photo blogging

Cabaal

Have to say I'm happy with how my blog is progressing, I still need to make some format changes and design changes to the layout but overall its going well.

I've stopped using the pixelpost resize option as the images were just not as sharp, might give that lightroom addon a try in future though

Traffic to the blog is also reasonable too,

Anouilh

I have just been thinking about why people start a Photo Blog. I found that it gave me something to do while I dried my hair each morning. Then it all took off.

Do Photo Bloggers here have other blogs?
It is now very fashionable to blog and, for probably the first time, Damien Mulley had "Blogger" after his name on "Questions and Answers" on RTE last night.

Also, have some Photo Blogs a political agenda?

I have been thinking about this for the past few days:

http://moderntwist2.blogspot.com/2009/04/funny-thing-happened-on-way-to.html#links

Calina

I run several blogs. There is a blog related to abandonedboats which is linked my my sig. I have one related to my gallery site which is kite/windsports related and which I don't update so often, and I have another braindumping blog. I also have a work one but that's not accessible outside me.

I blog because it's a slightly anarchic way of organising information. Dancing Shades of Light was set up as a learning blog and is a mix of commentary about photography and photographs. It's also changing in scope I'm looking at the possibility of setting up another photography blog in the more traditional sense of the word and am researching other photography blogs to have a look to see how they work.

The blog I've had longest is the windsandbreezes blog. It's a small fry blog in the grand schemes of things but I've covered an insane amount of different things on it. I find I don't so much have the time to write on it lately. I take breaks from it from time to time.

I photoblog because I can. I haven't decided whether to expand how the photoblog as it exists works or to build a different styled one. In part, I like the traditional photography blog with a picture a day and little or no commentary. On the other hand I do like the freedom that DSL as it exists gives me to comment on stuff and I'm looking to rearrange the information on it anyway - this has started as can be seen from the fact that a load of links are currently missing.

Anouilh

Calina wrote: »

haven't decided whether to expand how the photoblog as it exists works or to build a different styled one. In part, I like the traditional photography blog with a picture a day and little or no commentary. On the other hand I do like the freedom that DSL as it exists gives me to comment on stuff and I'm looking to rearrange the information on it anyway ...

It could be useful to share tips on what attracts viewers to photo blogs. Styles seem to change very quickly on the Internet and it's easy to end up looking old hat.

Calina

Fashions don't really interest me.

Anouilh

Styles and fashions are a little different.

For instance, HDR seems to seem less attractive than it was when it first hit the Internet. People get bored very easily when exposed to numerous photos of similar subjects.

Perhaps opening the discussion up to ask what Photo Bloggers here find works and what does not might give us all a perspective on how to improve our work?

Calina

Anouilh, style never goes out of fashion. That is the key difference. Fashions change, style doesn't.

There are many different things which work and things that don't. A lot depends on your target audience and what you yourself want to achieve. I can't tell you that what works for me would work for other people because what I want to do and what they want to do isn't necessarily the same. I don't even know what works for me because I just do what I want which changes on a day to day basis. Not everyone works that way and if someone were asking my advice because they were setting up a blog I would never start with a list of things that work for me or some small set of "successful" photobloggers. I would start with this question: what do you want to present to the world?

What's your message? Are you willing to engage with your community?

If you can't answer that question, then theme selection is irrelevant.

thebaz

I am going against the trend - and have actually stopped my blog

http://www.photoblog.com/thebaz

I may take it up again, certainly with less regularity, I wanted to track a year in my life , and I guess that objective was achieved - vanity :-)

elven

Some advice from someone who seems to be quite popular. I'm just forwarding on the link, haven't even read it myself yet.

Cabaal

thebaz wrote: »

I am going against the trend - and have actually stopped my blog

http://www.photoblog.com/thebaz

I may take it up again, certainly with less regularity, I wanted to track a year in my life , and I guess that objective was achieved - vanity :-)

Barry I thought you gave up blogging, I see an update in May

icedcoffee

I've had a variation of a photo blog for over 4 years now.
It is currently at

photo.icedcoffee.ie.
updated daily.

thebaz

Cabaal wrote: »

Barry I thought you gave up blogging, I see an update in May

the great thing about your own blog is, you can stop it, relaunch it, talk **** ... and no one can give out to you ... for once I am my own boss :-)

http://www.photoblog.com/thebaz

just like the great John Lydon

houseoffun14

My blog is at the following link. I use it mainly to let people know when my site has been updated,or when images have been published, or when articles or workshops are coming out.
To view the blog click here.

thebaz

thebaz wrote: »

the great thing about your own blog is, you can stop it, relaunch it, talk **** ... and no one can give out to you ... for once I am my own boss :-)

http://www.photoblog.com/thebaz

just like the great John Lydon

just thinking about it , for the past year I fealt "I had to" to blog every day and post an image daily, now I have lifted the pressure of myself , I post when I want to, without it becoming a daily chore - if you get me - more enjoyable
b

nilhg

thebaz wrote: »

just thinking about it , for the past year I fealt "I had to" to blog every day and post an image daily, now I have lifted the pressure of myself , I post when I want to, without it becoming a daily chore - if you get me - more enjoyable
b

That's where having an archive of old shots comes in handy, helps to get some content up when you start off and fill in the gaps when inspiration deserts you or normal life keeps you from shooting.

