The future of my blog
Some thoughts about this blog, and what I want to do with it now that I am no longer blogging that much.
One of my favorite places - Cannon Beach, OR
I haven’t posted here since late November. Wow, that was a long break. :-)
When I started this blog, I intended to keep posting here multiple times per week, basically forever. I really thought that I would do so, and keep doing so. Sure, I knew things would come up, and now and then I would miss a few days here or there, but I never thought I would be sitting here writing this sort of thing.
I have to admit that I have sort of fallen off the tracks as it relates to my blog. Like everyone else with a life and things to do - I have a life and I have things to do. Oh, and I have this thing called YouTube. I spend a lot of my free time creating the videos that I post on YouTube each week. And I love doing that. It inspires me, and the community there inspires me as well. In fact, I enjoy it more than I do trying to think of things to write here. And I think that having a good blog is more about the writing and the “content” than it is just me posting a photo, making a quick comment or two about it, and running off.
Over the last couple of years, my writing here on the blog has become less and less, and I have ended up just posting some quick comments about a photo, or just posting about a recent video that I shared on YouTube. And while it makes it look like I am “active” in my blogging, it was honestly about as passive as you can get while still putting something out here. I have been sort of phoning it in for the blog.
So now I sit here and wonder what I should do about this blog, going forward. Of course I am going to keep it, and continue to post here at times, but I don’t plan to keep aiming (and failing) at posting here several times per week. Instead I am thinking of this as being a place to share my thoughts in longer, written form (such as this note) as well as news about my photography, travels, or whatever.
I have a lot of articles and photos on this blog that I am proud of and worked really hard on, and I intend to keep them here. I like to have this archive of my work. But a blog is not really a good place to host a collection of images, in my opinion. And that is another thing that I have been thinking about…my collection of images.
I joined Flickr at around the same time I started blogging, which was late 2009 or so. I have over 7000 photos on Flickr, and I still find it to be a wonderful place to host photos as well as a supportive and inspiring community. So I will keep posting photos there as my collection of photographs that I share grows. I hope to have 100,000 or more at some point in my life. And I would like them all to be on Flickr.
But that is the thing - if you want to see my images. you can find them more easily on Flickr. They are organized and categorized and it’s easy to scroll through a lot of them and find whatever it is you are looking for. Or to just browse and enjoy it. And I am ok with that. For so long I wanted “blog traffic” and I felt like I did everything I could to get people to come to my blog. I get decent traffic, but I am no longer trying to get a lot of people to come to the blog. If they show up, that is great. But in this day and age, people prefer to stay on their social media site of choice, and those same sites don’t want them to leave anyway.
So I think my transition from a “blogger” (I always used that term loosely with myself) to a “YouTuber” (I really don’t like that term, but I do create a lot of YouTube content) has been a long time coming. I definitely think about YouTube more often than I think about the blog. I think of things I can create for YouTube, not the blog. So it’s definitely become my priority in terms of sharing whatever it is that I can share, that feels like it is a contribution to the world of photography.
So my plans are to continue to invest in the growth and development of my YouTube channel, and to write about things that interest me here on the blog, when I feel inspired to do so. And of course this means I may experiment with a new look here on the blog, since the “daily blog” sort of thing will no longer be my focus here.
So if you have been a frequent visitor or reader over the years, I really appreciate it. And of course you can always catch me on YouTube, Flickr, or even Twitter if you want to connect. Thanks for listening!
The pros and cons of photo blogging
The pros and cons of photo-blogging
7 Reasons why you should have a photo blog, and 7 reasons why you might want to think twice about it.
(Spoiler alert: I think you should have a photo blog. But it’s not for everyone.)
I love having this photo blog. It’s so much fun for me, it really is. But it’s more than fun - it’s also a lot of work. But in this sense, it’s fun work which I love, so it doesn’t feel like work work. Does that make any sense at all?
I get questions from time to time from folks about having a blog, and what it entails, and things like that; I’ve also had a lot of conversations over the years with various photographer friends. And while my blog is not super popular or well-known (and believe me, I am NOT an expert in any of this), I do have a decent readership and hope that I can offer up some valuable insight. Plus, I have been doing this for about 4 years now, with no end in sight, so I have some miles under my belt, so to speak. I simply love it too much to stop.
One thing I didn’t really think about before I started this was what kind of commitment it was going to be for me. Now of course anyone can have a blog, and since it’s a personal thing, you can choose how often you update it and add new posts. And of course everyone has different goals, so that comes into consideration here as well.
Maybe you just want to record your thoughts and need a creative outlet. Maybe you want something that family and friends can read to keep up with you and your family. Maybe this is just documenting a small, personal project and as such is short-term in nature. Blogs obviously come in every flavor imaginable.
