Hello, my name is John.

 

To make it easier for you to read what you want to know, my About Me is arranged in sections so you can check the Table of Contents for what you want to read about, then scroll down to the section you seek. NOTE: Why I use a blue dot instead of my face as avatar? It is to help me spot comments I wrote on other people's photos, so I don't accidentally comment twice.

 

Tables of contents:

 

Section 1: About Me.

Section 2: Blocking.

Section 3: Following.

Section 4: Comments.

Section 5: Faves.

Section 6: Misc.

 

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Section 1: About Me.

 

I was born hearing in the United Kingdom, but became deaf when I was a toddler, and since then have lived in both the hearing world and the deaf world.

 

Around the age of 15, I decided I want to work as a photographer in additional to my hobby as a writer, but struggled to get into college to study photography because of discrimination towards disability people back in the 1980s-1990s.

 

I ended up on a college course that was more like part training course, and part on-the-job work experience. I trained in traditional graphic design at college, and trained as an assistant and darkroom technician for a professional photographer.

 

During my time as a busy single parent, I put my career on hold to focus on my kids.

 

Now the kids are adults and left home, I am attempting to restart graphic design and photography as my line of work, and if needed, may go freelance.

 

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Section 2: About Blocking.

 

Blocking should only be used against the extremely abusive Users who attacked you because you are different to them. Blocking should be used against someone who abused you because of the colour of your skin, your race, religion, age, disabilities, gender, etc. It should not be used loosely, it should not be used against someone simply because you don’t like them, or because they did not fave your photos, or because they left an extremely short comment, or even because you don't like their Photostream.

 

I will not block anyone because of their Photostream. I don’t care if your Photostream is empty, full of images that was downloaded off the Internet, photos of your private parts, photos that are of no interest to me, photos that really do interest me. No matter what is (or not is) in your Photostream, you are free to follow me, comment on my images, or fave my images.

 

Remember: Blocking someone only stops them following you or comment on your photos, but does not stop them looking at your photos. If they view your photos, but does not comment on your photos, why block them? It makes no difference, they can still view your photos anyway.

 

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Section 3: About Following.

 

You are free to follow me if you want to see some more of my works, but remember that I shoot a vary of subject and also do graphic design, so be sure you really want to follow me.

 

It is sometimes annoying when someone decided to follow you because they like one of your photos, then unfollow you because you uploaded a different photo. That is why I have a strict rule for myself: If I like one of your photos, I must view your Photostream first, and see how much of your other photos really interest me, then I make up my mind if I really want to follow you. Once I follow you, I will stay a Follower, even if you upload different photos that I am not interested in.

 

I make a note of who followed me, so if you follow then unfollow me twice, then the 3rd time you follow me, I will remove you from my list of Followers (you will not be blocked, just removed).

 

When I follow you, I do not want you to follow me back, unless my Photostream is of interest to you. Also if you follow me first, do not expect me to follow you back, I may follow back only if your photos are of interest to me. It's fine if Person A likes Person B's photos, but Person B is not interested in Person A's photos. You may like their works, but you need to respect that your own works may not be their cup of tea.

 

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Section 4: Comments.

 

You are free to comment on my images, but please only comment about my images, or share your stories relevant to my images. Do not use Canned Comments that talks more about the groups. They are seen as clickbait spam encouraging Users to visit the groups, therefore those comment codes will be deleted.

 

I believe in the freedom of choice and free will that allows us to chose to comment or not to comment on other User’s photos. There are no laws saying you must comment on other people’s images, it is just an optional courtesy, not a rule.

 

Which is why I do not join groups that request you to comment on someone’s image if you post your own (i.e.: Post 1, Comment 1).

 

What happens if you could not find a photo that interest you? Should you randomly pick someone else’s photo (which you don’t find interesting) and half-heartedly say “Nice pic.” That would be selfish of you, because you did this to please the Admins and their group rules.

 

Why do I call the copy-and-paste-comment-codes as Canned Comments? Because they are pre-prepared and ready to use canned comments, just like pre-prepared and ready to cook canned food.

 

A restaurant chef would not use canned tomatoes, the chef would use fresh tomatoes and prepare them himself/herself. Thus I would rather type my own comments, written by my own hand, from the bottom of my heart, than to use canned comments which are not of my own words.

 

Besides, I trained in touch-typing. First I trained on old fashion manual typewriters during my teenager years, then I moved onto electric typewriters, before ending up with Windows based PCs. I can type up to about 70 wpm (words per minute), the fastest touch-typists can do up to 100 wpm. That is why I can rapidly type a positive comment, hit the TAB key and the ENTER key to post it, then hit the right arrow key to move to the next photo. It does not bother me having to type my own words, I will not be lazy and use copy-and-paste or canned comments.

 

My words are my words, I always try to be positive and encouraging, I believe in this.

 

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Section 5: Faves.

 

There is a major difference between Like and Fave.

 

I like Italian food, and my fave is the lasagne.

I like astronomy, and my fave is Saturn.

 

Therefore I only fave what is my favourite subject, and if I fave your photo, it is because I really love the subject in your photo. I don't randomly fave anyone's photos.

 

If you look at my Faves page, you will notice a pattern. You will notice some photos of tigers, foxes, German Shephard Dogs, Land Rover, BAe Hawk (aircraft), Hawker Hurricane (WWII aircraft), basketball (both men’s and women’s), women with bob hairstyle, women in fur coats, ships and boats, and so on.

 

Have you wondered why always a Hawker Hurricane, but not a Spitfire? Have you wondered why a Land Rover, but not a Suzuki? Why basketball, but not football? Why a fox but not a wolf?

 

It is because those are my favourite subjects.

 

You are welcome to fave any of my images, but please only fave any if you really like them, and do so for yourself. Do not randomly pick my images and fave it, just to please the group rules (i.e.: Post 1 – Fave 1).

 

I have no objections if you and I have different interests and lifestyle. It is not my business to say ”That guy loves birds, butterflies, bees, bunnies, and bluebells, so why would he fave my photo of a gas-guzzling, pollution-coughing, flower trampling four-wheel off-roading vehicle? ” As they say Whatever floats your boat.

 

Oh by the way, you do not have to comment on my images when you fave my images. I’m aware some Flickr Users expect you to comment when you fave, or be blocked. But I believe it is wrong. After all, when you go to an art gallery and liked the Mona Lisa painting so much that it became your favourite, do you have to explain to the museum curator why you like it?

 

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Section 6: Misc.

 

About Family and Friends.

 

I will not add you as Family because I know who my family members are. I know I don’t have a long lost brother or uncle, so you can’t claim to be a family member.

 

I will not add you as Friends unless you and I are really real-life friends outside of the Internet, people who see each other, buy each other drinks, do favours for each other, be supportive of each other, like really real friends.

 

You may have 1,000 online friends, but how many of them will really turn up for your funeral?

 

My images are set to either public or private, none of them are set to F&F, so asking me to add you as F&F is pointless.

 

About Copyright.

 

I own the full rights to my images. Group administrators does NOThave the rights to display my photos as group header, just because the photo is in the group, unless you asked for my permissions first.

 

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And finally…

 

Many thanks for reading my About section, many thanks for viewing my photos, and many thanks for visiting.