With the number of photoblogs approaching the 10,000 mark, getting noticed is even harder than it was when I wrote my first entry on the subject. The tricks described in this previous entry and expanded in the PhotoblogsWiki are still useful but I have found an additional method that seems to work.

A couple of months ago, I registered my photoblog on BlogExplosion (click here if you want me to get credit for the referral, here if you don't). This site is one of several "traffic generators". Once you register, you visit random blogs and collect credits. For every two visits in which you have spent at least 30 seconds, you get somebody to visit your site in return. You can also win a bunch of credits at random intervals.

Over this first month, I visited tons of sites. Many were simply awful but I did find a few gems. The question was, would these 30 sec. visitors become regular readers or would I have to continually hoar myself for credits just to maintain the increased traffic rate? To see what would happen, I stopped using BlogExplosion for a month.

To my amazement, traffic continued to increase even after accounting for referral spam. I think that photoblogs are perfect for this kind of system since you can see a lot of images in 30 sec and it opens you up to a whole new "clientele".

BlogExplosion has since made an additional change that makes it worthwhile for the photoblogging community: the ability to select one blog category (aka photoblogs) as a priority for site visits. If enough of you decide to participate, this can become a much better method to discover new photoblogs without having to plow through a bunch of uninteresting blogs destined for right-wing nutjobs.

Is it possible to take digital images and place them onto slides? Has that technology been created? I'm entering a high school thing and they want slide images and I don't have any good photographs on film (yet), so I was wondering if any of you knew if there was a process to put digital images on slides...

Thank you!

If you're interested in photoblogging, you will likely enjoy listening to this BlogTO podcast interview of Sam Javanrouh from Daily Dose of Imagery.

Here's a direct link to the podcast mp3.

In one part of the interview they talk about how most professional photographers have never heard of photoblogs.  I wonder if this will always be the case.  Do you think more and more professional photographers will become photobloggers?  Or is photoblogging somehow inherently unappealing to most pros?

If you live in a place like Switzerland (such a clean land!!) graffiti and ruffians may need to be hired. What should you do with natural beauty? Shoot it! Is it a cross? Yes, dammit, go out and hire some ruffians or something. I jest, of course, but Reinhard Kirsch has been making do with his surroundings, and if we want to judge by atristry, he's certainly done well with what he's seen.

His page is here.

His photoblogs.org page (if you want to add it to your favorites or watchlist) is here.

Examples of what made me fall in love?

• A Wicked Bridge
• The Gotthard Tunnel
• A building to rival the Flatiron Building
• An Argentinian metro entrance

If I were you, I'd add him to your RSS feeds, and just patiently watch. I've always been rewarded.

Outafocus was my nomination for 'best kept secret' and 'best toy camera photoblog' in the 2005 photobloggies. I think Susan's work is outstanding; beautifully realised and emotionally rich images that are more than deserving of a spotlight!

A couple of my favourites:

Outafocus, profile here.

Spotlight Idea

I was thinking of a way to promte the lesser sites.  I get comments on my site now and again and visit sites that are absolutetly amazing that I've never of due to the return URL's; I'm sure you have all done the same.  How is it that there are so many amazing sites and so little way of finding them?

So I was thinking a daily spotlight on photoblogs.org might be a great idea.  Here's what I'm thinking:

• Would be randomily picked from the database, and rotated daily (automated)
• You would have to enable your account to be elidgable for this, and link to a picture that you would like to have thumbnailed (and ultimatetly linked to) from your photoblog.
• Accounts that are in the Top 100 would not be eligable.

Might be a bit of work for Brandon - but I think the ability to get more exposure is what we'd all like.

Photoblogs forums.

There's too many photo forums out there for sure.  I've found a few, but constantly find that most of them have a lot of users who just don't have a clue.  I hate to be all high and mighty but I think for the most part, the photoblog crowd is one of the better ones I've run across.  Very passionate group, that isn't going to lay down and tell you how great your flower macro shot is when it's really not (no really it's not).

There was a recent post about it on David's site (chromasia) about hosting forums on his site - I'd love to see it happen, but would rather see it for the whole photoblog community.

