I will try out the link you have left.

i love photoblogs…for it enable me to go places i couldnt go…see things that i never have it here…and the best is…to spur my own creativity

i love wordsblog for i love to know wht other people think of a certain issue…what is in the mind of tht particular person…wht type of lifes they are living….it in-turn will benefited me in one way or another.

on feedback ……it is fun and great to know that whtever you wrote…pictures u take are being enjoy by them…is kind of encouragement and compliment

and if you are expecting some professional comments…i guessed it will be quite rare….hehehehe….you could have it from www.trekearth.com though.

Kaleidoscope - glad it is still fun for you, I agree that when it becomes merely a chore and no fun I will give it up - hopefully that will not happen for some time to come yet.

Emma - looks like you are really enjoying it - that is great and in the end we are doing it for the enjoyment.

Jamie - I know what you mean about several places - I was addicted to Flickr for a time having originally got an account as a platform to blog like Lara did. I stopped using it when they started becoming unreliable - I guess I will get back to it, but at the moment writing this stuff is fun.

#2. Learning by Seeing and Mimicking - 7/10 - all the books in the world can’t get you to see what others see. the more work i see by other, the more i expand my vision. i probably won’t copy anybody - and haven’t (on purpose anyway) - but i shoot differently by seeing others work.

17/20

BUT . . . this all seemed simple in the beginning, now i’ve gone and complicated it. What I’m wondering is WHY i have a blogger account, a flickr account, a photoblog.org account, a biker blog, a photoblog magazine account, etc. why can’t i just put all of this stuff on one blog? i’ve been wondering this for a while now and i think i’ve come to the conclusiong that blogger and flickr allow me to have dumping ground for stuff that is “OK” but not “good,” which of course feeds right back to #1.

So far my blogging experience has been good fun, and I think is serving my two primary objectives that I state on my site:

1. To help document and share my images
2. To put a bit of pressure on myself to get out and take more pictures!

I suppose objective 1 is ‘a place to show off’ but it is also about a record of work for me. Initially I never actually thought I would get any visitors to show off to, but it is steadily growing and I have found this to be a nice by-product.

1. seeking feedback on my work (8/10)
It is certainly great to get feedback, and at times can be a bit addictive - checking pixel post admin for new comments

To an earlier point that has been made by Sidney on feedback and in general about the backslapping etc. This is tricky. I am currently taking a course at the weekends in photography, and I suppose it can almost be compared to our photoblog community on a much smaller scale. We all love taking photo’s and are interested in what each other are producing - however, we are all quite nice to each other offering mostly positive feedback.

Over time we have started to offer suggestions etc. but in general there is no real criticism of each other. Surely it is no surprise that it is the same online with our blogs? I started mine a couple of months ago and have not wanted to wade in and start criticising work before I have built relationships - rather I have taken the ‘if you can’t say anything nice don’t say anything at all’ approach. That said, I do feel I have started to build some relationships online now and have recently received comments which have offered suggetions etc. so I am also going to try and offer constructive feedback where appropriate from now on.

2. a place to show off (10/10)

I love my blog and I am starting to feel quite proud of the online portfolio it is almost becoming I hadn’t initially shared it with friends and family, but I am starting too now as feedback and interest in the site has really boosted my confidence to show it off a bit.

3. a feeling of community (9/10)

certainly an unexpected by-product, but fantastic. As Jen says above, freinds and family are only really interested in snapshots, they don’t care about lighting, apertures, shutter speeds etc. so the photoblog community is great for this aspect as far as i am concerned.

4. an opportunity to learn by looking at the work of others (10/10)

I have been amazed at the quality and variety of photography on the web. I only wish I had got into this earlier :p

5. a purpose to drive photography and creativity forward (10/10)

My photography course also helps this, and gives me direction, but the blog has been a great fill in during the summer hols, and I will of course still have my blog when the course finishes. I am going to continue setting myself mini challenges

On the whole blogging experience has been good for me, I hope I have the urge to continue like this, but the day I feel its become a duty and not fun I think I will stop.

2. A place to show off- My “real-life” friends don’t give a rat’s tail to see photographs of a line of cars, or clouds, or the way the light looks on the texture of the wall. I don’t have a circle of photographer friends here, so my photoblogging buddies provide that for me! My work is appreciated and valued for photography’s sake.

3. A feeling of community- see above. Different groups of people frequent different blogs. In my own circle, I see some of the people commenting on other blogs that I view, and there are some commenters on other blogs that I DON’T see. It’s a great way to interact.

4. Learning by seeing and mimicking- This is one of the biggest things for me. I’ve taken quite a few photographs that I otherwise wouldn’t have taken if it wasn’t for the blog. I’ve even found myself thinking as I take photos, “I’ll bet Ian would like this,” or, “This is something that Rock might photograph!” or, “How would Lara frame this?” I’m pretty new to photography and I’m soaking up all of your ideas like a sponge. Keep ‘em coming!

5. A purpose to drive creativity forward- This is definitely true. Sometimes I’ll photograph something purely to put it on my blog. It keeps me out there with the camera when it would otherwise be sitting in the corner gathering dust. In fact, I’m planning on going out today to get some shots for the blog. If I can squeeze it in between studying for classes and cleaning the house, that is!

While I haven’t assigned ‘rates’ to any of these, my photoblogging has been exceptionally rewarding. I had a written blog for awhile, and I quickly lost interest. It was far more time-consuming to keep up. Whereas in the photoblogging community, we look at a picture, consider it for a moment and leave meaningful *hopefully!* comments, with a written one, you have to read a LOT of stuff. Which I enjoy, too, but it takes much less time to visit 20 photoblogs and leave comments than it does to visit 20 written blogs and comment. And as was mentioned before, if you’re not visiting other blogs and commenting, you’re not going to see the traffic you want.

Well I’ve rambled on long enough. Have a great day, everyone!

It will be interesting to see if others are confident enough to comment on how they see the activity and compare.

From the two data points you and I have thus far provided I have developed a hypothesis that as blog time progresses, one becomes more jaded with the exercise - I guess thast will not get a man to the moon, but perhaps it says something about the expectations with which we begin our blogs.

Interestingly on the first few points we agree - feedback is not really satisfying, showing off is OK and community is excellent.

Where we diverge sharply is in the mimicking and purpose. In the mimicking section I considered the thinking I needed to put into my commenting and I have been inspired by some photographers such as Fred and Lara whilst actually taking pictures - perhaps as you say because their style has some similarity to mine.

On purpose, I guess I still see the treadmill of being driven to photograph as positive whereas you are experiencing this as a chore as you say and therefore negative. I suspect this is the factor where blogging time has the most adverse impact.