Photoblog Quality and Themes
Often it is difficult to know what to take pictures of. This is probably the photographic equivalent of writers block which hs not yet occurred since Morven Photo: Word has only just begun. It is difficult to manage one photograph per day - particularly keeping up the quality - even the great Ansel Adams claimed that he could only get twelve great photos per year. Even allowing for the greater ease of capturing more images with the equipment we have today, I would like to bet that none of us could really beat that.
This all leads me to conclude that the quality of a photblog must deteriorate over time since the better photos get consumed in this rush to post one per day. As a counter to this - and this is definitely true in my personal case - the overall quality of my output has improved thrpugh learning by doing and observing others.
Personal Challenges
My way of combatting the inevitable dilution of quality and the difficulty of finding subjects is to set myself projects. Some of them are rather straight forward such as my recent Balloon Series. Others are more detailed like my recent challenge to get seven images from my hotel room and I am very please that this idea inspired Emma to do her around the house series.
My modus operandi since the beginning of Morven Photoblog has been to publish sets of images with weekly themes and I actually find this liberating in terms of finding what I might photograph and post. There are a number of ideas going forward - for example, one idea is to examine light bulbs.
Please comment saying how you motivate yourself and how you decide what images to capture and post.
September 13th, 2005 at 8:03 am
I usually go to one big event per week, sometimes two, then I post shots from those events. They’re default photoblog material. I post one photo a day, but I process my favorite shots (which aren’t always the best shots) on the weekends when I have more time, then I autopost them to my photoblog for the coming week. With two children, I do not have time to literally post ONE a day and it causes way too much stress in my life to literally post one photo per night/day.
September 13th, 2005 at 8:17 am
My modus operandi is similar to yours Jamie now that I am using PixelPost. My routine has moved to posting a batch - usually on Sunday - of seven images which then auto post at 05:00 UK time each day. It seemed reasonable to use the same approach for this blog of words, though at the moment I do not have enough material for a week at a time and I post the evening before setting the time to coincide with the pictures at 05:00.
Thus far I have been pretty good at getting photos out in the cadence of one per day, though it is pretty clear to me that doing the words will be more difficult.
Like you, not all my posted shots are the best ones, they are often the ones which offer a little variety to make the week more interesting.
September 13th, 2005 at 10:18 am
Sorry, maybe a slightly off-topic comment.
I discovered, to my sorrow that this whole “blogging” thing is a bit disappointing, very stressful and very time consuming.
I started in March this year and in the beginning I was excited. Imagine, you can share your pictures with the “world”. Quite quickly you realize that you compete with millions of other blogs and that almost nobody is visiting your blog. So you need to build some “audience” by visiting and commenting on other peoples blogs. This is a nice activity because you have the opportunity to learn, to travel around the world from your desk and you can discover how people “see” things and capture them. If you are lucky you might even get some blog friends from around the world. But this is also time-consuming.
I also don’t believe that all my visitors are interested and like my pictures. Sometimes, I have the impression that they want to tell me: “Sidney, your picture really sucks today” but instead they say; “Oh, great capture. Nice colors”. I have a positive feedback of about 98-99% which is not normal with the kind of pictures I am posting. I conclude that I have VERY NICE visitors who don’t want to hurt my feelings. I also guess that the blogging community is made of wonderful people! But positive feedback that you don’t deserve is stressful too!
And of course, as you mentioned, you run quickly out of “fantastic” pictures to post. So indeed the quality goes down. When you run out of pictures you NEED to go shooting. You are frustrated when you go home because you ran out of luck and you were not able to capture any “fantastic” pictures to post.
Some people post only once in a while but this is annoying for your visitors. Sometimes when I visit blogs I see the same picture week after week.
Others claim that they blog only for themselves. They claim they don’t care about their audience. I can hardly believe it. Why would you put your blog online if you don’t care?
The day that it becomes too stressful for me I will stop (I give myself another six months) and maybe I sell my camera like David Kapp.
Sorry, I have nothing “nice” to tell today… I am running out of pictures
September 13th, 2005 at 10:53 am
I agree with you Sidney - this whol ‘backslapping’ issue can become a little wearing and I believe a lot of us crave a little more honesty as I mentioned in my reply to Emma in my post Pictures on my Harddrive.
