If you’re a professional photographer there are 4 reasons to have a blog and 1 good one not to:
1. Community Building. Talking about the industry, helping photographers just starting out, linking to sites and news about photography you think the community would be interested in. This is a great reason to have a blog and a big reason why blogs are popular, bringing people together from all over the planet who are interested in similar topics.
2. Marketing. You can use a blog like a big promo card and post tears, new personal projects and generally just pimp yourself out to whomever might be stopping by. Google seems to be ultra sticky when it comes to blog posts so just posting your name with an image from your portfolio or the city you live in with genre you shoot will probably attract some clients. I have been known to type professional, photographer, Juneau, AK into google from time to time.
3. News and information. You can use the blog like you would a newsletter and let people know where you’re going to be and what images you just added to your stock library so someone visiting because they like your landscape photography can discover that you just had a portrait session with Angelina Jolie and the images are available for syndication.
4. Building a fan base. Talking to your fans, who at this point are mostly amateur photographers and giving them photography tips and telling stories about your experiences on assignment has turned into a real moneymaker for some photographers. It’s important that you have something to sell your fans like a photography book you wrote or a lighting seminar you give.
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1. Posting things that will get you un-hired. Mostly just bad photography that you wouldn’t put in your portfolio (this is still your portfolio) and weird rants that might make me think you’re someone I don’t want to forge a relationship with. The biggest reason to not have a blog is that you have nothing interesting to show or say or you’re just not the type of person who likes to sit at a computer and write because you’d rather be taking pictures.
At this point most of your clients aren’t going past the first dozen pictures in your portfolio so a blog is not a “make or break” deal. Although, in one version of the future I see media companies building communities of people who are interested in a topic and they’re helping consumers edit through all the crap and selling advertising into the different content that’s created and photographers who blog become a valuable asset and a reason to give an assignment in the first place.
So, whatever your reasons might be for starting a blog remember that it’s still your portfolio and there will be client rooting around from time to time and google never forgets (college grads are finding out the hard way about this) so, whatever you do don’t post a rant about the goddam CFO and the Editor’s crappy story ideas and the Creative Director’s shitty layout and expect Condé Naste to be calling.
50 Comments
Some of the best and most interesting info you can read on a blog is insider information on things. Blogs in general are flooded with people’s opinions, and some of those thoughts are cool, but at some point, they all start to seem the same.
I shoot celebrity types for the big magazines. I have great stories about these people and the wacky (that’s a euphemism) process of pre-shoot, shoot and post-shoot. I can guarantee if I posted these anecdotes, I would never 1. get hired again 2. get publicist approval again. It just ain’t worth it. My blog would be so diluted it would put a meth addict asleep. So much more to lose than to gain.
Years ago, when I was just starting out, there was this photographer who had great anecdotes on his website. By every image, there would be a description of the subject and the experience of photographing him. For example, and I paraphrase, “Conan O’Brien was a douche.” I wrote him complimenting him on his frankness and saying how funny I thought it was. He must of came to his senses, like, holy shit, people actually read this, because a few days later, it all came down.
The juicy stuff won’t fly. Anyway, at a certain point it’s all the same. Yes, the celebrity was late. Yes, the celebrity was high. Yes, the celebrity seduced the stylist’s assistant, and walked off with an expensive jacket. Yes, the picture needed a lot of retouching. Yes, the magazine rolled-over and gave-in to every demand the publicist could invent.
The dirt is too easy, rarely original, often inaccurate and potentially libelous. And being a celebrity photographer isn’t necessarily any better (I know) — the modern-day version of a hunter lining the walls of his library with the stuffed heads of animals he’s killed. Kissing and telling is just another element of that scavenger mentality, weirdly (or not surprisingly) directed at the very subjects who codify the photographer’s credibility in the first place. Conan was a “douche”? After sindication, five minutes of that “douche’s” time probably paid for that particular photographer’s kitchen renovation.
Meanwhile, I’ve been contributing such long responses on APE’s blog that I’m beginning to wonder if I’m not unfairly piggy-backing on his efforts, and wouldn’t be better served creating my own forum. But I’m guessing that striking the right balance, and maintaining a consistent airy tone, isn’t as simple or easy as APE makes it appear.
