So...
I essentially started this blog to promote my commercial photography career, and kind of disguise all the promotion by showing other curious photographers work that I was discovering, and then sharing new projects I was trying to dabble in and get off the ground. What was the idea. I hoped that photo editors would like to see the photogs I was writing about, they'd like to see my new work, and then they would stomach all the self promotional stuff that I wedged in the middle. Sound fair?
It evolved into an odd combination of all of that, as well as an excuse to share and solidify the new personal project I'm working on, tentatively titled "Weird Pictures of My Kid", which are the photographs and scans done over 2007 that kind of reflect on the journey that we've been on while trying to diagnose our eldest son. The doctors say he is Autistic, we think sometimes he is just mischievous and creative. None the less, that situation is fueling that project and directing the images.
The way it has evolved is that the blog audience seems to like engaging with "WPOMK", and then simply tolerates all the embarrassing self promotion I engage in. Hmmm...I guess magazines have ads that we all tolerate, so...this is like that, huh?
A great blog that I'm way into now and reads like a great photo magazine is Colin Pantall's blog.
Bookmark this thing: http://colinpantall.blogspot.com/. It's what I'd want my blog to be like if I was just more....pure or something. Check it out and engage with the conversation. There is a thread that Pantall's writing is following, from project to project, and its competing with Conscientious for my serious blog time reading. Check it out HERE.
I essentially started this blog to promote my commercial photography career, and kind of disguise all the promotion by showing other curious photographers work that I was discovering, and then sharing new projects I was trying to dabble in and get off the ground. What was the idea. I hoped that photo editors would like to see the photogs I was writing about, they'd like to see my new work, and then they would stomach all the self promotional stuff that I wedged in the middle. Sound fair?
It evolved into an odd combination of all of that, as well as an excuse to share and solidify the new personal project I'm working on, tentatively titled "Weird Pictures of My Kid", which are the photographs and scans done over 2007 that kind of reflect on the journey that we've been on while trying to diagnose our eldest son. The doctors say he is Autistic, we think sometimes he is just mischievous and creative. None the less, that situation is fueling that project and directing the images.
The way it has evolved is that the blog audience seems to like engaging with "WPOMK", and then simply tolerates all the embarrassing self promotion I engage in. Hmmm...I guess magazines have ads that we all tolerate, so...this is like that, huh?
A great blog that I'm way into now and reads like a great photo magazine is Colin Pantall's blog.
Bookmark this thing: http://colinpantall.blogspot.com/. It's what I'd want my blog to be like if I was just more....pure or something. Check it out and engage with the conversation. There is a thread that Pantall's writing is following, from project to project, and its competing with Conscientious for my serious blog time reading. Check it out HERE.
Then...my last commercial plug for a while...here are some shots from the fat Monster.com photoshoot we wedged in after Thanksgiving...in case y'all were curious:
5 comments:
Though I like Colin's blog alot I do not think it is the holy grail you are looking for. I think it is easy to blog exclusively about other people's work as he does. Or to blog only about your own as most of us do. But to combine the two and make it compelling is the challenge.
I agree with what Thomas said, but it's also a tricky thing, all of photogs-with-blogs. Essentially you want your blog to be a place where you can ramble, show random things that don't quite fit onto your real site, and maybe generate some self-promotional interest in those that could hire you. It's a tricky line to figure out how much your blog should be about you, and how much it should be about other things/people in the world of photography. We've all seen a great many blogs that are solely about the authors, and a great many that are soley about Photography In General.
It is certainly rare to do both well, but I think - like you said, Tim - to do both you still end up skewed heavily toward one side. I don't, however, think that's a bad thing. I'd say it's perfectly reasonable to mostly talk about yourself and occasionally about things you like. After all, we're all experts on ourselves first and foremost. At least, I'd hope so. And if we all didn't think we had anything interesting to say or show we'd be accountants and have more reliable income streams.
Oh, and I can fix that Rubik's Cube for you, if you want. Look at you go, Tim. I put cubes in my shots and people just think I'm weird. You do it for the big money. Mazeltov.
I hear ya...but really, being a photographer, when have you enjoyed reading about some massive shoot and all of the crew and the motor home and all of those details from some mega ad shoot or interesting editorial shoot? I actually have enjoyed reading Chris Buck's site, where he has anecdotes about the people he is shooting, and somehow Whats The Jackanory has perfected the ability to write about the boring details of what we do as editorial shooters and I still find myself reading it.
Soth's blog was real good when he wrote about photography, it was almost like a super smart flickr or something. Olivier Laude's blog is hard to read, mostly because he is on another mental planet than the rest of society, but it has moments of greatness because he really doesn't ever promote himself in the least.
So...I dunno.
And thanks for the lovely comments, Tim - it's good to know that the thread's vaguely made sense, because I'm not always sure that they do.
Big up for the shout out glad someone is reading
Cheers
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