I've made a few minor additions to Photoblogs.org. In the FAQ I've added answers to these questions:

• How do I add sites to my favorites or watchlist? (Several new users were asking this.)
• What is the difference between the favorites list and the watchlist?
• Why does "Anonymous" sometimes show up instead of a real username?

I also added a little question mark whenever the "Anonymous" shows up (which links to the FAQ), so that people will understand why it's there.

And finally, I added links to the Top 200 and Top 500 from the Top 100 List.

Ever since Moveable Type announced their new licensing plans, many people are looking for alternatives. This link contains a comprehensive chart that compares blogging software and some content management systems (CMS):

http://www.asymptomatic.net/blogbreakdown.htm

Taken from this article at Slashdot.

The May issue of Revol Magazine is now available for your perusal. Photography, design, illustration, fine art, written words, and combinations of the above. Pay special attention to David Crawford's piece on Tokyo.

Belgian Jimmy Debruyne of Catcher In The Eye has a great eye for perfectly candid scenes on the street -- the expressions he captures range from hilarious to heartbreaking -- and does some exceptional work with light. (If you don't want to bother with any of those, at least click this one. That is so cool.)

Side spotlight: Jimmy's photoblog was pointed out to me this week by Joe Pennant, who's a fine photographer himself, and if you happen to be in Berkeley, CA., sometime this month, you should stop by Au Coquelet to see Joe's photos splayed all over the walls.

p.s. Hi, I'm Gwen, and I'm thrilled to be a new poster on the Photoblogs blog.

I've heard for many years that taking pictures in the New York City subways violates Transit Authority rules. An article in Friday's New York Times corrected my misconception -- subway photography was illegal until 1994, when the MTA was embarrassed into rescinding the rule. Taking a picture without "lights, reflectors or tripods" is currently perfectly legal. (See also Attorney Bert P. Krages's handy overview of the law of public photography.) Of course that hasn't stopped subway photographers from being harassed by both cops and pedestrians.

The reason such an obscure fact was mentioned in the Times today is because the MTA now proposes to ban all "unauthorized" photography in the subways. Transit officials are quoted in the Daily News as acting at the request of the police, who hope to "thwart terrorists from gathering information..." Is this the beginning of the end of all street photography? Before you tell me I'm overreacting, consider what happened to Keith Kin Yan when he photographed a Manhattan power station.... Anybody care to guess what happens next? (A long discussion is already underway at Gothamist.com.)

This week has been a hellish week for me, but this photograph actually made me laugh out loud:

http://lanehickenbottom.com/view/040514.htm

Have you seen a photo that made you expel liquids through your nose? Post it here. Happy Friday!

Blogger announces their own take on Photoblogging. Basically, they're using instant messaging to allow users to upload photos to their blogs. Seems like a fun idea.

Although, when I first saw the article titled "Hello, Photoblogging", my first thought was that they were going to recognize that photoblogs tend to have an inherently different layout from text blogs. I wonder if Blogger or TypePad will ever embrace the "one large photo per page" style that many photoblogs have.

A fellow San Franciscan, Jason Zada's new photoblog ("of sorts") Manipulation offers me a enchanting alternate view to my city. His photographs are wonderfully rich and deeply personal. Tea, Bubble, Daisy in Action, Cucumbers and Squee (I'm a sucker for the Chihuahua shots) are a few of my favourites.

Dave at mezzoblue has written an article on RSS/XML/Atom that is worth a read.....it is a good introduction to them.

Photography and creating a photoblog web site are difficult. Obviously there is a lot of creative processes, they take up time, they're expensive habits, you need creativity, etc. Overall, as is the adage of life, not everyone can do it.

So I have a couple of questions for you:

How and why did you get started in photography? Why have you loved it for so many years?

And secondly, why did you start a photoblog? Has it been everything you hoped it would be?

I started photography about five years ago. I've been a film/movie lover for all my life. The first film I ever saw was Gremlins 2; and although it isn't a Schindler's List, I was amazed at the whole process of making a film. I generally see a film a day, and although I started out as a video director, I made the switch to making 'film' (16mm and 35mm) films. This was five years ago, and I developed all my film in a tub. I built my own dark room, and thought it was cool in itself. I figured that since I had a darkroom, I could also use it for still photography. And ever since, I've probably taken over 10,000 photographs (you'd think I'd be a lot better now eh?). Obviously there's a marriage involved in the two formats, and love both of them right now. It's amazing to me how I can forever make something immortal for all to see.

And as such was my creation of DailySnap.com. I had NO idea that photoblogs existed back five months ago. I had a ton of photographs and wanted some way to show them off. Creating a web portfolio is nice, but bland in itself. It wasn't until I discovered Slower.net and Ten Years of My Life (thanks Google!) that I learned the magic of photoblogging. So I saved up some money, got a domain and hosting set up, a decent digital camera, and have been blogging the life away since then. It's been fun as hell, and being here has as well.

Well people, give your stories!