goldengod

You guys gotta be getting sick of these updates by now, right? They’re practically daily.

Firstly, a very heartfelt thanks to everyone out there for weathering the post drought while I took some time off. Not having to worry about my online presence was a massive help and gave me some breathing room. I’m feeling much better now, more focused in a way.

Secondly, I am so back. Obviously, right? I’m testing the waters with a posting schedule of five days a week. This leaves my weekends free for panicking about articles for the coming week and wishing I was out taking photos.

Next week, I’ll have posts on taking photos of pumpkins for Hallowe’en as well as a large batch of Flickr testimonials.

I never know how to finish these posts.

I don’t really like doing these updates, especially when they’re personal, but you guys do deserve an explanation for my absence.

Yes, I intended to take most of last week off. That wasn’t intended to spill into this week, but the world had other ideas. I’d rather not go into it, but I had a pretty personal tragedy hit me over the weekend and I’m not really doing anything more complex than tinkertoys for the moment.

Posts will be sporadic, if up at all, until next week. I’m really sorry to let all of you down like this but I need some space, even if it’s only a week.

Thanks for understanding.

Podium by Bri Vos

I’ve made a number of changes to goldengod lately. Some of them, like the BlogRush widget in the lower left, are obvious. Others are a bit more hidden.

Consider this a State of The Blog address, keeping you up to speed on what I’ve been doing. It’s half self-congratulatory BS and half VH1 Behind-the-Music coke-umentary!

BlogRush

The most obvious change is the BlogRush widget that I’ve added to the bottom of my sidebar. It purports to be this fancy new service that performs contextual interlinking of the blogosphere.

The widget displays five articles from other blogs that should be related to mine. Every time I display the widget, I earn a credit to have a link to one of my posts displayed on another relevant photography blog. I also earn credits when the widget displays on the blog of anyone I’ve referred.

There’s a sexy video on the homepage that can explain it better than I. The service has launched, literally, in the last 24 hours. Kinks are still going to be working themselves out, but I’m impressed with the ease of use so far.

I want to try this for a week and see if it becomes a viable source for new readers. If you’re one of my many readers who also writes a photography blog, you can also try it out by signing up here.

Please note that all my BlogRush links are referrals; I enjoy taking advantage of you.

Other Changes

I’ve done a lot more work on the sidebar, but it’s mostly little things. I’ve cleaned up my blogroll a bit to better reflect what I’m actually reading on a regular basis. I’ve done away with my web-1.0-esque links page and renamed a few major pages.

The About goldengod page has been completely revamped. It’s now a lot more relevant to goldengod as a photography blog and sounds less like self-indulgent copy from a Livejournal.

I’ve been asked if I’m going to be removing my cell phone number from the Contact page and the short answer is no. I don’t exactly get a lot of prank or irritating calls because of it and some people have told me they found it useful. By and large, people seem to be too shy to crank call me. No, that’s not an invitation.

The Gallery is in desperate need of an update, as is the Last Fridays page. I’m thinking of culling them completely, in favour of permanent pages collecting short series’ of photography lessons. If I do this, I’ll be doing a weekly photodump from my Flickr instead. I’m torn over this one, so if you have an opinion one way or the other; please let me know.

Post Frequency

The more observant of my readers will have noticed that yesterday was the first day out of the last 40 that I didn’t post *something*. I had issues with my contacts resulting in blinding headaches and an inability to see out of both eyes for most of the day. Fun!

Yes, I do plan on continuing the daily posting schedule. It’s stressful and time-consuming, but in a strange way it’s fun. It’s very challenging to me and keeps me learning something new every day. I’m thinking of stealing a page from Brian Auer and starting to plan out my weekly schedule a bit more.

Regular photography-style posting resumes tomorrow in force, so hold on to your hats.

Sleeping Kitten
by Andrew Ferguson

It may be late here in Vancouver, but I’m still working hard on my photography blog. I’ve just added the ability for readers to subscribe to goldengod by email!