Anyway as you said before, it's your blog, there are no rules, the great thing is you can do as you like.:D

Anouilh

thebaz wrote: »

just thinking about it , for the past year I fealt "I had to" to blog every day and post an image daily, now I have lifted the pressure of myself , I post when I want to, without it becoming a daily chore - if you get me - more enjoyable
b

The number of new skills one has to learn at first means that most bloggers go at it hammer and tongs for the first few months.

The last time I worked as hard as I did in 2008 was for my Leaving Cert, but after a year of solid photo blogging I just sign out from time to time and leave a "See You All Later" notice.

Blogging should not be an on-going martyrdom, as other commentators here have pointed out.

*Dallas

ive set up a new blog on wordpress. I've added a few of boardsies that i know from being on here, im a complete noob, so any tips would be appreciated!

http://debbiedunne.wordpress.com/

Deliverance XXV

*Dallas wrote: »

ive set up a new blog on wordpress. I've added a few of boardsies that i know from being on here, im a complete noob, so any tips would be appreciated!

http://debbiedunne.wordpress.com/

I like the simplicity of the theme :-)

Roy Rogers

Right, I think this is my second post ever in the Photography forum, so I feel a bit like a shill... however, I have been lurking for a while so don't judge me too harshly please

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone in this thread as I've just recently taken up photography as a hobby; as part of this, I decided to start a photoblog as a project to get me practising. This thread helped me a lot in terms of deciding where to set it up, and now that I've got a few blog posts in I don't feel too embarrassed about linking it: http://landigan.wordpress.com !

Aside from that, this forum was an invaluable aid in deciding what camera to buy and planning what lenses to buy next, as well as inspiration and plentiful reading, so for all that too -- thanks!

melekalikimaka

i've decided to jump into the blogging world.

will be investing in hosting and domain...

anyone ever used joomla for blogging? seems to be a bit improved over wordpress. any hosts you can reccommend?

Cabaal

melekalikimaka wrote: »

i've decided to jump into the blogging world.

. any hosts you can reccommend?

welcome!
I'm using Blacknight.ie, 4.95e a month pretty decent package for that price
but then I host a good few domains on it

melekalikimaka

i've decided to go down the free route til i get my head round this blogging. basically, i'd like to be able to transfer (tis a bit lazy) a load of college word documents of projects and techniques I experiemented with into a blog section, whilst having seperate sections for individul shots and a section for series that will be updated on the fly? Asking for too much?

Anouilh

I continue to enjoy using Blogger best, despite the fact that Wordpress is more admired by experts, as it needs a bit of coding skill.

One tip: you could start a blog and keep it private until you are happy with the direction it is taking. I added to blogs as different needs arose over the past few years and it is easy to try out different templates and styles in Blogger.

http://www.blogger.com/profile/15427603252937311851

Also, the easy interface on one's profile means that it is possible to quickly search for bloggers who have similar tastes. Just list favourite writers and interest and each becomes a live link to all the other people who have listed the same topic.

Best of luck with it...

Anouilh

A pleasant template is important when encouraging return visitors to a blog. There are some nice links here:

http://style.photojaunt.com/top-ten-best-photoblog-themes-and-templates/

Perhaps we could share some photo blogging tips on this thread?

thebaz

i'm now experimenting blogging to twitter

http://twitter.com/thebaz_dublin

Crispin

hi blogging fraternity

Decided to take the plunge and spent the evening doing this:

http://natureoflight.blogspot.com/

I would appreciate any comments on anything in it, or anything that is lacking. Is it too cluttered/ do i sound like i am full of BS and as this is the photo forum: tell me what you think of the few pics I have shoved up there.

If some of ye wouldn't mind linking me too please (if thats not too cheeky), & I can repay the favour!

jtang

here's my 2cents on blogging.

http://www.sgenomics.org/~jtang/blog/

my blog is pretty sparse looking, almost no theming. the software is really a wiki but was adapted to work as a blog. and anyone can "clone" and branch it if they wish to, provided they know how to install ikiwiki and use git (and a text editor)

it doesn't really work for photo blogging, but its not bad either.

nilhg

Crispin wrote: »

hi blogging fraternity

Decided to take the plunge and spent the evening doing this:

http://natureoflight.blogspot.com/

I would appreciate any comments on anything in it, or anything that is lacking. Is it too cluttered/ do i sound like i am full of BS and as this is the photo forum: tell me what you think of the few pics I have shoved up there.

