I've been shooting photographs with a strong passion for well over 3 decades now, I studied the craft at college in the early 80's, and I still mostly spend over 80 hours a week on and around my photography. I'm a proper addict to it and use the camera in virtually ALL aspects of my existance, I'm rarely without one at any time. I'm quite voyeuristic in my approach, especially in my street photography, but also in other work such as my ongoing series, 'photographie de l'erotique'. I've been posting my work in groups on fb for a while now and have built up a following of between 5 - 6,000 including my 'photography' page. www.facebook.com/martinsandersphotography . Much of my work on my personal page is publicly available too at www.facebook.com/martin.sanders.739 .
For anyone who has a bit of geek in them for camera gear, I'm now working mostly with Fuji X cameras, namely the x100s and the Xpro2. I just have the one lens for the Xpro2 so far, but it's gem of a glass, the XF16mm f1.4. I still have some of my canon gear, which I kept for the very occasional need for a quality long telephoto, and I've also been getting back into Polaroid emulsion transfers and manipulations using the Impossible Projects films.
Anyway, I hope you get to know and like my photography work over time, and that many of us become acquainted in the process. Here's a link to a youtube video I made of a selection of my photography, the accompanying music was found amongst youtubes free to use selection and reminds me a little of the theme tune to the TV series MASH. It can be viewed in HD1080
You never know you might just dig my blues music too, I hope so. Here's a youtube link to my own arrangement of Cocaine (all around my brain). HD1080 quality.
Here's a photo taken more recently at the Nottingham Goose Fair.
!
Thanks very much for reading through my introduction, I look forward to regularly posting photographs and catching up with what you guys are posting up here at steemit.
Please hit up the follow button, and if you like what you see in my work I'd be very grateful for any comments, votes and 'upvoting' action.
Best regards for now, Martin.
Welcome on Steemit! You are gonna like it really soon :D
I wish you the best! Hope you gonna have fun with our community and see you soon.
Hi, thanks for the warm welcome here @hien-tran. I'm enjoying it so far, and hoping very much that the enjoyment grows with my involvement here. :)
Hey Martin, I like your works and I’m a street photography enthusiast too. Upvoted and following... I also posted my self-intro yesterday. Let’s steem on!
Thanks @itchyfeetdonica, I'll pop over to yours and take a look. :)
hello @martinsanderuk great singer just up-voted and followed you
Hey thanks very much. I'm glad you liked the my arrangement of Cocaine (all around my brain), and thanks for the upvote and follow
you're followed, thanks danimal
thanks for the follow it means a lot
@martinsandersuk, genuinely love your B&W documentary pics mate, the one of the girl above with the balloons and all those men and boys around her is priceless
Thank you @alexabbottphoto, really happy you like my photographs. Plenty more to come yet, hope you stay tuned.
Great intro and glad to see you already got a decent reward on it :) Resteemed you via @welcoming so you will get even more visibility - It's my service for resteeming promising newcomers! Steem on!
Hey there @theaustrianguy, thank you so much. I hope you come across more of my work here at steemit, and enjoy it.
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STOPVery beautiful photography ! Welcome on board
Hey @marinaart, thank you very much, and thanks for the welcome.
Love the photographs! And welcome to this growing family of Steemit, hope to keep seeing you around.
Remember to follow us @kensholife for ideas, tips and tools on well-being and sustainability!
I am definitely going to need that @kensholife
Thanks Kensholife, I'll drop in fora look and follow, please also follow me here too for more photos and music too. Thanks for voting here.
followed @kensholife :)
Welcome to Steemit. Nice to meet you. Get ready for an interesting ride ;)
Thank you @allesia, I'm looking forward to a thrilling ride. :)
Those photos look great! I’ve always been a person that’s artistically challenged so I appreciate to see it in others. I’ve always wanted to get into photography because I’m surrounded by beautiful people in my life. Do you have recommendations on a starting camera? Also feel free to look at some pictures I got of myself and my friends and give suggestions on my writing and pictures. I’m trying to improve myself as English is my second language. Welcome to steemit, I’ll give you a follow and upvote to get your experience started!!!
Hey Hector, there are so many variables camera wise, depending on what you want to photograph and if you think you will definitely want to develop it as a major hobby/passion etc. I'll pop over to your blog in a short while and take a look. Thanks so much for following and for the upvote, very much appreciated. :)
I'm following you back Hector, cheers :)
Hello, Martin, and welcome to Steemit.
That's a nice intro post, giving us a good idea of what you do, and how you do it. Your photos are excellent, particularly the B&W ones. Very atmospheric and evocative.
Your version of cocaine was very interesting, too. Quite different from what I expected (which, I admit) was just another version of the old classic). I loved the way you made it your own song, sung with passion and verve.
Best of luck on Steemit.
Thanks for your kind words @majes.tytyty. I'm very happy you enjoyed my intro, photographs and music. Please feel free to follow to keep up with my posts and support where you see fit. I'll be posting photographs frequently and I'll also be adding a few more of my music videos before long too. Best regards..........
hey there... Welcome. I like you already... Following
Thank you @kachee, you're very kind :)
I was the same way when I heard about Steemit in 2016, glad you joined us. I have a feeling you will do well here. Welcome!
Thanks evernoticethat (cool name), I hope you'll follow me and upvote my posts if and when you like them. :)
Your name is too cool not to follow @evernoticethat ;)
A big welcome to you @martinsandersuk , Am glad to have you here on steemit. I love that picture of the lady close to the balloons. 😀😀. I can't wait to see all the lovely stuffs you'll be writing on here. You welcome.
