goldengod

It’s 11pm PST and it’s beginning to look like I’m not going to get the article on fall photos finished today. Which is too bad, really; you’d have loved it.

So to buy myself a little time, I’ve decided to highlight a site I recently added to my RSS reader: The photography business blog for what appears to be yet another microstock site! I know, exciting. It’s called Photopreneur: Half photo, half…. uh… preneur?

What’s Awesome About Photopreneur

• Quality Photo Business Content - Think John Harrington, but without as many “I Told You So” posts about Getty’s stock prices. The site has reasonably good photography business advice adapted for the small, ADD brains of todays forward-thinking youth. I have half a dozen posts open in tabs that I want to link, but that’d be tacky. Just ignore the lame filler for today about photography schools and scroll down to find the juicy bits.
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• Solid Way of Launching a Site - Running a blog in your niche for a while before your company’s launch is a win-win-win situation: You win by starting to rank for SEO keywords. You win by contributing to an active photography community online that will reward you via participation and silly posts like these. And you win by having an established audience when your site launches!
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• Clean-ish Design - It’s simple, plain, and very readable. Other than a notable exception that I’ll get to later, I really like the design.
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What Sucks About Photopreneur

I’m going out on a limb here posting about what I don’t like; hopefully they don’t check their site stats and also aren’t violent biker dudes. I’m going to chance it….

• “You must be logged in to post a comment“ - That, dear reader, is the sound of me leaving. As simple as that. I’m interested in having a discussion, but not ten minutes of fiddling with my inbox for a temporary password interested. The fewer barriers to entry, the more participation you’re going to see.
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• “We are strictly volunteer here .. but it’s GREAT exposure.” - Woo! I’ve always wanted to work hard and not get paid for it! Apparently it’s not that great exposure, because I didn’t see any author attribution on any articles.
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  Either no one is writing but the staff, or “GREAT exposure” is code for “We strip your byline!”No, you don’t have ads but you’re using the blog as an SEO tactic to launch your microstock thingy. I’m assuming it’s a for-profit microstock thingy, though.
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  Don’t try and take advantage of people with one hand while offering good business advice with the other. Working for exposure isn’t good business for photographers; you wouldn’t ask your mechanic to do it, don’t ask me.
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• MyBlogLog Widget - I’m sorry, but if you’re going to have the Web 2.0 equivalent of Geocities in your sidebar, I’m going to make fun of you. That’s just the way it works. If you’re that attached to tacky looking community widgets, perhaps you should consider hosting your site elsewhere.
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Long story short: I will be leaving this site in my reader, on a provisional basis. It’s a cool site and I enjoy the readability of their photography business content, but it has some irritating habits that they either need to fix or make up for with some seriously good chocolate.

And PhotoPreneur staff? If you’re not a bunch of scary bikers, hit me back in the comments. I’d like to hear what you’ve got to say about my smartassery.

I’ve noticed a big surge in my RSS readership lately. Almost 50 new subscribers have shown up in the last two weeks alone. Welcome, all of you! You have no idea how happy it makes me to know that so many people appreciate the posts I write here.

I maintain a list of my five most popular tutorial posts in the sidebar, sorted by traffic. By no means does it cover all of my best content, though. I’m taking this opportunity to share five more tips and tutorials that I’m proud of and the feedback I got:

• Five Ways to Make Your Texture Photos Pop - One of my longtime active readers, Damon Carr, got into a good discussion with me about one of his early photographic forays into texture.
• Using Your Digital Camera in Burst Mode - Definitely read the comments on this one. Brian Auer and another reader named Latoga add a ton of useful information.
• Five Reasons to Attend Photography School -This was really well-received. Apparently, a lot of my readers have been considering going to school for photography.
• The Secret Keys to Taking Original and Unique Photos -This didn’t get much of a response other than ‘great post’, but I still feel like there’s a lot of discussion to be had here.
• Five Reasons NOT to Attend Photography School -Wow, being negative really got some discussion flowing on this one. People had much more to say about this post than the first part.

You may have noticed that all of them are dated in the last two months. Towards the end of June, I got really inspired to spend more time working on goldengod. Since then, I’ve put a lot more time and effort into the site as a whole, but focusing on better quality posts.

I have also now managed to get posts up every day for three weeks, now. It may seem small to you, but it’s something that I’m rather proud of. Between my full-time day job, time spent taking photos, my girlfriend, and a normal social life, it’s a wonder I find time for my site at all.

I’d never have managed it without interacting with you guys, though. So thank you, all of you. You make me a better writer and photographer, just by participating and talking to me.