If some of ye wouldn't mind linking me too please (if thats not too cheeky), & I can repay the favour!

Welcome along Chris, looks good to me, one thing you might want to have a look at though, it seems to be impossible to leave a comment, I certainly failed.

Crispin

nilhg wrote: »

Welcome along Chris, looks good to me, one thing you might want to have a look at though, it seems to be impossible to leave a comment, I certainly failed.

Good spot
I had an error in my HTML, sorted now I think. If you get a chance to test it I'd be really grateful

*eadaoin

excellent, i was just about to come on here and start a thread like this but now i don't have to! i've only ever found a couple of irish photoblogs and have been trying to find more so now i can have a root through this thread and check everyone's out.

i have just began a photoblog using blogger a while back, but i'm not sure it's the right tool for what i'm looking for. anyways, i'll see how it goes and if i'm happy with it then i'll maybe post it up here someday too

kjt

OK... so I just spent the last little while adding ALL the blogs in the order they appeared. Below is the website and user:

http://photoblog.com/thebaz/ - thebaz
http://hughchaloner.com/ - Hugh_C
http://darrengreene.ie/ - DarrenG
http://daz0rz.wordpress.com/ - dazftw
http://jmcdermott.ie/blog/ - Deliverance XXV
http://www.halfadreamaway.com/ - elven
http://shortsights.blogspot.com/ - Anouilh
http://golanky.com/ - bovril
http://kevoto.com/ - latchiko
http://focuspocus.org/ - alb
http://kgillerphotography.com - kgiller
http://glasseyalley.com - rymus
http://www.dancingshades.org/ - Calina
http://paudie.wordpress.com/ - paudie
http://johnoloughlin.ie/ - nilhg
http://patrick.dinneen.com/ - dinneenp
http://wexfordphotography.com/ - bravo
http://barrysomers.com/blog/ - Cabaal
http://alexherriott.com/ - Gozo
http://photoaday.ideasasylum.com/ - hopelessOne
http://photo.icedcoffee.ie/ - icedcoffee
http://photoimagery.net/blog/ - houseoffun14
http://debbiedunne.wordpress.com/ - *Dallas
http://blog.kyletunneyphotography.com/ - kjt
www.alhigginsphotography.com/blog - Fajitas!

If you're bored in work, add a comment to everybodys blog above, I'd say that should get you through till lunch

Fajitas!

Also;

www.alhigginsphotography.com/blog

and Elven's photoblog is;

www.halfadreamaway.com

Calina

My blog have been attacked again. They had both been okay the other day but looks like they're in trouble again (I'm sorry - I've been busy and had spent last weekend getting rid of the bad things).

No point in looking at www.dancingshades.org at the moment. I guess I know what I'll be doing this evening.

kjt

Calina wrote: »

I guess I know what I'll be doing this evening.

Going out and taking photos in the rain?

Calina

Rebuilding two websites for the second time in a week. I managed to save the content last time. This time, it's not going to happen.

positron

Most blogs seems to have no RSS feed support?

I was looking to add all the above links to my Google Reader - which really makes it easy to keep everything 'to read' in one place..!

nilhg

I have most of them in google reader, try importing them from the attached file, (remove the .txt extension first).

positron

That's perfect! Thanks a million!!

achtungbarry

My site is still being built but the photos are up.

I am currently writing a fairly comprehensive photography tutorial. The tutorial focuses mainly on the relationship between aperture, shutter speed and ISO and how you can control them properly to have more control over your photography and produce the images you want to. The tutorial will also cover topics such as metering, focusing and a guide to the various semi manual and full manuals on your camera.

The tutorial will be aimed at those who are relatively new to DSLR photography and want to get to grips with the main concepts of photography.

Keep an eye on the site in the coming weeks for the tutorial.

http://www.barryocarroll.com/

Crispin

kjt wrote: »

OK... so I just spent the last little while adding ALL the blogs in the order they appeared. Below is the website and user:

http://photoblog.com/thebaz/ - thebaz
http://hughchaloner.com/ - Hugh_C
http://darrengreene.ie/ - DarrenG
http://daz0rz.wordpress.com/ - dazftw
http://jmcdermott.ie/blog/ - Deliverance XXV
http://www.halfadreamaway.com/ - elven
http://shortsights.blogspot.com/ - Anouilh
http://golanky.com/ - bovril
http://kevoto.com/ - latchiko
http://focuspocus.org/ - alb
http://kgillerphotography.com - kgiller
http://glasseyalley.com - rymus
http://www.dancingshades.org/ - Calina
http://paudie.wordpress.com/ - paudie
http://johnoloughlin.ie/ - nilhg
http://patrick.dinneen.com/ - dinneenp
http://wexfordphotography.com/ - bravo
http://barrysomers.com/blog/ - Cabaal
http://alexherriott.com/ - Gozo
http://photoaday.ideasasylum.com/ - hopelessOne
http://photo.icedcoffee.ie/ - icedcoffee
http://photoimagery.net/blog/ - houseoffun14
http://debbiedunne.wordpress.com/ - *Dallas
http://blog.kyletunneyphotography.com/ - kjt
www.alhigginsphotography.com/blog - Fajitas!