I notice Rock has placed a request on his comments page for more critique of his images - I do sometimes supply suggestions, some of which he acts on and some not.
I am also running out of images - I do not take enough to create seven which are good enough and interesting enough each week and am slowly consuming my supply - I need to up my game a little in this respect. For me one of the drivers to blog was to give me a reason to take pictures and drive me to challenge myself.
You do post several per day though, particularly of late which must consume your resources faster. I have made a not to tell you when your images suck though
September 13th, 2005 at 12:40 pm
I post several pictures a day to compensate for the lower quality. Three bad = one good one
. I post only one picture when I am happy with the results ! 
and this become a rarity 
September 13th, 2005 at 4:28 pm
I share the same feelings, I started in january and passed the stages of being unknown, the addictive monitoring of the favorites count, and the stress of mantaining the quality, the continuity and the friendships gathered…Is rewarding to have such a nice feedback, but it has his downside…if I don’t get feedback I miss it, if I get it and can’t keep up giving reciprocity, I suffer too. Kind of trap, isn’t?. Regarding inspiration Ian, you are one of the best examples that everything could be worth photographing it! but if we ever run out of pictures, we will still be able to gather at the pub, and drink to forget that
It’s a pity I’m a little far away from London, but Sid is still farther, haha!
September 13th, 2005 at 7:02 pm
Hey Ian! You’ve got a great thing going on over here. I have to admit, I love reading the comments that praise my ability as a photographer! It feels great. What it does NOT do, however, is to improve my abilities as a photographer. I haven’t had a “method” at all; As I go places, I photograph them and I post the ones I like. The ones I don’t like, I try to fix in photoshop, and then maybe I post them anyway. I *have* gotten away from posting daily, but I try to update once or twice a week at least. What I’m having trouble with is making time for photography. So much other stuff in life just gets in the way! I just got a brand-new Nikon D70s, and I think I’ve taken maybe 4 or 5 pictures with it, and they were just snapshots at a party. Isn’t that awful??!! Sigh. I think I need to give myself some photography “homework,” then I can fit it in with the rest of my studying for college! lol!
September 13th, 2005 at 7:09 pm
Ian
Truly struck a chord here. I think I will eventually get away from pressurizing myself from posting daily.
One of my most favorite blogs, JinkyArt posts photos may once a week, http://blog.jinkyart.com.au/001690.php, and managed to retain incredible quality. IMHO, that is the way to go.
September 13th, 2005 at 9:55 pm
Sidney - perhaps it is true that three bad ones make for one good one, but by spreading them over time you give yourself more time to capture good ones
NOt sure I have really seen a deterioration on your blog though Sidney.
September 13th, 2005 at 10:01 pm
Pilgrim - whilst it would be great to share a beer, the though of us all collecting togethre to moan about how difficult this thing is does not fill me with excitement
I agree with you about the damned if you do damned if you d ont catch 22 situation around commenting!
Jen - I agree that simple unfounded flattery does not improve us. You really should get out with that D70s it is truly an awesome piece of kit - I have the D70 and the upgrade is not sufficient for me to change. Perhaps you could set yourself the simple challenge of going out for a limited time - say one hour and generating ten photos for your blog.
Anand - posting less might well keep the quaity up, but it will not drive us onward to take more pictures.
Inspired by all your lovely comments, I am posting a discussion of blogging tomorrow at 05:00 UK time.
September 15th, 2005 at 2:38 am
frankly to say…there are nothing much i could capture here in where i m staying…nothing much happening
but then again…the least likely place to photographed will somehow produe the best quality or subject or theme….
i had my picblog as a place to share with my friends….things we saw…things we do…places we go….and of course at the same time…trying to insert some “artistic photography” sense into ourself….guess at this moment it failed..
hahahahaaha
i always think…..taking good picture is a talent…i m not so much into the technical spec or quality…i m more into the POV…. or the stories behind…i enjoy good POV picture…or picture that can tell stories…though i couldnt really produce a good one…
September 15th, 2005 at 8:23 am
One of the points of this article is that one can take great pictures anywhere - setting a challenge to get seven pictures ont of an object or room or whatever.
I agree with you that one of the key factors is composition - or point of view - to create a good looking image. There is enough space for all types of photography in this massive cyber domain in which we are playing.
Just saw your wordblog - I did not know you did this - I am just a beginner in this arena - respect.