My wife and I who are collaborating on a project have recently started a blog about that project. What’s been interesting, and we only started it a few months ago, is the number of hits the blog gets compared to the number the website gets. The blog is growing, people must be coming back on a regular basis.
So far, the blog is really just the pictures we photographed for the first part of the project with some text about the artists and impressions from the shoot. The project is photograph artists in their studios, the photos are 360 degree Black and white panoramic and my wife hand colors the photos. All the photographs without the background info is available on a website. But, we get a good number of hits from people who must enjoy the back story.
Fortunately, we’ve not had any bad experiences with people so there will be nothing bad to say about the artists. In fact, it is just the opposite. All the artists have been nice and friendly.
I’m not sure the benefits outweigh the potential negatives. You have to post often, you have to commit to the thing, you have to have something to say – without saying the wrong things. And finally, I find nothing looks worse than a blog that hasn’t been updated in 6 months so I would think it is better to take it down if you can’t keep it up. Lots of work for unknown potential exposure.
I’ve had a blog for years and it’s literally been the best calling card and marketing piece ever. Most of my work comes from the blog and word-of-mouth so I can say it’s only been an asset for me. Plus the fan base part really helps in terms of networking.
Having said that I’d never discuss the negatives of a shoot on the blog and frankly, I haven’t had too many bad experiences when I think about it. I’m blessed to have met the nicest folks ever though photography and only have good things to say about everyone. I guess I’m lucky in my limited experience.
Then again, I shoot food so it’s not like I have to deal with the celebrity of it all — but the celebrities I have met have been nice.
Guess it’s all about perspective.
@1
I apologize if I stepped on your post. I’m as susceptible to the gravity of all that insider-y stuff as anyone. I just try and resist it, because generally it leaves me feeling kind of icky.
@3
I like the idea of a blog with a built-in expiration — the conclusion of the project. The project adds a narrative dimension that isn’t fabricated, and the final post can be a bookend, so even if you leave it online, it’s clear that it’s a not an ongoing story.
@4
I like your attitude.
Regarding blogs, I’m intrigued, or tempted. I’d be interested in hearing more about the upkeep, challenges, etc of maintaining one. Sort of a deeper dive in to the pros and cons based on all of yours (and APE’s) experiences.
blog, blog, blahhhhh…
Rob, us photographers learn through example.
Can you please point us to some blogs that are doing it right, and then, most importantly the blogs that have it all wrong?
I am sure if you called out the bad ones, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal, in fact, it could help who needs it.
I run a transparent company and thus write about everything and anything that’s going on in my life that I feel I want to write about. This includes bad photos. Photos that I would not normally put in my online portfolio, perhaps light tests, very non-commercial work.
My online portfolio is my artistic vision. My blog is an insight into me as a person.
I have no issue sharing about how I run my company, what influences me or the fact that photography was my ticket off of welfare.
I shoot because I love to shoot. I love making strange imagery that make people think and that’s out of the norm. If something on my blog pisses off a potential client and they don’t hire me that’s cool.
I agree on this one. I only shoot part time, so for the commericial market, I mostly shoot what I darn well like shooting and submit it as stock. I go through a few non micro agencies. Probably pumped a thousand images into both, which in stock terms isn’t much these days.
After a year and a half with one agency and half a year with the other, I’ve made around $1K via the agencies. Not much for all that work, though obviously they’ll be sending money for years to come if the market doesn’t implode. However, I’ve made $5K in licensing just from agencies stumbling across my — get this — Flickr page. I’ve got another $8K in the works right now from yet another agency that found me on Flickr. I don’t know what the deal is, but if I had to theorize, I’d say that picture researchers are getting a little tired of the stale stuff over at the big G and C, and that Flickr is like a giant focus group for picking out stuff that speaks to audiences. Web 2.0 drives like 90% of my photo income.
I don’t know about blogs. For some they work, some I guess they don’t, though most seem generic enough where you could change the names and nobody would notice the difference.