I just resteemed, followed and upvoted your post also,so that more people will see this post and support it too.
Please I need a favor. am in a design competition now, here is my design
and I'll really need your help. All you need do is to go to this link
https://steemit.com/contest/@steembay/the-big-steembay-contest-we-need-a-logo-startimage-win-50-sbd
And then check the comment section for the logo above, and then upvote the logo. My user name is @lucyc.
If you are good at designing logos, you can join the contest also. Thanks so much for your help.
I won't swap upvotes for upvotes generally unless I like what I see. As it happens, I really do like the design you've come up with here and I've upvoted you in the contest comments. Same applies @stellastella, if you genuinely like any of my content that I put out I'd really appreciate the support with upvotes to try and get my account moving, being new around here. :)
Welcome to Steemit, Martin. Wow! It's a beautiful picture that you have shared. Glad that you decided to join us. I loved listening to your song too. Keep sharing more such post. Have fun Steeming.
Thank you for the welcome tones @firepower. I have a lot of good photography and music to share with the steemit community. I'm just hoping I can eventually build a following for my artistic content here as I've managed to do on facebook. I prefer the feel of steemit to the 'corporate' feel of facebook, although I don't really know my way around here properly yet, but I'll be making every effort to entertain fellow steemians and build up a strong following within this exciting community.
You are most welcome. If you want to promote your photography try checking out the @steepshot app, you can download it on your phone. You can login through your Steemit credential. Keep exploring and follow some established authors here to quickly learn and grow with the community.
Welcome to Steemit! Great intro! Yah it is weird how everyone finds this platform. I hope when Steemit is brought into the mainstream that it doesn't change the platform for the worse. Look forward to some more posts Martin, you seem like a interesting dude. Got my upvote and follow
Hey thanks for the compliments @diezeldiddy. Yes I'll be posting regularly for sure. Thanks too for the upvote and follow. I'll come see you on your blog too. :)
following you too, cheers :)
Hello @martinsandersuk! Welcome to Steemit! :) You have a very impressive set of skills- music on one hand, visual arts on the other! ;) I hope you will find this place friendly and rewarding! I think your photography is very interesting, it has a documentary-like vibe in it! I found your post thanks to @mikepm74 who placed you in one of his great introductory posts. My experience as a beginner is that I should have read FAQ earlier, join Discord PAL earlier and connect to other Steemitians more! I also suggest following Mike as he's been always very helpful to me in many ways :) Perhaps this would also be helpful to you! Looking forward to more of your photography, good luck Martin :) Klaudia
How nice of you Klaudia @shinyforest, thank you for your kind words. I love the feel of this place so far. I'm really pleased you like my photography style, and that you get the documentary influence ;) . Yes I've been following @mikepm74, I was delighted to be selected for his "The Fresh Five". I can see he does a lot to help people get started. That's what I love about it here, people sharing the love and sharing the profits. It's time some money was made from love as opposed to the ugly money that is constantly made from warring :) . Thanks for the advice, I'll run with that and head back over to the FAQ, but I don't really understand the discord aspect yet. I joined steemitchat. I'll put that top of my steemit beginner's research list, "discords", done. If you see me making obvious blunders here, I'd appreciate the heads up. Of course I will also appreciate any support for my work if and when you see fit. Thanks again Klaudia :)
welcome @martinsandersuk
Thank you @marlina2017
Great stuff. Hopefully you will be sharing some of your music on Steemit.
Thanks @datascience, I will indeed share my music on steemit.
Hello and welcome :)
thanks for sharing.
have a good time here ;)
Thanks @tommithomson, I feel very welcome so far. :)
Congratulations @martinsandersuk! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
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STOPThanks @steemitboard. I've just voted for you in the 'witness' section. :)
Hey Martin! Welcome to Steem! We're glad to have you here!
I am a Steem curator, and creator of the series "The Fresh 5" where I pick five new Steemians to share with my followers that they should know about. I have selected you as one of my five for today. Your post has been featured in my post you can find here: The Fresh 5.
I would encourage you to come over and visit my post and say hi in the comments to get to know some of the folks reading my daily digest. You are welcome to tell us more about yourself there and encourage my readers to come and check you out!
Have a great day! Looking forward to seeing more of you on the platform!!
@mikepm74 thanks so much! It's made it all feel a bit less daunting to have the support I've received for my introduction post here, and then to be picked out by a curator such as yourself and featured in your #thefresh5 has made me feel as welcomed as can be. Thanks too for following me, I hope you enjoy my works. Best regards..........
Welcome Martin. I really loved your story and also your song!
Thank you so much mammasitta, I'm glad you enjoyed it. :)
Hey Martin, let's get together again and have a proper jam. - Ron 'bassman' Citrus :D
Yeah bro, that would be cool!! Good to see you here. ;)
Welcome martin!! i'm just now seeing this!! Thanks for entering my contest!!! Welcome welcome welcome again!! Following you now!! I hope to see alot more from you!!!
Hey thanks very much for the warm welcome @jasonrussell, I'm getting to really love steemit, it has some very warm pockets all over the place. Thanks to you for putting the contests on, I will indeed be a regular. followed you so as not to miss them. :)
Thank you a1-jonesblogger. Please follow me if you like, and keep informed of my future posts. :)