Preparation by Andrew Ferguson

This post is a blatant excuse to spread a little love around to the photoblogs that I read for inspiration:

Wink

“An ever-expanding collection of photography” by a fellow British Colombian, Tyler Nixon. I’m continually impressed with the tone and composition of his photos. Tyler won two Photobloggies in 2007, for “Best Photoblog Design” and “Photo of the Year.”

Unphotographable

This is, bar none, my favourite photoblog. You can argue its authenticity as a ‘photoblog’, but you cannot deny the quality of Michael David Murphy’s writing. Rather than post photos, Michael releases tiny bursts of prose on his missed photographic opportunities. I could link you all day, there’s so much good stuff here: ‘are you a terrorist?’, dignity, werner herzog, and the jaywalking monk.

thinsite

Described as a “photoblog with no clear direction“, thinsite pleases and prospers anyways. The site’s on the verge of it’s millionth visitor and it has attracted the attention of such illustrious personalities as me. Most of the photos are taken in Ontario, but the author’s been know to travel.

Taavi Toomasson

I found this photoblog via Thomas Hawk. Taavi is an Estonian photographer with a great eye for composition and has some serious post-processing chops. This is one of my more recent finds.

Seen in Vancouver

I know, I’m totally biased. It’s still awesome! The site is on hiatus due to some ftp issues, but the archives are up and well worth browsing. The site features the work of some of my favourite local photographers and friends, including Airchinapilot, BLANKartist, and Flickr favourite WAXY.

Mandolux Desktops

Macros and abstracts and desktops, oh my! Mando Gomez specializes in gorgeous wide-format abstracts and macro shots that are the perfect desktops for multi-monitor setups. I’ve been using his work as my wallpaper for 6 months or so now.

In Photos dot org

The personal photoblog of one Donncha O Caoimh, an Irish software developer. Actually, he’s one of the many faces behind the Wordpress publishing platform. I originally got hooked on his super-wide angle street photography. I’m particularly attached to Boy All Alone and The Bike at the Library.

A Walk Through Durham Township, PA

Kathleen Connally’s excellent photos from her own little slice of small town America. When I’ve read too much about American politics and get depressed, sites like this remind me that America isn’t all bad. Kathleen shares her EXIF data and post-processing steps for each photo, which is also a nice touch. This was the first blog ever nominated to the Photoblogs.org Hall of Fame back in September 2006.

Bitzi’s Flickr Finds

This blog may have been abandoned, but it’s hard to tell since updates were sporadic to begin with. Flickr user Bitzi chooses his favourite photos from the massive pool of quality photography and posts them. No commentary, no analyzing things, just beautiful photos to brighten your day.

God I love long weekends. I’m taking the Canon 24-105 f/4L out tomorrow to go hiking in Lynn Canyon and then to a concert. I can’t really compete with these nine photographers yet, but someday. Do you read photoblogs for inspiration? Which ones?

Thoughts of a Dying Athiest by Andrew Ferguson

This blog post is an entry for Jim Goldstein’s “Favorite Photo and Background Story” photography blog project. More details can be found at JMG-Galleries.

This photo was taken back in January 2006, less than a month after I got my first DSLR; a Canon Digital Rebel XT. I was hanging around with my friends Jon and Ian, talking and playing videogames. Around one in the morning, we decided to experiment with my new camera. No, not that kind of experimenting. Bloody perverts…

Anyways, we put the camera on a tripod and hooked it up to my computer for the first time. After thinking about it, we decided to black out the room and do long exposure shots in full dark.

We blocked off my windows with a 12′x6′ Memoirs of a Geisha cardboard display I had along with a double-layer of garbage bags. I had a single flash, an old Vivitar 283, but it couldn’t be used on-camera since the voltage would fry the Rebel. We set everything up, pointed the camera at a blank space on my wall and decided to take turns setting up shots.

All three of us would work to set up the props or lighting, with me handling all the camera stuff, until it looked good. Once the shot was done, we’d move on to the next person’s setup. Of all the photos I took, this one worked out the best. We had a great time taking these photos and wound up playing with the camera til the sun came up.

It’s a thirteen second exposure with a single flash fired. I used a bright red t-shirt as a really amateurish ‘gel’ for the flash and fired it from below and to the right of the camera, resulting in the vignetting effect. In total I took about 6 frames and this is the third or fourth.

It’s my #5 Most Favorited photo on Flickr and my top rated for interestingness. Full EXIF data can be seen on its Flickr page linked at the top and more images from the same series can be seen here. Just please keep in mind that this is us goofing off at 3am less than a month after I began to shoot using a DSLR, because some of my shots are crap.