I realized that not everyone is comfortable using an RSS reader and I wanted to make goldengod accessible to everyone. If you aren’t sure what RSS is, get my photography articles delivered to you by email. It can’t get any easier than that

If you’ve got 3 minutes and 43 seconds to spare and you’re curious about RSS, watch this video called RSS in Plain English. No tech talk, just a simple explanation that your grandparents could understand.

This week’s batch of Flickr testimonials highlight the next four photographers in my ever-increasing list. Writing about all of you is lots of fun, but it’s definitely keeping me busy.

Matt Simpson, come on down:

Matt’s work with his twin-lens Yashica is nothing short of astounding. He captures a sense of the West Coast in his photos that I’m only able to see in my mind’s eye. The man know his way around film cameras in a way that makes me strangely jealous.

We’ve been friends of friends for years, but have just recently met for the first time. I’m looking forward to seeing him on future Vancouver photowalks.

Ruckle Lane and Broken Down House, I choose you!

One of the newer faces in photography, Gary Tan:

Gary’s portraits and wilderness photos really jump out at me. His hyper-realistic fashion shoots show a tasteful control of light and are bursting with colour. His profile says he picked up his first SLR in March 2007 and in a few short months, he’s already rocketed well past his peers (including me).

I hadn’t seen any of Gary’s work prior to writing this, but now I definitely want to see more.

I was really impressed with his two portraits entitled Waiting by Broken Sconces and Mike.

tokyowars:

I don’t know this man’s name, but I don’t need to. He shows a strong love for black and white photography and astronomy. While the photos in his account are sparse, he’s already beginning to show improvement in a short period of time.

I’m a sucker for a good graffiti photo and you can’t argue with a sexy eclipse, so I’ve chosen Steps to I Know Not Where and Lunar Eclipse.

Brian Larter:

I know Brian’s work best for his dark portraits of Halifax’s vibrant fetish community and his boots-on-the-ground protest shots from the local activist scene. His versatility always impresses me; this is a man who doesn’t get stuck in a photographic rut.

Brian runs a photography business, rental studio, and tons of other projects. All that and he still manages to show care in every click of the shutter. Brian inspires me to push myself further with my photography and accomplish more than I think I’m capable of.

Brian doesn’t use titles, only numbers; I’ve chosen 9 and 1.

Previous Posts about Flickr Testimonials:

• Flickr Testimonials - The First Batch
• Flickr Testimonials Free to Good Homes

That’s right folks, I’m back like the clap. I flew back into Vancouver late Sunday night, but my parents are in town all this week. I’ve been spending a lot of time with them and it’s been keeping me away from my computer.

I’m currently nowhere near my home, on a pc with a version of IE7 programmed to crash every six minutes. Because of this, I’ve made no progress on a proper post with the usual research, Flickr photos, and all that jazz.

Instead, I’m recommending that you amuse yourself in the following nooks of the Internet:

• Haiko Hebig’s “Endangered Machinery“ - Photos of abandoned and decrepit control rooms from all over.
• scaryideas - My favourite source for quirky ads, both print and video.
• Fireworks Photos - My first attempt at photographing fireworks; shots are from China’s display at the 2007 Celebration of Light

I fail.

The Photographer’s Frazetta by Jhayne Holmes

My sincere congratulations go out to my friend Lung S. Liu for winning Non-Professional Editorial Photographer of the Year at the 2007 IPA’s. Lung’s medium-format film work of the Salton Sea and Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside swept the category.

I’m lucky enough to have not one, but two prints of his work at home. He very generously gave them to me as a birthday gift this past February and I really need to get around to hanging them. Or putting any photos up on my walls, for that matter.

Lung also took home three 1st place prizes in subcategories, one 2nd place, two 3rd places, and twenty honorable mentions. If you’d like to see his work, and a massive amount of inspiring work by other photographers, click on over to the 2007 IPA winners list.

You can see more of Lung’s work on his personal site or in his Flickr account.