Of course there are exceptions.
What I do think is interesting is how much time our marketing effort takes.
I am on three on-line services, have an html and flash website, produce Blurb books for portfolios, enter the required contests/awards, produce short run promos and it is basically overwhelming to keep up.
Since we are pretty busy (thank God) we get way behind on updating all of this stuff, to the point that by the time I get one section finished, I’ve usually shoot something new and need to go back and update it.
Speaking of Blurb, I have spoken to them and requested a more cohesive attempt of online and traditional presentation.
Personally I find that hard copy works, but is very hard to complete.
When we get a break we publish a Blurb promotion, then print a test, it comes in, we adjust it, we print a certain volume and of course by then we are all off to another part of the world working so the Blurb promos stay on a shelf or in a corner until we can get to them and of course by that time we want to update them with the new work.
Print or online has become an endless cycle of updating, changing, producing and it can be very consuming.
Anyway, I’m getting off the subject but I do see a time where it might be realistic to have an in-house publiscits/web udater/blog writer/blurb production manger on staff to just keep everything up to date and moving forward.
In fact that will probably be my next hire.
JR
@ 9. You just gave Rob a coronary.
flickr. “that’ll be the day…”
My guess is that my blog could be a deciding factor after a potential client has seen my portfolio. I think that this would especially apply to the out of town client that would find me on the the ASMP Find a Photographer or Workbook on-line portfolio sites and needs to make a choice about a photographer to shoot a portrait in Los Angeles.
I want to give the person that needs to decide by a website only viewing who it is that they are sending out to their client or to cover their story.
I also use it to post news, talk about my working process and currently use it to support a travel planning class.
@11. Yeah — I know. It boggles me, too. The agencies that cold call me (well, cold email me, really) because of Flickr aren’t the little guys, either. They’re the kinds of agencies that represent multinationals for massive worldwide campaigns. Granted, I think part of this is due to the content of what I typically shoot — it’s pretty niche, pretty dramatic, and damned hard to get right — but you’d think a stock photo agency would be beating the pants off of Flickr at getting such saleable shots in front of clients. Nope. I’ve am acquaintance who is also a pretty big name in the genre of photos I shoot, and he dumped outta Corbis after a couple of years. He was selling way more stuff via cold-calls from people who found him via his blog, and for better money, too, seeing as he didn’t have to pay the Corbis commission. To be fair, his website ends up on Digg, Reddit, and FARK a lot. (As does mine.)
hmmm…interesting topic. i am have been photo blogging for years and think i might change up my approach, thanks!
jay
How many Photo Editors/Art Buyers/Art Directors check out a shooters blog/news you think?
Is there a genuine interest in our behind-the-scenes goings-on? Enough to actually research someone on their blog before calling in a book?
Do PEs/ABs/ADs do a lot of lurking on blogs?
wm.
@15 I really like seeing Photographers’ Blogs- I agree with Mark @12 that it could be a deciding factor in awarding a job.
I also think it’s the best way to get the personal contact back in the uber-busy, hard to reach Ad world. I know that AB’s and PE’s are reading APE and other industry blogs- that should validate Blogs generally and lead them to a photographer’s blog when they are considering who to hire.
So, post with care but use it as a great opportunity to expand on your personal work and your character.
Furthermore, for a larger studio or a rep, I think not having one (especially if you have the means to hire someone to help with the management as in James @10) is a mistake.
I started a blog this past February. It’s quickly become the largest referrer to my regular web site.
I keep the web site pretty sparse, very little words, mainly images. The blog is a chance to add some words and give a more complete sense of me.
The blog is easy for me – it’s reporting on testing I’d be doing anyway, things I find interesting and additional images that I can add quicker to the blog than to my web site. Some of it is material I used to write in posts on forums. The blog keeps it under my umbrella so to speak and that has worked out well.
Much like the top 3 things that affect the value of real estate (location, location, location), there are 3 things that determine the career of anyone in celebrity, fashion, entertainment world:
discretion
discretion
discretion
I’ve enjoyed working on my own blog –
I’m a music photographer primarily. I sometimes treat it like my own little magazine. I can shoot concerts and people who are off the radar and this gives me the forum to show it.
