Blog on Photoblogs

This weeks image is from Sean of TreeSwing.

As soon as I saw this image, I knew that I wanted it to be featured as the image of the week, and here’s why, first, it’s architecturally themed, and as I have mentioned before, I am a sucker for these types of images. I love the constrasting colours and how the picnic table stands out from the grass and the wall.  My eye is drawn immediately to the table and if it attempts to stray the strong horiztonal theme of the image and the verticals on the top of the image force it back to the focal point of the image.  Nice job Sean…

If you’re not familar with Sean’s work, make sure you check it out, you won’t be disappointed.
 

The lastest photographer to be profile is Uwe Eischens and his blog, accessible.de. If you’re a fan of landscape imagery, make sure you check his blog out.

Track the adventures of Seth Godin’s Purple Cow as it travels the global inspiring photographers as it goes

To be perfectly honest with you, I am not even sure how I managed to stumble across Jasmine Star’s, but boy I am ever glad that I did! I was so impressed by her work, that I decided to make one of her images the inaugural Image of the Week!

I just read about this great event on Heather Morton’s blog. They still need some help so if you’re in the Toronto area, and would like to volunteer your time - or even better submit some of your work, check out the slideluck community (BTW, it’s on Ning - which I think is the coolest social networking site!)

Well, I decided to go back to my original first pick I know that some of you are thinking - An image from Chromasia? That’s not much of a stretch! I know but when I came across this image I was instantly drawn into the photograph and found myself spending quite a bit of time just admiring it’s detail.

I have been a fan of David’s work for quite sometime now, and he managed to turn me into a bigger fan with his recent architectural series from his trip to Dubai.

Here’s what struck me about this image in particular,

• Top-notch post-processing: David’s images have always been nicely post-processed, this image continues that trend.
• The detail: I found myself searching for objects within the image, signs of life in around the construction projects.
• The sheer magnitude of the image: Just the fact that there are that many construction cranes in a single image really caught my attention.

One aspect of David’s work that has always impressed me is he complete grasp of the art of post-processing in Photoshop. If you want to learn some of David’s techniques, I would suggest you check out the Chromasia Photoshop Tutorials.

I was first introduced to Brendan’s work when I read a profile of him on Strobist. Shortly afterwards he was the first person to ask for my copy of Seth Godin’s Purple Cow. Now I have profiled him - he has some great insights into photography, make sure you read his profile.

This topic has come up quite a few times in the last little while so I figured that I would post my thoughts, and see what the community thinks about it.

When I first started my own photoblog, I would have said that there was no need for separate websites for your blog and your portfolio site (a.k.a commercial venture), but after quite a bit of reading and talking to other photobloggers out there, I now feel it’s not only a good way to go, but vital to your long-term success.

Before I get into my reasoning, let me just state one thing - if you don’t have any intentions of trying to commercialize your photography then you do not need separate sites, but if your ultimate goal is to turn your passion of photography into a commercial venture, than you really do need multiple sites. Here are my reasons,

• Photoblogs are personal: They give you a place to experiment and have a little fun with your photography. This is great, and it allows you to perfect your skills, but I am not convinced that it’s something you should be promoting to your prospective clients.
• Photoblogs give you a place to network with other photographers: I’ve said it in an earlier post, it’s my opinion that the majority of the visitors who come to your photoblog are other photographers and while there’s nothing wrong with that they probably are not going to be paying your bills.
• Protect sensitive clients: If you enjoy one type of photography let’s say, Boudoir, but you earn the majority of your income from Family portraits you may be putting off potential clients that come across your personal work. “Word of mouth” can be a very effective method of advertising, but it can also be deadly, more people talk about their bad experiences than their good ones - you need to be very careful not to offend potential paying clients.
• Specialization: Nowadays, everyone has a digital camera which is more than capable of taking very nice digital photographs. In order to separate yourself from the crowd you need to specialize! Have fun on your photoblog, but your portfolio site should be highly targeted!

So there you have it - my first four reasons why you should separate your blog from your portfolio site…

Anyone have any additional thoughts/comments?