I’ve decided to post the Flickr testimonials in groups of three or four, but as one of my weekend slacker posts. I didn’t want you guys paying too much attention to other people; I’d wither and perish without your adoration.

I’ve also decided to include two of my favourite photos from each photographer for added sexiness! Let’s kick things off with my friend and fellow blogger Brian Auer:

When it comes to the online photography community, Brian is definitely a leader. He’s an excellent writer and he never hesitates to share what he’s learned about photography with anyone.

He has an eye for composition and a sense of exploratory wonder that comes across plainly in his photos. And every time he posts one of his post-processing tutorials, I learn something new.

My two picks were taken remarkably close together in Brian’s photostream. They are “River Flood” and “The Barn and The Sky“. He’s also posted articles on both photos at Epic Edits.

Daniel Garcia:

Daniel knows a good texture when he sees one. I’ve browsed through his wedding photography and sure he has hot friends, but that’s not why I’m there. Mostly.

His recent series from Alcatraz has him taking more abstract photos of the decay one can only find in a disused prison. If I had one piece of advice, I’d say take that eye for texture compositions and apply it to your portraits.

Both of my choices are texture photos and not photos of the aforementioned hot friends. I chose “Bar to Forever” and “Untitled“.

Vicky:

Vicky is a photographer that mostly takes photos of her friends and family. However, she is not just taking snapshots. I like her portraits of the people who are important to her, sometimes quite a bit. They’re simple and expressive. She uses only available light and has a knack for knowing the right moment to hit the shutter.

I also like talking photography with her, she’s eager to learn and share what she’s learned in return. Vicky has come a long way in developing her photography skills over the past year, too.

Two shots of hers I enjoy are “Wish” and “Untitled“. Something about turning her camera towards the feet and feathers in the middle of a flashmob pillowfight really stuck with me.

There you have it; three down… fourteen more to go! Oy…

Yeah, things are getting mildly ridiculous in Andrew-land. Before anyone gets worried, no I will not be breaking my three week streak of daily updated. I’m far too awesome for that. I will, however, be posting a few shorter posts in the next two weeks. There will also be two guest posts coming up soon, too.

Guest posts? Yep. In case you forgot, I’m going on vacation! I’ll be in Saskatchewan trying my hand at landscape photography and attending my cousin’s wedding. Then as soon as I get back, I’ve got three days off work to visit my parents. I haven’t seen them since last year and they haven’t been to the West Coast in years, so I’ve got a lot of city to show them!

This week is taken up entirely by wedding preparation, making my house look presentable for my folks, and the pre-football season insanity at my office. I’m also headed to BarCamp Vancouver! Actually, I’ll already be there by the time this goes live.

I was not actually expecting to be able to attend this year, but my friend Kris Krug used his secret organizer powers to get me on The List. In return, he’s requested that I give a talk on writing about photography… tomorrow.

I’m in for a busy but fun weekend and I’ll definitely have some BarCamp posts for you in the future. I’ve also got updates planned for you while I’m away, including those two guest posts. I will be back up to full strength on August 30th with more kickass photo tips and hopefully some kickass photos, too.

(Also, a real update is coming later today!)

Colis by Raphael Goetter

I apologize for the brevity of this post; I shall explain everything later tonight and/or tomorrow.

I was sorting my del.icio.us bookmarks this week and I came across an old gem from Photojojo. The article highlights three different ways you can make postcards from your photos. Neat!

When everyone is just a phone call or email away, the emotional impact and excitement from receiving a piece of snail mail is often forgotten. You can not only remind your loved ones that you care about them with a unique photo postcard, but you can get them to take an interest in your hobby. Maybe go out and take photos together, the next time you’re in the area.

If you’re living in Canada, another fun thing you can do is make your photos into stamps! Canada Post offers the service, but the price is a bit high for my liking. I looked at the stamps and while they’re a great idea, it’s not something I’ll be using just yet. I’m never going to get myself out of my debt-hole if I keep buying shiny things.

What do you do with your photos out in that crazy ‘real world’ thing?