What’s in a name? (and a website)

Hi! Welcome to Slap! Photography -

Before the inception of Slap! I’d never considered starting my own business. I’d toyed with the idea of freelancing in different creative fields over the years but never committed myself to anything in particular. On top of this I will say that creating and operating a business seemed like such an impossibly difficult and energy draining endeavour that it just never crossed my mind to be possible.

Enter film photography.

I started casually shooting film a few years ago and was hooked from the very first roll I shot. And I still am. I love how charming the results of film can be despite the overt mechanical nature of cameras and film itself. I could geek out over camera engineering right here and now for hours, but will refrain for another time! There’s a lot to be said for the hundred plus years the film industry has been, ahem, developing, for!

It didn’t take long for me to begin wondering if I could somehow make something out of this new found passion, and so the kernel of an idea was seeded in my mind. Could I possibly start a business based in film photography?

Passion project businesses don’t always start with names in mind. Sometimes they’re literally just the photographer’s name with ‘photography’ tacked on the end. My subconscious brain knew that that route was off-limits (read; totally lame and uninspiring). I needed a brand and it needed to be catchy. I tossed a few names around and after reading a gear review that used the term “shutter slap” in reference to the mirror inside SLR film cameras, specifically the Pentax 67; I was sold.

It became apparent to me not too long into all of this that I needed a portfolio in order to showcase some of my snaps to those who were interested/those looking for a photographer. I knew that I wanted something more personalized than just an Instagram or Facebook page, so a website seemed to be the best option. Unfortunately I’d had no real experience with website creation beyond an I.T class in high school back in 2O11. Squarespace is a name I’d already seen all over YouTube vlogger’s channels so it made sense to give their service a shot. Within a few days I was able to create and populate the website you’re reading from right now (kudos to Squarespace on that front). Launching it onto the web however was a different matter but beyond waiting a few months for an ABN it wasn’t all that more difficult.

Slap! Photography is a culmination of several of my passions; some new, some old. I’m excited to see where this venture takes me and the experiences that may arise from it! At the very least I now have a spanky portfolio platform that I can update and share with people and at the very most I have started something sustaining and fulfilling that may be with me for a very long time!

I aim to update my portfolio regularly as I expand my body of work and also publish more blog posts like this one at least fortnightly(ish); covering everything from gear to photoshoots to techniques to product shootouts to reviews and anything I generally feel like writing about. I hope that my photography journey can prove interesting and useful, even inspiring, to anyone who takes an interest in my perspective.

Thank you very much for reading this far!

Until the next write - take all the care in the world,

Benjamin