Blog on Photoblogs

I was introduced to Thomas’ work after he left a comment on the blog and I am glad that he did. I think his story is very similar to quite a few other photobloggers out there, he’s self taught, and has taken his passion for photography to a new level via his portfolio site and his blog.

I think that the idea behind separating the two (portfolio and blog) is something that is going to really start to proliferate once more and more photobloggers attempt to commercialize their passion - even if it’s just enough to support their passion.

Hope you enjoy the profile as much as I did. Make sure that you drop by Thomas’ portfolio site and his blog simple perspective, you will not be disapointed.

BOPB: Could you tell us a little bit about how you discovered photography? At what point did it become a more serious endeavor?
Thomas: Well, I have always enjoyed taking pictures with a camera, I think all people do really, but I first discovered photography as a serious hobby in November 2003. I had moved to Sydney, Australia in the middle of 2001 to start up my own company (non-photography related) and had left a bunch of good friends behind in Hong Kong where I was stationed for four years (coming from Denmark). I had started a whole new chapter in my life and was looking for something to balance my work with. To be honest I didn’t have a whole lot of time to make new friends or continue with sports as my work hours were very long back then, so photography was a very suitable hobby. One day I just picked up my SLR camera and decided to read the manual and figure out what all those dials and settings were for. I had ever only used it on the ‘Auto’ setting. In January 2004 I took my ‘Sydney Burning’ picture (above) and when I saw that slide I was addicted straight away and just knew that I wanted to continue to make images and learn to perfect my techniques.

BOPB: What was your first camera? What are you currently using?
Thomas: Apart from point and shoots it was a Canon EOS 50 (film) camera. Today I mainly shoot with my Canon EOS 20D and my Hasselblad Xpan II (dedicated to panoramics) and Pentax 645NII (medium format).

BOPB: You’ve have just recently decided to start a photoblog, what was the reasoning behind it?
Thomas: The main reason for starting my photoblog was to have a ‘forum’ for interaction with other photographers and people appreciating photography. I think the ability to receive direct feedback (comments) on one’s images is quite a valuable tool for a photographer. Most comments are often of positive nature, but at least you can see which photos attracts comments and which ones don’t and that can give you an indication as to which images have a broader appeal.

BOPB: You have a portfolio site and a blog, what was the motivation behind keeping them as two separate entities?
Thomas: The ultimate intention of my portfolio site is to present more tightly edited groups of images to showcase (examples of) my photography and with the eventual goal to make some fine art print sales as well. However the main goal for my portfolio site is to reach out to a variety of image buyers (not so much other photographers) - I consider it to be a bit like an elaborate online business card. The idea of my photoblog is different and more personal. My photoblog is simply a personal journal of random images I have made in the past and will make from week to week and these images are not very tightly edited and may even cover genres or processing techniques I decide to experiment with at certain times. Many of these images may never appear on my portfolio website. The main goal for the photoblog is to reach out to a community of other photographers and just share images, ideas and mutual inspiration.

BOPB: If you were able to give one piece of advice to a photographer who is considering setting up a photoblog, what would it be?
Thomas: Keep it fresh! I don’t expect daily images from a photoblog, but visiting a photoblog where no new images have been uploaded for months will rarely pull me back again.

BOPB: Who are your biggest photographic/artistic influences?
Thomas: My biggest influence is without a doubt the great Tony Sweet for his outstanding ability to perfectly design an image in camera, but I have also been influenced by photographers like William Neill, Eliot Porter, Brenda Tharp, Bryan F Peterson, Jim Brandenburg, Freeman Patterson, David Ward etc. The list is so long, there are just so many great photographers out there that are inspiring.

BOPB: Could you tell us about a few blogs that you really like?
Thomas: Well, apart from Blogs on Photoblogs I definitely follow both Tony Sweet’s blog and William Neill’s blog as these two blogs give some insight into the lives of working pro nature photographers in today’s market. Mark Graff’s blog and photoshop guru Ben Willmore’s blog are really nice too and I have also followed Sophie Pasquet’s blog for quite a while now. Just recently I discovered The Oswegan which is another really cool photoblog in a super simple design and with great photography.

(ED: Thanks for the plug Thomas!)

BOPB: When you first started, how did you manage to get traffic to your sites (both portfolio and blog)?
Thomas: I have not done anything actively to attract traffic to any of my two sites yet. I’m reading Blog on Photoblogs for great tips on this! Until now my traffic has come pretty much organically from search engine results, referrals from other photo websites or blogs and some direct traffic from old fashioned marketing (business cards associated with a few prints on display in a couple of different venues).

BOPB: I don’t see any mention of images for sale on your site. Do you plan on pursuing this in the future?
Thomas: Yes, this is definitely one of my near term goals. I do hope to make fine art prints sales via - or as a result of - my portfolio website within the next 12 months, but I’m currently in the process of populating this site with images.

BOPB: I know that it can be difficult running a photoblog when it comes to getting the inspiration to not only post, but create images. What piece of advice would you give to a fellow photoblogger who is currently in a creative rut?
Thomas: It’s not always easy to break out of a creative block, but you always do if you just keep shooting! One advice is to shoot something completely different than you normally shoot, so if you usually shoot nature and landscapes, go shoot some urban images, portraits or some candid street photography maybe, just try a new genre for fun and inspiration. Personally, though, I’m more inclined to self-assign a project. I once did a ‘November Mornings’ project where I got up with sunrise every morning in November to shoot a new image each morning. More recently I took on a ‘52 Weeks, 52 Images’ project where I forced myself to photograph every week for a full year and to come up with one ‘portfolio grade’ image each week. Often this forced me visualize what, where and how to shoot before I even went out to shoot. It forced me to approach my way of shooting in a new way.

BOPB: Could you tell us a little about your digital workflow?
Thomas: Well, I only shoot RAW and these days I download images from my card into Lightroom where I sort them and mark images that stand out from the crowd with one star and really, really good images with two stars. Images with no star are neutral I will keep them for reference. Obvious misfits (soft focus, totally wrong exposure etc.) gets marked for deletion. Then I make some basic global changes in Lightroom to the selected images and if needed some local changes in Photoshop. I then save these images as a master file including all layers. I’m currently in the process of organizing my entire image library according to this procedure. I recently read Peter Krogh’s ‘The DAM Book’ (Digital Asset Management) and decided it was overdue to set up a proper system for organizing and backing up images including saving out derivative files for prints, web use, stock submissions etc.

BOPB: Where do you see your blog/photography in say 3-5 years from now?
Thomas: Well, hopefully my blog has grown to attract more visitors and more interaction through which I will hopefully also discover new fellow photographers. I’m working towards a goal of making more fine art print sales and this includes putting together some marketing material to make this happen. I would be happy if I’m still involved with photography as a serious hobby and I would hope my ‘income’ from it has grown a bit further to better subsidise the expensive gear and equipment associated with serious photography. However at this stage I”m still contemplating where and how to position myself in the market.

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