As I announced in a recent article, today is Volume One of my new series, How I Got the Shot. Each week (hopefully) on Saturday (maybe), I will release a new chapter based on one of my images.

Each week will not only be a different image, but the direction of the article will vary depending on the photograph I am working with.

As my regular readers will know (3,300 and growing), my philosophy on photography is:

Get the Shot
Take the Shot
Make the Shot

And this series will focus on one or more of those for each image.

…

Is your writing the same all the time?

Doesn’t that get boring?

I like to think about my writing over the last year as a steady climb. If it were a line chart, it would look like a constant diagonal moving ever upward.

But that’s not the reality. That line is actually a series of jagged peaks interspersed with deep valleys.

I shouldn’t be surprised. That’s the way my writing has always been. I started writing almost twenty years ago with a few memoir pieces. I soon realized no one wanted to know how I spent my summer vacation. So…

Do you write every day?

I do.

Well, almost every day. But I do writing stuff every day. Even if I don’t write a new piece, I will be editing the one I wrote the day before. Or polishing the one I wrote the day before that. Or pitching or submitting or publishing.

But there are other writing things we can do if we don’t feel like writing.

And they are important tasks as they are all related to future articles. You have to keep that idea pipeline full. I never have to think about what I’m going to write…

I wrote my first article for publication almost twenty years ago. It was a memoir piece that had been rattling around in my head for a while, and I had to get it out. It was picked up and published by several regional and national magazines.

And so, I was off to the races.

I next concentrated on fiction for the next several months. I enjoyed that thoroughly and won a lot of contests, and received many accolades.
Turns out, accolades aren’t legal tender in any market on the planet.

So after scoring several free magazines and one ten dollar…

How productive do you think you are?

Do you ever feel like you are spinning your wheels all day but not really finishing anything?

Then, I have a suggestion.

Do less.

Slow down and get more done.

I’ve been involved with my own productivity systems for years and have written quite a few articles about my journey. And I thought I had pretty much mastered the art of getting things done. Not GTD, but actually getting things done.

Then, about nine months ago, I started learning the guitar.

With all the resources on the Internet, especially YouTube, I thought this…

Have you heard of fish oil?

Do you have a squeaky fish?

No, a different kind of fish oil.

I’m certainly not a medical expert, and if you have been following my writing, you know this isn’t a subject I broach often. I’ve written a few well-received articles on diet and fitness, but this is definitely a departure for me. But I have been researching the possible benefits of fish oil and decided since I had the research, I may as well write up an article on it.

Maybe I can make enough money to buy more fish oil.

Fish…

This will be my ninth but hopefully not last article about the Big Green Elephant in the room, Evernote.

Early last year, I wrote a couple of introductory articles on the software that were met with some success.

Then, I wrote perhaps my most successful and somewhat controversial article stating that I thought it was still the best. I felt so at the time, despite the same complaints other long-time users had voiced for years.

https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/why-i-think-evernote-is-still-the-best-dc22aa672741

Then they released version 10.

After that, I wrote one asking if it was still the best, which got many people answering no, and…