It’s been great for my google rankings too – if you create the right titles and tags, googlebot will find and index a blog post within 8 hours or less. My blog usually comes up higher in search rankings than my livebooks site (they charge $1,800 for customized SEO). Maintaining a blog creates a much wider net of keywords bringing eyeballs to your name.
I also review record stores which is starting to bring in a regular stream of traffic.
and lastly, each time I post something it gets automatically emailed to my mother, so I don’t have to call her as often.
if anyone wants to check it out its at:
http://33and13.blogspot.com
My wife and I have been keeping a blog for a couple years now of total random stuff. Some tears, some stories, but mostly just photos of our lives (and now a lot of our 6 month old) and people seem to love it. We get comments all the time from clients that they love it because they feel like they already know us by the time we work together.
But really, if people didn’t like it who cares? It’s still a lot of fun to do when we get a chance and if it hurts us in any way with a potential client we probably wouldn’t have clicked with that client anyway.
There’s no way it’s going to appeal to everyone but the people who get it come back again and again. Google analytics tells me it gets roughly 18K page views a month, that’s more than our proper portfolio site.
[…] work. More often than not my doubts and uncertainty are expressed here. I wonder, after reading this if this will get me un-hired. I have always taken the attitude of, “If they don’t like […]
Interesting post as my partner, Jenn, and I are trying to decide whether to start blogging about a project we’re working on together in prison.
I guess the big thing for us is trying to decide if posting random outtakes from a summer long project dilutes the impact of the final project? As you said the blog becomes an extension of your portfolio and 20 images scattered in 15 different posts doesn’t have the cohesive presence of project presented as a whole.
We’d have some pretty interesting things to blog about, but the posts wouldn’t carry nearly the same weight without images.
So is there value to be had in posting work that’s in progress or is it best to hold onto it until the project is complete? That’s the idea we’re struggling with.
I think having a blog creates an opportunity for exploration. You have a freedom to showcase some work in progress or just to show something that doesn’t belong with any of the featured work on a site.
I can’t say I have a total success with my blog, but I know some people check it out on a regular basis, especially local people from Philadelphia area who know me already. I’ve got some portrait and music gigs through it before. I also think it’s important to give it a specific direction based on your target audience.
Like some already said, I can confirm that it is also valuable in terms of search engine as google likes to crawl keyword filled blogs.
i think you all just need to be yourselves and not worry about a specific direction in your blog or worries about if the final story won’t be the same if you show the progress. Just do what feels right, stop worrying about who may think what about it. It it feels wrong, don’t make one because it will/may just come across as a half assed effort if you don’t put your heart into it. And what’s the point really? Make a boring blog because you are scared that someone might see it and you will lose a job because they don’t approve? That’s the same as the hundreds of conference calls we all have to do right? You can’t be scared about saying the wrong thing when who knows what the wrong thing even is.
if you are not yourself and maybe rant soemtime the blog will be boring = not woth being called a blog anymore = nobody cares. This blog is a good example . If a photoeditor wouldnt’ rant once in a while or hadnt give away some insider secrets would it have been so successful?
Its the problem with photography in general. Everybody wants to get the inside story and the rumours. “How was it done technically?” “how did that model behave . do you think was she doing drugs?”
ok of course you dont post the drug thing (hell I dont even want to know myself) but at the end of the day when I think about it : is there anything I can post without potentially pissing of some client?
I like having a blog. There are photos I would post on my blog that I wouldn’t post on my portfolio site. It’s an opportunity to tell stories and get a bit more personal. But it’s a trick to get eyeballs…
I use a blog as the entry page to my website, and I use the archive of 360+ posts to contain the last three year’s work that isn’t in the main portfolio/gallery. Other than being stupid and writing some drivel or ranting, I don’t see much of a downside. It’s my main marketing device, I get ~1200 visits per day, and Google loves it.
Of course I shoot women so 99.8% of the visits are from wankers or lookeeloos but that’s OK.
