Introduceyourself:From City To Country-A Photographers Journey

Hello fellow steemians my name is Les and am delighted to introduce myself to this amazing community.This is my first post on Steemit and I am super excited at the opportunities of friendship, self expression and education that this unique platform offers. So here's a little bit of info about myself.

Myself and Flynn, my Spanish Water Dog

A former city boy from the UK, I made the move across the Irish Sea 5 years ago and now reside amongst the beautiful rolling hills of Donegal overlooking spectacular Lough Foyle.
I really enjoy the benefits that living in a rural environment offer you. The sense of peace and freedom is something that I had never experienced whilst living in the city.

Sunrise over Lough Foyle

Moving to Ireland from the UK has been quite a culture shock in many ways. From the anonymity of living in the city where one rarely encountered your neighbours, contrasting with a tight rural community where everybody is bound by family and religion. Many of my neighbours could tell you the names of the majority of families up to a 30 mile radius !

Living high up in the hills can present a challenge to mobility, especially when it snows in the winter months. As there is very little public transport, having your own vehicle is essential.

Snowed in

My main passions in life are photography, videography, music and dogs.
I was lucky enough to make a living combining my love of photography and dogs working as a freelance photographer for the canine newspapers Dog World and Our Dogs. I have also produced work for most of the main dog food manufacturers in the UK and my biggest achievement was being the official photographer for Pedigree Master Foods at Crufts.
Here is a small example of my work.

This is Marley.My first Spanish Water Dog

A group of Chihuahuas

An English Bull Terrrier

Since my move to Ireland I have concentrated on my videography and am the co-producer of the Big Green Art Youtube channel, together with my friend Brendan Farren an Inishowen based weaving instructor and artist. The aim of the channel is to promote and teach the ancient craft of Irish Willow Weaving. Brendan is an amazing teacher and I support him by doing the filming , editing and SEO. One of our favourite tasks is producing the music for our videos as we are both keen musicians. Our intro sound tracks are reggae instrumental versions of old Irish folk songs. We have a comparatively modest following (1600 to date), I guess this is down to our specialised niche but the numbers are growing and we get really positive feedback from our viewers. Here is one of our latest videos explaining how to prepare willow for basket weaving.

Music has always had an influence on me and as a young punk rocker in the late seventies I became socially aware through listening to the lyrics of bands like The Clash and The Jam. Through the punk movement I discovered my favourite music Reggae. The spiritually conscious message of roots reggae music entered my soul and I have been a fan ever since. Over the years I have been privileged to see many of the greats including Burning Spear, Prince Fari, Tappa Zukie, Lee "Scratch" Perry but sadly never got to see Bob Marley live. I have played the guitar for many years and enjoy improvising with other musicians.

Lee Scratch Perry live in Derry 2017

I am looking forward to being an active part of the Steemit community and plan to contribute useful and hopefully entertaining content. The concept of the blockchain and crypto are a steep learning curve to a newbie like myself and any advice to guide me on my journey will be gratefully received. So I look forward to meeting my new friends. Thank you for taking the time to read my story.

All photos and videos are the original work of @rebelsoul