To PhotoBlog or not?
Posted: Tue 17 October, 2006 Filed under: Own Business, Photography, Resolutions, Thoughts 3 Comments »I’ve been doing some more thinking about the site for my photography that I was writing about yesterday.
Basically, the question that came up was this : Do I make it into a photoblog like Chromasia, DDOI et al, or do I have it as a simple portfolio site, just to show off what I can do, along with contact details, etc.?
I can’t deny, I’ve always kind of liked the idea of a photoblog (I hate that word, but can’t come up with a better one at the moment. Hey Ho) although it does have the potential downside of not updating every day, or – to my mind even worse – the intention of adding a new shot every day, but never quite managing to do so. Combined with that is the part of me that worries about diluting “the brand”, or similarly of diluting the strength of some of the images by just having one every day, so some are great and others merely so-so.
As for having it as “just” a portfolio, that quite appeals too. It’d certainly be simpler, and (in theory at least) a lot less work than a constantly updated site with new photos all the time. This is of particular relevance at the moment, where I can’t deny that my motivation is pretty rock-bottom and merely ticking over, and also where I’m away from home for four nights a week. While this should give me the time to get a lot of stuff done, I can’t deny that at the moment it’s leaving me a bit numb, and slightly “CBA” about the entire thing.
So I think that for now it’s likely I’ll leave the site as “just” a portfolio site, where a selection of my better/favourite photos can be viewed, rather than doing stuff for it every day.
Although, of course, that doesn’t mean that at some point in the future I won’t add in a PhotoBlog section…
The only advice I would give is not to force it. If you have a picture post it, if you haven’t don’t. Of course if you have more than one, then hold one back. But trying to post everyday can be difficult and it is worse to create the expectation and not meet it, than create no expectation at all.
I’m in the process of moving my photoblog from one site to another because I can use basis of the new site, i.e. Britain itself, to give a direction to my photographs. I fell this is much better than with the old site where they were just photographs I took. Perhaps you should consider theming them as well?
Don’t get obsessed by the idea of posting every day. I have great gaps with my photoblog. And then I have consecutive days of productivity.
Analysing my site stats, almost nobody treats my phlog as a blog. Almost all my hits are either from Google or via specific links, either from my blog or from newsgroups where I’ve flagged something up. I originally set it up so that I could publicise it to family and colleagues whilst keeping the main blog secret, but that’s rather ancient history.
And I intend to totally rejig the format but that will take quite an investment of time, and CBA!
Also, I post too many photos, I think, because my main purpose is documentary, then a few months later I go back and think that various photos are dull and detract from the better ones.
OTOH, some sets grow on me over time. And I grow to love individual photos that I was previously only modertaely keen on.