Blog on Photoblogs

I decided to use Brad’s iHop photo as the introduction image for a number of reasons 1) being a Canadian I am deprived of iHop goodness, and 2) I figured it was a great method of reminding my girlfriend of my stuffed french toast obsession, on top of my continous “let’s goto iHop for stuffed french toast” weekend prodding…

I really enjoyed this profile, Brad’s candid responses really show his personality, couple that with the work he allows us to see on his photoblog and you get a really great picture…

Enjoy the profile and make sure you visit Wasted Photos, maybe we can all help break Brad out of his rut!

BOPB:What drew you into photography in the first place, and at what point in time did it become more serious?
Brad: I’m not sure exactly what drew me into photography. In college my dad asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I said a digital camera, but not to get me one because I’d want a good one and that would be too much money… so he goes and gets me some Kodak point and click deally.. now mind you this was in 2000 so digital camera’s were still in there infancy. So I take this camera he got me, returned it to Best Buy and got a Sony S85. I would play around a lot with it.. mostly trying to do some night shots, but I really started having fun with photography when I found out a buddy of mine was interested in going out and taking photos too — so we started going out on weekends just shooting whatever we saw and had a blast doing it.. then I discovered how processing in Photoshop could help even more and it was like .. whoa… big boner time with my camera.

(BOPB: Having a friend who is also addicted to photography is an awesome way to break out of a rut, or discover photography)

What’s the one piece of equipment currently in your camera bag that you just couldn’t live without?
Considering I don’t have much equipment in my “camera bag” I’d say all of it. I have my Canon 30D, a 16-35L, a 580 EX2 and a 50mm 1.8 … so there’s really only one piece of equipment I CAN live without .. and that’s the 50/1.8 … or, I could live without all of them… I mean, it’s just camera equipment. What a silly question… THIS INTERVIEW IS OVER!

Why a photoblog?  What made you decide to invest to time and energy to get the site up and running?
Ok, I decided I’d keep answering your questions. (thanks Brad) So, I was out taking photos on a regular basis alone or with some friends and I had compiled a pretty decent collection of pretty decent photos… nothing amazing, but stuff I was happy with… and I started asking myself “What’s the point?” … I had all of these photos and they were just…. “going to waste” (Ehh .. ehh .. see where this is going?)… I threw together a small little site for myself and really liked doing it …and I’ve shown very few people this so feel special… a lot of those photos ended up on wastedphotos.com once that got started…. but back to the story … eventually I stumbled upon ddoi and something about the whole ‘picture a day’ experience really attracted me.. and once I saw thinsite’s photos, write-ups and the general genius that is attila I saw the direction I could really take things. Attila and I emailed back and forth a few times and he gave me some great pointers on getting started and was a regularly nice guy about it all and I figured I could try it out and see if it was fun or not.. and it was.

What platform is your photoblog currently running on and why did you choose it over the others?
I’m actually running my own software… I’m not sure why, but I’m a programmer during the day so to me it seemed like “well, I need a blog, lets code one up”… it’s also nice knowing how everything works so that when something breaks I know where to go fix it.. of course you could argue that with some packaged software (pixelpost) that things don’t break…..

I liked your post about how you started out with a bang in 2008, but you felt “flat” by July, just how hard is it keep a photoblog fresh?
It’s super hard. I have had days where I’ll go out for 5-6 hours and come home with just a few photos I can maybe use. Then there are the days where I come home with a ton.. the problem is that I HATE repeating myself.. If I have a picture of a cow today I don’t want to do another one for a few months. Variety keeps people interested and that, unfortunatley, means you have to constantly be out shooting…. and I dont have time for that… I’ve got money to make and kids to feed (not really… thank god). So, the short answer — it’s VERY hard.

