“It is pleasant to have been to a place the way a river went.”—Henry David Thoreau
In recent months I’ve devoted this column to various themes and this month have expanded that concept to include geography. All of the photographers featured this month are located in Montana, the Big Sky state, which I think has some of the most spectacular scenery here in the lower forty-eight, as their...
"You will not be able to plug in, turn on, and cop out." --Gil Scott-Heron
Is the raw file format the solution or the problem? According to OpenRAW (www.openraw.org), "closed, proprietary, raw file formats present many immediate and future challenges for photographers." Some of their reasons...
“They have been at a great feast of languages, and stolen the scraps.” —William Shakespeare
Although I like their search engine, I’m not a huge fan of Google as a company, but every now and then something happens that makes me appreciate some things they do. Take Google Alerts. These are e-mail updates of relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your...
This month’s column marks a special anniversary since this column, originally called Website of the Month, was originally launched in July 1999. In a much more recent column, I mentioned not hearing from Shutterbug readers about their own websites and since then the dam burst and I’ve been flooded by e-mail. Thanks to all of you who took the time to write. Working through all those e-mail messages takes time but for this month I’ve selected four reader sites that are “submitted for your approval,” as the late Rod Serling often said. Look for more readers’ sites to appear on a regular basis as well as a photographer’s blog of the month, which started unofficially last month.
Edward de Bono is a physician, author, and inventor who originally came up with the concept of “lateral thinking.” He wrote Six Thinking Hats and is a proponent of the teaching of thinking as a subject in schools. I’ve often said that the most useful photographic accessory is the one that’s between a shooter’s ears, and while lenses are important to accomplishing your goals as an image-maker, it’s your brain that will ultimately help realize that vision. This month’s featured websites are a perfect example of that kind of thinking, including a blog by a Shutterbug reader who has taken the concept of a photo a day (http://farace.smugmug.com) into an entirely new direction.
"Living is having ups and downs and sharing them with friends."--Trey Parker and Matt Stone
In September 2007, Yahoo! Photos shut down, disproving the old adage that sometimes the best things in life are not free. Regular readers know I keep lots of my personal photographs on SmugMug (www.smugmug.com) but it's not free. A Standard account costs...
"That the automobile has practically reached the limit of its development is suggested by the fact that during the past year no improvements of a radical nature have been introduced."--Scientific American, June 2, 1909
A few months ago I mentioned the creation of a new automobile photographic website to replace the aging
"Fun for all that children call their favorite time of the year."--Bill Melendez
During the holidays many people dust off their cameras and take lots of pictures. Besides cute kids opening their presents many shutterbugs' favorite photo subject is a house decorated with seasonal lights. If you've ever wondered how this custom was started, this...
"A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights."--Napoleon
Recently The New York Times reported that New York City was considering a law requiring photographers to obtain a permit and have $1 million in liability insurance before taking pictures on city property, including sidewalks. The film office held a public hearing on the proposed rules...
"We are advertis'd by our loving friends."-- William Shakespeare
Contrary to popular opinion, friends who meet on the Internet do get together in person to share their love of photography. Members of SmugMug's (www.smugmug.com) online photo sharing service get together for an annual shootout and...
Portraits From The Real World Dick Sanders is an interesting guy. Like many of us, he became interested in photography while young, but the career path that led him to create the arresting images that populate this site (
"Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark, professionals built the Titanic."
While my quote of the month is from "anonymous," the subhead was a statement made by Ralph Waldo Emerson, who I think is of "Where's Waldo?" fame. In recent months, this column has featured some professional photographers who...
"If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?"
In another photo magazine's blog, the writer notes the passing of J. Frederick Smith at 88 and says, "I had heard his name but wasn't really aware of his work until recently." At first I was surprised by this sentence since it appeared in what was...
Never was there a time when it was so easy or inexpensive to create a great-looking website than right now. I created my own site (www.joefarace.com) using a WordPress template from Obox (www.obox-design.com) that’s hosted on GoDaddy.com and the whole magilla cost a little over $100—along with lots of my own time. What about your site? If you read Web Profiles regularly you know that from time to time I like to feature Shutterbug readers and if you would like to see your website or blog featured here, click my site’s Contact button and tell me about it.
I said it last month but it bears repeating: “Never was there a time when it was so easy or inexpensive to create a great-looking website than right now.” Yet one emerging trend is to pack as much text onto the opening screen as possible and if a picture must be used it should be tiny and maybe show a portrait of the photographer. There’s an old joke whose punch line is, “First, you have to get their attention.” That’s true of websites as well. That landing page should be your signature image—that gasp factor—that makes the viewer look, linger, and want to see more. Give it a try.
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