If bandwidth is an issue I'd be happy to assist with that.

Anyways, my ideas, I'll go back to my hole.

Finalists for the 2005 Photobloggies have been announced on the website.  Be sure to make your final votes and spread the word!

The interviews over at DailySnap at back. After a long hiatus, they have returned, with a new format and a new name (Seven Pages).

I invite you to come take a look. The newest interviewee is Tanner Woodford from Ashadeofgrey

Some of you will like the new format, while I'm sure others won't. This is a project cultivated from the over 800 emails I received regarding how to improve the old interviews (which are still archived). Hopefully you'll enjoy them. They now be published bi-monthly, still appearing on Monday's. You can subscribe to the RSS feed for any updates.

And on a personal note, I would really like to thank Tanner for wanting to participate. He knew a new format was in place and I appreciate his wanting to get involved. I also appreciate all the hard work he (and others soon to be published) put into the interview. All interviewees go out and take shots specifically and exclusively for the interview, which is easier said than done. They show creativity, perhaps some sides of them you've never seen, which is what I want to accomplish with the interviews. Either way, provide feedback, visit Tanner's site, give him some props, and enjoy the new interviews:

Seven Pages Presents Tanner Woodford

I really want to take off and head to NYC to see the Diane Arbus exhibition  that is showing from March 8, 2005–May 30, 2005
in the Special Exhibition Galleries area of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

If you live in/near New York City or plan on being there during this exhbition's run DO make the effort to view it.  It is the first exhibition of her work in almost 30 years, and a body of work from one of the most influential and important photographers of our time.

The images of Diane Arbus are almost hard to look at, they provide a visual and emotional punch like no other...she is an idol of mine, one that I can relate to on so many levels. 

Well after months of anticipation Our Media
is finally here. Ourmedia.org is an open source media project that
allows it's users the ability to store any kind of digital media on
it's servers with no charge for unlimited bandwidth or unlimited
storage forever. Wow!

The project is backed by the significant backbone of Brewster Kahle's Internet Archive and was founded by a wide group of bloggers, scholars, and other digital media advocates and enthusiasts.  Technology veterans J.D. Lassica and Marc Canter were two of the original members of the project and have taken the lead roles in getting the effort off of the ground. 

The Advisory Board
of Our Media reads like a who's who of the technology elite, Larry
Lesig, Brewster Kahle, Dan Gillmor and Doc Searls among others all sit
on the Board. It is an interesting effort of Lesig's Creative Commons
in action but even more than this it is, "cool, it's free, more media
for me!"

Lassica describes it this way, “the biggest hurdle
people face today after creating a really cool movie or taking some
really amazing photos is: What now? Where do I put it? How do I share
it? We say: Put it here and weÂ’ll store it, safeguard it, and let you
show it off. Free. Forever.”

From the press release:

"The
effort, begun last June, has been largely accomplished as an
open-source effort, with no income, no expenses and a central group of
50 volunteers working in a public wiki to build the site. Ourmedia,
which will soon become a not-for-profit 501(c)(3), has partnered with
the Internet Archive and Creative Commons, both non-profit outfits in
San Francisco, and Bryght, an open-source content publishing company in
Vancouver, Canada."

This project represents a fantastic opportunity for the digital media enthusiast on two fronts. 

One.
This will be another great place - a digital library - to acquire more
digital content for your ever increasing digital appetite and your ever
growing digital library.

Two. This will be a great place for you
to store any of your own media that you have created. It will be a both
a safeguard and backup for your important works of art, video, audio
and photos and it will be an easy way for you to promote these efforts
if you would like to share your vision with everyone else.

“"Imagine
being able to tap into the richest repositories of freely shareable
works in the world and create image albums, slide shows, video
jukeboxes and media libraries with a few mouse clicks,"” Canter said.
“"We’re on our way there. But we need others to pitch in and help.”"

So stop by Our Media today and lupload/download some new digital media.  It's all you can eat and it's all free.  I've already uploaded some of my photographs and will upload many more in the days ahead.