If you were able to give a single piece of advice to a photographer who is considering setting up their own photoblog, what would it be?
The same advice that Atttila originally gave to me… and that is, if you’re going to do it, just have fun with it.. post the things that YOU want to and don’t ever try to make people happy. Granted, I will often hold back on photos that I don’t expect will get a good response, but I’ve really taken his advice to heart when it comes to my write ups. I know that a lot of what I write can offend people or might be gross, but it makes me laugh (usually) so I don’t care. I think of the whole thing as a website for me that other people can see.. not a website for everyone else. Maybe I’m selfish.

I always like to “categorize” the blogs that I enjoy, but I haven’t been able to do that with yours..If you had to categorize your work what would you call it?
If I HAD to categorize my blog? “Crap” maybe? I’m not sure. Wasted Photos is definately part of a small group of photos blogs category wise… only half of the site’s focus is on the photo — the other half is my write up (and that’s the harder part by FAR)… there are so many wayyyy better photographers out there, but their sites are SO BORING because they get all uppidity and pretencious about their work… “This is a photo of a sunset and I took it because it represented the color of my soul” …or people who always refer to their “portrait” shots… that’s boring to read.. so I try to make it interesting. thinsite did it, and a few others — like Jeff Ambrose’s openroadimagery … although he’s been slacking lately with the jokes — Jeff, get on it!

Do you mind telling us a little about your typical post-processing?
Well, first it’s into the Adobe Raw converter and I take the lazy way and usually just hit Auto. I have a tendency to over process things so there’s always TONS of layers going on in my photoshop files, but I more often than not add in a Colorized Hue/Saturation layer.. and I scroll through the blending effects until I find something I like. I always sharpen last then add a little vignetting through a PS action I setup. I used to give away my PSD’s on the site, but people were just taking them and not saying thank you so I stopped.

When you run into a “rut”, when even thinking about getting behind the camera, how do you work past that?
What a timely question… seeing how I haven’t posted a photo in over 2 weeks… and until now I had never missed a day in 2.5 years. I really don’t know how to work past ruts. I have wayyyy too many hobbies as is so if I’m not into my camera I have plenty of other things to go do. Photography is much more of a warm weather thing for me — I usually post from my archives once the weather dips below 50.

I noticed that you offer prints of all of the work on your site, how successful has that been?
I don’t know if I should lie and say it’s been great to make it seem like my photos are a hot commodity or be honest .. and since I guess I just let the cat out of the bag I guess I’ll just be honest. I’ve sold like 2 or 3 prints ever. Well, maybe more than that — but a lot of time I sell them to friends at cost.. I mean, how can I charge my friends for some photos I took while dicking around? That doesn’t seem fair.

What have you found to be the most effective method of attracting new visitors to your photoblog?
I have no idea how to attract visitors to my site. Maybe word of mouth? I don’t know who most of my visitors are so I don’t know how they found me… although it did seem like I had a lot more traffic when thinsite was running… so maybe everyone funnelled through him? I should really stop mentioning his site on here… this is about me… not mr I-don’t-post anymore..

Do you engage in any offline-promotion of your photoblog?
I got a tattoo with my URL on my schlong if that counts… wait, no I don’t. So, no… no offline promotion.

Would you mind telling us about two other photographers who you find to be especially inspiring?
Well, since I already talked about thinsite we won’t count him… Kenny over at moodaholic is great. I’d love to know his post-processing techniques. Martin Andreasen at WhatTheHeck also has unbelievable post work. I feel like post-processing is a make-or-break it type of thing for any photo and those guys blow me away. I also want to go on record and say that, although once an inspiration, I hate-hate-HATE ddoi… the photos are boring and repetative.

Finally, where do you see your photoblog and photography in say 3-5 years time?
Hopefully the blog will still be running… but given how things have gone for me lately who knows… hopefully I’ll be a better photographer by then. My girlfriend just got me my first set of umbrellas and some stands so I’ll be playing around with them and maybe getting better. Maybe I’ll be a drunk by then and will have sold my camera for a sixer and some cheese — I don’t know.

(BOPB: I would hate to see the last option happen – unless of course the cheese is a nice gouda, if this happens, make sure you let me know!)

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