Introducing Myself & Em’s Odyssey
Setting the Scene
The date is April 29th, 2015. Emma, age 11, has just been introduced to Blogger and the fashion blog ‘Zoella’. Except Emma isn’t fashionista-minded at all. Not even one bit. Instead, she is as horsey as can be.
Enter stage left – ‘Neigh Blog!’ (the exclamation point is, indeed, included in the title).
Who’s Em?
Hey! My name’s Emma, the creator of Em’s Odyssey. A big kid from a small country called New Zealand. I recently finished studying tourism in the adventure capital of the world – Queenstown, and I’m using this newfound freedom to travel anywhere and everywhere I can get to.
Adventure activities define who I am – I grew up with parents who love the outdoors and our weekends were full of skiing, wakeboarding, mountain biking and boating. If you didn’t pick it up before, I was horse mad. Equestrian has been in my life for over thirteen years and I have been lucky enough to own a beautiful horse, Cruise, who has been my adventure buddy for seven of them.
I went through pony club, but I much preferred hacking around finding things to jump and dumb things to do. The best idea I ever came up with was wakeboarding & kneeboarding behind a friend’s horse along Matauri Bay in Northland.
I’ve travelled to Australia, Vietnam, USA, Canada & Rarotonga; and from October 2023, I’ll be based in Idaho for a year.
Why Em’s Odyssey?
Since ‘Neigh Blog!’, I’ve started about ten different websites on various platforms. These ranged from full on blogs to photography portfolios, though each one seemed to slip through the cracks. So I decided, if I don’t succeed at keeping up with this blog, I never will.
The biggest reason for setting up this blog is to have a platform for my passion in photography. I started taking photos on my dad’s Canon EOS 70D in 2016, but there are handycam videos of me at 3 asking to see the world from behind the camera. In 2020, I was lucky enough to win a photography competition that scored me my own first camera. The image to the right is the ‘starring’ photo. In 2022 I bought my Canon EOS 90D, which I shoot on today.
I have battled with the dilemma of hating social media for the time that it wastes but also recognise that it is a very good way of expressing creativity and keeping updated with both those we love and establishing connections. Something that has also resonated with me lately, is the idea of photography projects – a bit like an online exhibition of my art. I recently entered into a competition that required me to write a piece to outline the inspiration behind 18 or so images, and I found a whole new medium of creativity. Poetry and photography go hand in hand, but it is very hard to appreciate these over social media.
So I decided to find an alternative place than the dopamine-rich environment of Instagram.
You can view my first ever project singularity. here.
What to expect from Em’s Odyssey
The vision of Em’s Odyssey is to be a platform for creativity inspired by exploring the world. I also aim to encourage others to create meaningful memories of their own. I’ll be covering tips for photography on the go, recommendations of places to see and I also intend to use this space as a platform for my photography journey and projects.
Of course, as I grow, I expect this blog to evolve as well, hence the name Em’s Odyssey. If you want to know more about me go to the ‘About’ page; if you want to get in touch, reach out using any of the social links or via the ‘Contact’ page. Otherwise, happy browsing!