It takes a lot of “something” to know that the first photo potential clients are going to see of yours is the last shot you posted… So I don’t lead with lame stuff. It keeps me on edge and helps force me to edit and shoot at a higher standard. But I’ve also learned to stop obsessing over the top image having to be representative of my work — it’s more important to show that you’re constantly working and growing — it’s not like the typical Flash Intro — the purpose is to suck people into a relationship through the blog — having come back and talk to you.
I think most blogs are gratuitous and disgusting. The majority of photographers out there are using them instead of their news section on their website and simply post repeatedly about things they want to brag about. And most of the things are not worth it.
Unless you have something intelligent and constructive to write – something that is actually useful to others – then stick to photographing.
@20: I seem to recall reading something like that here (at least I think it was here) a long while back. It made sense that potential clients got to see a glimpse of what your personal life looked like. It made you a real person and not just someone who took pictures. I’d bet that having a six month old makes for funny stuff.
I get that a lot of photographers are using blogs to enhance the allure of their personal ouvre in hopes of furthering potentially commercial relationships with prospective clients, but that wouldn’t be my incentive.
To me the draw is the freedom/challenge to create my own “channel”, and fill it with original content that functions independently of any separate “main” career. Photos. Art. Music. Writing. Maybe video. If it did end up having a commercial component, it would the result of traffic generated to the level where taking on advertisers, or promoting other creative projects that are for sale, became a viable.
But the blog would be the thing, not the thing about the thing. (Yes, I get that this isn’t an original idea, I’m just saying that’s what attracts me to this avenue of expression.)
Don’t have a blog if you are only going to post once a month.
Don’t have a blog to brag about yourself TOO much!
I personally enjoy reading photographers journals, weblog, online art diaries. Whether it be behind the scenes, updates or even some of their own inpirations and or work they enjoyed.
In my opinion it’s all relative… I know someone working purely as a photographer needs clients, but do you really want a client that judges you by a weblog? I doubt there are that mant potential clients that would take the time to read such things, presumably making sure your photography is the front of your page and your journal is something else, perhaps not even linked on your portfolio.
The word “blog” still just makes me think of something disposable and trivial, like something your fourteen-year-old niece twitters to and posts phone snappies to and gushes about her latest crush on.
Having a news section on your website makes it easier to update viewers/clients (or with RSS, they update themselves) without making changes on your portfolio site every few weeks and then sending out an email blast. If you’ve got the ability to string a few well-worded sentences together to talk about what you’ve got going on (assuming you’ve got something going on), it’s a nice diversion.
So, now. How do we get rid of the word “blog?”
Great. Just one more thing that makes you lay in bed at night and wonder if you might be sabotaging yourself. (with honesty.)
[…] BRON : Photographers And Blogs [ENG] […]
I use my blog primarily to keep clients up to date on projects and to show long-term personal work.
My clients have told me that they read and enjoy seeing what I’ve been working on. Very good assignments have come from new clients reading it or seeing new images.
Sometimes, I’ll talk about a piece of gear I’ve used. (Jon Roemer, Mark Tucker and I voiced our opinions about a piece of gear that was not up to snuff and my blog was the carrier for us and that post helped quite a few photographers make a decision about if they should purchase that piece of kit)
Most of the time, it is a news section.
Yes, this is a mixed bag.
I think part of this reluctancy might be a fear of looking dorky to clients, (or to other photographers). How much do you let them see behind the curtain? Is it better to maintain mystery or let them see you with your pants down?
Heather Morton’s comment is the most interesting in here to me. I think photographers could learn from this. Here she is, just enjoying getting a glimpse into our lives, when, in truth, most photographers are just making sure they “look cool and have it together” most of the time. I mean, could you really imagine someone like a Steven Meisel having a blog, and there he is, just typing away, with that fur hat taken off, not dressed well, and just sharing details of his day and maybe posting an outtake from an Italian Vogue shoot, (that might be better off never being seen, for fear of risking his perfect image)? And trust me, Meisel is an awesome photographer in my eyes. If I was advising him, I’d say NoWayJose on the blog idea. Keep the curtain drawn. Don’t let them see you sweat.