Both props in the photo were sitting around the house and each has a bit of story behind them. The handcuffs are normally used to cuff a large black briefcase to my wrist. I don’t keep anything valuable in it; I just think it’s funny. Bouncers at clubs on Granville have asked me “is that the football?” jokingly when I passed.

The mannequin hand comes from a mannequin at a party I attended. The party had a Clockwork Orange theme with droogs as waiters and a number of mannequins in the milk bar. I found the hand on the floor and asked one of the droog-waiters where I should put it. He shrugged and said ‘Keep it’, so I did.

My favorite photo rotates often; I flip-flop at a John Kerry level. Today, this is my favorite. What’s your favorite photo that you’ve ever taken? Post links in the comments and I’ll go visit them or join me in participating in Jim’s project!

One of the most common gripes I hear from bloggers is that it’s impossible to find good free photos for their blogs. In some cases, this means a lot of text-only blogs. In most cases, it means blogs hijack other people’s work without permission.

Both of these options suck, particularly for a blog that’s just starting out. I’m going to show you a better way; how to find some free high quality photos you can use on your blog.

Where to look

Knowing where to look is just as important as what you find. I know most people’s first instinct is “Google Images!” Ignore that instinct. Google Images is useful for some things, but not really for this. There’s too much of a legal quagmire regarding usage rights and let’s be honest, the photos you find are pretty lame.

Irvine Beach by mike138

Flickr is the first place I look when i want a good photo for my blog. The field is massive, searching is top notch, and the quality is nothing short of outstanding. You can’t just grab any photos on there, there are rules that you should abide by. In order to legally cover your ass, and respect the work of others, you need to be aware of these rules.

Licensing

The rules are simple: Every photo on Flickr has a license and there are two ‘major’ categories of license: an “All Rights Reserved” license and a “Creative Commons” license. A photo that’s marked “All Rights Reserved” means hands off!

You can ask the photographer for permission to use it and some will likely just ask for photo credit or a link. Some may ask for money, which you probably don’t have if you’re reading this. I don’t ask the photographer for permission very often because it’s time consuming and stressful waiting on someone else.

What is a Creative Commons License?

On the other hand, a photo marked “Creative Commons” is the best thing you can hope for. It means that the photographer has reserved some of their rights, but lets people use their photos for free under certain conditions. Each Creative Commons license can be different, but there are 4 major components that you can mix and match. They are Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivative Works, and Share-Alike.

Based on what you’re doing with the images, you need to keep the restrictions of these images in mind. The most important restriction is that you can’t use Non-Commercial images on a monetized blog. The Attribution component is always part of a Creative Commons license, so you will always need to provide credit for the photo with a link to them. I’ll show you how I integrate these photos and links into my blog next week.

How to Search for Creative Commons Photos in Flickr

Sunset by iessi

I use the Flickr advanced search feature. Make sure to check the box stating that you only want Creative Commons photos to display. If you make money off your blog, you also have to check the box to look for content that can be used commercially. Plug in your keywords and it’ll bring up a page with an immense number of results.

By default, the photos are ordered by ‘relevance’. Flickr’s relevance search is pretty useless. So if I’m writing a post about something that’s happened today, instead of sorting by relevance, I’ll sort by “most recent”.

Most of the time, I use the “most interesting” search filter. If you’re not familiar with Flickr’s concept of interestingness, it shows you popular and/or high quality photos. Flip through the first five pages and I guarantee you’ll find something that works!

Other Options

Other photo storage websites, like Thomas Hawk’s Zooomr, also allow you to search through Creative Commons photos. I haven’t tried the search on Zooomr myself, but I have seen photos on there that are every bit as good as what you’ll find on Flickr.

Transparent
by Jurek Durczak

Another option is the free stock photo agencies, such as everystockphoto or stock.xchng. I have no experience with either of these, so I can’t vouch for their usefulness. My friend and fellow blogger Greg G. of DingoRUE swears by free stock photo agencies, but I’m not sure which ones he uses off the top of my head. If you use either one, feel free to let me know what you think in the comments.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, you’ll find that people have a more positive opinion of your blog. When the quality of your images goes up, that helps bring up the quality of your entire blog. Also, Flickr photographers will sometimes link to your site when you use their photo. This can help you get more exposure by increasing your Technorati rank and the number of sites that link to you.

Where do you get photos for your blog? Have I made missed anything important? Comment and humiliate me in front of everyone!

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