If you're bored in work, add a comment to everybodys blog above, I'd say that should get you through till lunch

Is there a reason I didn't make the list?:(

Covey

Mine has now found a permanent home, though still very much a work in progress,

www,.eyeblinks.net

kjt

Crispin wrote: »

Is there a reason I didn't make the list?:(

lol nope I must have just missed it, whoops, there are 6 pages or em

http://photoblog.com/thebaz/ - thebaz
http://hughchaloner.com/ - Hugh_C
http://darrengreene.ie/ - DarrenG
http://daz0rz.wordpress.com/ - dazftw
http://jmcdermott.ie/blog/ - Deliverance XXV
http://www.halfadreamaway.com/ - elven
http://shortsights.blogspot.com/ - Anouilh
http://golanky.com/ - bovril
http://kevoto.com/ - latchiko
http://focuspocus.org/ - alb
http://kgillerphotography.com - kgiller
http://glasseyalley.com - rymus
http://www.dancingshades.org/ - Calina
http://paudie.wordpress.com/ - paudie
http://johnoloughlin.ie/ - nilhg
http://patrick.dinneen.com/ - dinneenp
http://wexfordphotography.com/ - bravo
http://barrysomers.com/blog/ - Cabaal
http://alexherriott.com/ - Gozo
http://photoaday.ideasasylum.com/ - hopelessOne
http://photo.icedcoffee.ie/ - icedcoffee
http://photoimagery.net/blog/ - houseoffun14
http://debbiedunne.wordpress.com/ - *Dallas
http://blog.kyletunneyphotography.com/ - kjt
http://alhigginsphotography.com/blog - Fajitas!
http://natureoflight.blogspot.com/ - Crispin
http://eyeblinks.net - Covey

If I missed anybody else, my bad! Just copy my post and pop yours into the mix...

Fajitas!

Does anyone know of any lazyman plugin's for Pixelpost to make it easier to update links?

humberklog

Fiddling about with the notion of doing one of these. I was against them even before I'd ever seen one. Odd behaviour I know and I was wrong and I knew I was wrong when one day I saw Rymus's results. He had a little book done out and it looked really smart.
Thanks to KJT for putting that list up as I've just really enjoyed looking through a lot of them.
Ok I do turn off when I come across words such as "passion" or "exploring light" or "important social record" but it's not all that and when it is sure that's that photographer's gig...and more power to it.

So I then considered the lay-out and connectivity of the different sites and the one that The Baz has his stuff on looks very smart.
Is this a good choice?
Free is important, simplicity a must and an active but not too busy enviroment are what I'm looking for.
Is Photoblog good for those requirements?

dakar

^ what Humberklog said.
Thanks, saved me a lot of typing!

humberklog

dakar wrote: »

^ what Humberklog said.
Thanks, saved me a lot of typing!

Anytime:D.

Do you have one Dakar?

It does seem to me now to be a natural progression on from flickr and pixie.

Also I've ran outta space on flickr and find pix.ie a mare for putting a collection together.

dakar

No, but for the last couple of weeks and even more so since this thread woke up again, I've been seriously looking at getting up off my backside and just doing it.

There's been quite a bit of food for thought in some of the blog related threads of late. There seem to be a few reasons to consider one. Personal photographic development (not that sort ), vanity, following fashion, the drive towards more rigorous self criticism and selection, maybe a messianic zeal to share your vision with the world (oh yeah, that'd be the vanity thing again) or maybe just a fun thing to do!

Only the first and last seem valid to me, and they're the reason I'll probably get around to it sooner rather than later. I've already become a lot more selective about what I'll put up on pixie. I've completed a sofobomo. Seems like a logical next step.

Crispin

humberklog wrote: »

Ok I do turn off when I come across words such as "passion" or "exploring light" or "important social record" but it's not all that and when it is sure that's that photographer's gig...and more power to it.

Ha ha ha so true
only wrote mine yesterday and I found that as I started a blog I found myself unintentionally altering my style of prose so it read like self indulgent, pretentious "photography" bullsh1t. I couldn't help myself :eek:. I am going back trying to tone the bullsh1t down as we speak.....

[Keeping the blog title though (nature of light) cause I like it :P lol :pac:]

Fajitas!

I reckon if you're curious at all, give it a go. You don't have to throw it straight into the public domain. I kept mine on the quiet for about 3 months if not longer.

dakar

Good point! I'll get onto it so!