Yet I must admit, it’s always enjoyable reading someone News Section or Blog section, or whatever we’re going to call it. (Agreed that the word blog should be retired, as should the word Twitter). It’s just human nature that you want to get to know someone that you respect.
I’d wonder how a client views a blog like the Chase Jarvis thing. Always full of gear talk. But then, you wonder, “Are many ADs out there just frustrated photographers? Might they just eat that stuff up? Might that gear talk actually attract a job now and then?” Or do you risk, “Wow, he comes off like a dork in a way. Do we wanna work with a gearhead?” So yeah, it’s a tough call; a mixed bag.
I think the way that Erik Almas does it is a good balance. I think he just calls it News or Recent, and then posts a JPG outtake, and who the client was. It just lets clients know that you’re not sitting around, not working, or making YouTube videos of how you pack your Pelican cases.
More than anything, I think this topic is making everyone rethink their website, and that the whole concept of “just a static site” is just not enough any more. It doesn’t change enough. People want new News every single day, (just like we went new News here on Rob’s site). It’s like you begin to think of your site more like a TV channel than a book — always changing and always updated.
How many hours are there in a day, again?
Someone sent me a link to a nice site the other day, but when the site opened, it was all autoplay videos of Behind The Scenes stuff. It was all I could do to find the damn photographs! So much WhizBang Stuff that you had to think twice — “is this guy a photographer or a videographer? Where are the damn pictures?”
BLogs. Gotta Love them. Pictures and words .Journals, personal, professional, insightful, individual, interesting, inspirational, motivating, accessed from almost anywhere; A place for freedom of expression and an incubator of new ways to wrap one’s head around what we do and what stories we will tell.
#7 check these out! gleaning through these over coffee this morning.
I really have enjoyed david alan Harvey’s window of the world. http://davidalanharvey.typepad.com/road_trip/.
and here’s a whole photoblog site!
http://www.photoblogs.org/
http://www.lensculture.com/webloglc/index.html
One day I ran across Peter Yang’s blog from 2001-2003. This was interesting, because photoblogging was in its infancy back then.
What also made it so interesting is that here, 5 years later, he’s shooting covers for Rolling Stone among others, and back then he was still in Austin working for the Statesman, experimenting with strobe techniques and taking random fun pictures of himself or his friends.
As a young photographer (not all that young in age, but young in professional experience), it was immensely inspirational to see that such a successful photographer was just like me only a few short years before.
It seems that his early blog might be gone now as google doesn’t find it anymore… I’m glad I found it when I did.
I like my blog. I want as many people to visit it as are interested in what I have to say so I’m beginning to foster repeat readers by giving them useful and interactive content.
I’m frequently invited by a college here in Chicago to do portfolio reviews and speak to classes about the business and art of photography. I enjoy it as a way to be connected to my industry on an entry level. Recently I added a Q&A section to my blog where photographers are invited to ask business questions that I and my colleagues respond to. It’s called “How to get ahead in Photography?” (Thank you Heather Morton-Ask an Art Buyer?) I get questions from all over the world.
I’m enjoying it as a way to elevate the consciousness of young photographers as well as engage other industry professionals around me to get involved in what I am trying. Like I said, I enjoy this kind of networking and moreover, you never know who will be reading.
I am using my blog for my own photographic activities only and I am having a ball posting whatever I want, silly or professional stuff and anything in between, and if it affects my business, then in a positive way (I never hear from the ‘other side’). I have gotten assignments because of it and magazines bought images that they saw on my blog. People order my book (search: Moko Jumbies) on amazon from the site, partly because I posted stories related to the book. It is a great way to let clients know in advance where I am going to next and what I am up to.
Clients don’t respond in dramatic numbers, but I think any good job or sales is worth the effort.
It is a lot of work and in my opinion it only (!) works if I keep ‘feeding’ it with new posts. Which is where also the danger lies, boring posts creep in because I think ‘better post something… ‘ when I really have nothing new to show.
And there will always be people who do not like my work or the way I present myself online, so be it. I am getting a little tired of reading about advice on what to do and what not, because ‘potential clients might watch, too !’