But since many people want to find an audience and drive traffic - that pretty much requires frequent posts. And frequent posting requires a commitment, whether yours is a photo blog, travel blog, food blog, or something else. Think about it – people are always looking for new content to consume. Someone’s got to provide it.
(By the way, this article is written from the point-of-view of someone who is serious about their blog and wants to grow their readership, for whatever reason.)
So, I started thinking about all the pros and cons that come along with having this photo blog (and probably any blog, by extension). This list is certainly not comprehensive for everyone, because as I said above this is a very personal thing. These are just a collection of thoughts that have been swirling in my head for a while.
If you have a blog or are thinking about starting one, please let me know your thoughts. What are your experiences? Am I on target here?
Pros
1) It’s completely you and yours.
That was one thing I didn’t like about always just posting my shots on Flickr – everyone’s page looks the same, save the photos themselves. It was someone else’s site and they controlled how things looked. While that is ok for some, I got to a point where it was not ok with me. Of course, I still share my photos on Flickr, but that’s another thing entirely. I don’t blog there, and it’s not a good platform for it.
I wanted my own little corner of the internet that I could personalize and really make my own. I wanted to add some lists to the site, and that just doesn’t work on a site like Flickr (or 500px, or Facebook, or wherever). Have I succeeded? Mostly, I think.
There is still a lot I would like to do here on the blog (and I asked your input here), but it all takes time. But I can say that at least the site looks how I want it to look, and I am responsible for that. So, it’s mine and I am really glad I took the step to get started.
2) It’s fun and educational.
I have to admit that it’s fun to have a blog, especially a photo blog. I love it, and am really glad I started one. It’s something that gives me a sense of accomplishment as well as a creative outlet. I simply enjoy the entire process.
I have also learned a lot in the 4 years that I have maintained this little blog of mine. I have learned about how to build a website, for starters. Nope, I didn’t code it myself (I use Squarespace), but it still requires quite a bit of practice, experimentation and knowledge to get things just right. Things I never knew existed now populate my daily thoughts (SEO, Google Analytics…the list goes on and on), and I find myself drawn towards learning more about them.
But this has all helped me in a lot of ways. I have learned a lot about what I like to photograph, what I like to write about, and what inspires and motivates me. I have spent more time writing and sharing. I have spent more time just thinking. In other words, I believe I have learned more about myself, and that is a very powerful thing.
3) It forces you to improve your photography.
Oddly, I never really thought about this before I got started, nor even in the first year or so of blogging, but’s it very true. You have a public historical record of your photos, and you can’t help but compare your new shots to your old shots. Such is human nature.
The desire to post several times a week is both a motivator to shoot more, and to create more compelling images when you do shoot. You simply want to be better, because you are sharing your journey with the entire world. That’s a bit daunting.
I don’t think I’ve done as good a job here. I don’t mean in terms of quality – I like the images that I post; that’s why I post them – but I do mean in terms of learning more about the craft.
I spend more time shooting, creating, writing and sharing and less time learning new processing techniques. There’s still a lot for me to learn about editing photos. But I will say that I have landed – somehow – on a style that I like. People tell me they recognize my photos from the thumbnail previews. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad, but if my work is recognizable I will choose to think of that as a positive! :-)
4) It forces you to improve your writing.
Let’s face it, unless your name is JRR Tolkien or Patrick Rothfuss (or insert your favorite author’s name here), we could all use better writing skills – it helps in life and in business. This is something I really never thought about until the last year or so (and I have a LONG way to go), and it’s a focal point for me.
But it’s true. The mere fact that you sit down in front of the keyboard several times a week and need to come up with something to say…it makes you think about it. That’s part of why I wrote about going through some changes on the blog recently. I really enjoy the writing, and it bothers me that I didn’t put enough effort into in the past. I intend to correct that going forward. I can do better. More importantly, I want to do better.
5) It’s a great way to meet people.
If you are like a lot of photographers that I know, you started by sharing your images on Flickr, and over time you developed virtual friendships with some of your contacts there (more on that in this article). But it wasn’t until I started blogging (and they did too) that I really started to feel like I was getting to know these people. In some cases, I have met these folks in real life, and they are awesome. I consider them friends now, not just “contacts”.
Some I know through their blogs instead of somewhere like Flickr, and I feel like they are friends too, even if I haven’t met them in person yet. But whenever I travel somewhere and know of a “contact” that lives there, I try and reach out and see about meeting up. It’s always great to make that human connection.