There are many potential clients out there who appreciate our new freedom of showing whatever we feel like showing and not staying in a box. Others don’t, but I can’t please everybody …
(Another benefit of posting my images on a regular basis is I can click on a label, lets say, ‘Trinidad and Tobago’ or ‘movie stills’, and I have all my work in that category right there on display since Sunday, Feb.6.2006, when I started the blog !!!)
The best blogs create something intimate and it is beautiful to see that some photographer’s work (private or commissioned) seems to be a print of who they are. Being a photographer is very competitive, probably more now then ever before. I think what Rob is saying is that don’t be like a hairdresser walking around with hideous looking hair but be sincere and careful with everything you flaunt.
Imagine if Lee Miller had a blog when she first encountered the concentration camps or if Roger Fenton while photographing The Crimean War in the year of 1855 also made regular posts about what it was like travelling with 5 horse drawn wagons full of photographic equipment.
For all of us who also write about photography and are interested in the creative process and what humans do while on this planet some of the blogs are a lovely read.
@ #40:
Quote: “Imagine if Lee Miller had a blog when she first encountered the concentration camps or if Roger Fenton while photographing The Crimean War in the year of 1855 also made regular posts about what it was like travelling with 5 horse drawn wagons full of photographic equipment.”
—–
I’ll tell you where they’d be — they’d be leaving the camps, and leaving the real action, (where the pictures are), and laying down their cameras, and riding back to town, to try to find a Starbucks Roasting Saloon, and trying to get their WIFI card to work in their wooden laptop, to transmit to the Pony Express guy, in order to get it to upload — that’s where they’d be! Missing the action!
You can’t be in two places at once. And you can’t be in two mindsets at once. The danger of stepping foot into this “instant broadcast mentality” is that you have to mentally leave the scene, and go into tech mode, and that comes at cost to the quality of the photographs. Go and look at The Roma Journeys and imagine him not spending time with his subjects, after dinner, and sinking into their community, but instead, going back to his hotel room and trying to get his village dial-up to work, in order for you to have instant cotten candy to read every night. Screw that. You’ve got to make priorities, how you’re going to spend your time.
http://tinyurl.com/5ywalf
LOL,
Oh True Grit or shall I call you #43 you have revealed the light – surely a choice between people and computers has to be made.
Eskildsens significant and valuable images are on the net now and also some of his words about this work and I appreciate that, I am thankful for him telling about it and that is what I mean.
Well Little Mr Aggressive, interesting mannerism that you think I am saying that photographers ought to skip what is motivating and meaningful to them and instead go and blog.
I will never again belong (nor pay dues) to any conglomeration that would have me as a member.
[…] blogs. Are you a professional photographer? Do you have a blog? Well then you may want to check out the article. Briefly, the 4 reasons […]
I write my blog mostly for myself. I use it as a home page, and central place where I can keep up with all of my favorite links.
Through my own blog I follow all of my favorite blogs and photographers.In other words, I USE it everyday, as well as write it. I also agree that if you are going to write a blog, the most important thing is to post on a regular basis. There is nothing more depressing that returning to a favorite blog and finding nothing has been posted for weeks.
great site! eye catching photos!
A blog can be a dedicated, calculated, marketing tool or it can be a freeform look into the psyche of the photographer. Or both, I suppose, if done well. My blog is a combination of both. I try to post new photos (not as often as I’d like, but I’m working on it), but so far, it’s mostly writings about questions and thoughts I have about photography (I try to keep the rants to a minimum) and not so much about obvious self promotion although I will be posting more about what I’m doing as a professional photographer in future installments. I think a blog is a way a client can get a sense of your personality if they haven’t worked with you before, and to keep up with you if they do.
You have to make the determination yourself regarding the purpose of your blog and then do it. or not. If your blog is perceived as an extension of your portfolio or part of your business marketing, etc. then if it is all over the place it might give the wrong impression to potential clients.
[…] wrote a great post about why photographers should blog. I’ve got a fifth reason: the process of writing for is […]
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