I’ve met IRL (in real life) with “photo friends” in Austin (you would think that is easy, since I live here, but it’s not really), San Antonio, Portland, Denver, San Francisco, Nashville, London and even Bratislava. I always enjoy the real life connection and interaction, and it’s rewarding to learn about these people after “getting to know them” through their blog.
6) You will likely get some interesting offers.
While this can be a benefit, I want to be clear that this is not what I started this blog for (and frankly, never expected it to happen). I just wanted my own little space that I could put my own stamp on. When somebody offers me an interesting opportunity, I am always surprised. Me? Really?
Well it has happened. There have been some small things like free software and free hardware (nothing big, mind you – but things I have used, loved, and in some cases still use). There have been a lot of requests for product reviews in exchange for free use of said product. I have only done this once, and I didn’t feel very good about it, mostly because I wasn’t a big fan of the product. My time is valuable and limited, and I don’t want to feel like I am getting bought, simply put.
I have gotten many requests to review an app for this or that in exchange for a free copy of the app. While I am willing to do something like that if I felt like it was the right app for me or my readers, I haven’t yet as I haven’t heard from any that I really thought I would use. Even if they are really cool, I don’t want to waste anyone’s time, least of all mine.
And there have been a couple of bigger things, such as exchanging photo usage for hotel stays. That one I am a big fan of. :-)
This is not to say these things will happen to everyone, or that it will ever happen to me again, but the point is that once you get yourself out there and build up some sort of recognition, interesting things begin to happen. It’s all very flattering, actually. But more than that, it is a reinforcement that you are doing something that is beneficial and helpful to others, and that people are listening. Why else would a company want your support, other than to reach your readers?
And of course, if people can find your blog and like the photos, you may get some customers that way. While selling prints is not my focus, I do sell them now and in fact late last year set up a portfolio site to display and sell them on SmugMug. So far it's going pretty well, and I am selling some prints, so it's been worth it.
7) Growth is rewarding.
Simply put, when you see more people starting to visit your site, and stay a while, and views start going up – it makes you pretty happy. (Ok, it makes me happy, though I admit that is just my ego responding to the attention.) It’s rewarding to build something from the ground up and see it succeed. It makes you realize that your content has value.
Reader feedback is my favorite part of it. When someone leaves a comment on one of my posts, indicating that I have helped them or inspired them in some small way…that’s really rewarding. Or when I exchange emails with someone and am able to answer their questions, give them some assistance or just point them in the right direction – that really gets me fired up.
And yet there are challenges..it’s not all wine and roses. :-)
Cons
1) Blog maintenance is time-consuming.
This is something else I didn’t realize in the beginning. I thought I would put together my little website, add some photos each week with a short description, and carry on. Not so much.
I work on my blog at lot. It’s usually something small, but now and then I notice that something is wrong, or missing, or needs fixing – so I fix it. Sometimes I decide I want to change how a page looks, or how something displays – so I change it. Sometimes I decide to create a list of some sort – so I write and create the page (which also involves making sure the right photos are processed and added).
Perhaps I want to experiment with a different template or theme for my blog – so that involves switching to the new theme, which also involves a lot of little manipulations here and there (fonts, colors, etc). It sounds quick and easy, but never seems to be.
All of this is often not noticeable to the casual viewer, but added up it takes a lot of time. Also note here though that a lot of this is self-selected. I guess I am just obsessive, that’s all. (Hey, I learned something else about myself!).
I liken this part of blogging to being the Operations guy at a business. If you ignore all the little details, things start to fall apart. And of course, I am the Operations Guy here, as well as the photographer, writer, blogger, editor, marketing and sales guy, and whatever else there is that needs doing.
2) Blog ownership is thought-consuming.
I never realized (nor could I have known) that I would think about my blog all the time. It’s true. I am constantly thinking about how I could improve this feature or that feature. I am constantly thinking of ideas for posts, and therefore am constantly typing notes to myself in my iPhone whenever an idea strikes (and usually, it happens when I am trying to do something else).
I have a laundry list of ideas which are all scribbled down into Notes on my iPhone (hey, it’s always with me). There are a lot of things I want to do here. Some are quick and easy, while others are lengthy and complicated.
I am thinking of things I could do to better market myself and grow my readership and views. I want to write more. I want to publish some ebooks. See what I mean? The list of “To Do” items never shrinks…it just grows and grows.
On top of all that, you want to be different. If you just follow someone else’s idea of what your blog should be, then you are treading a well-worn path. It’s more fun to create your own path. This is something I am trying to do more of.
3) You get addicted to watching your stats.
It’s almost embarrassing to admit, but it’s true that I watch my blog stats a lot, and my stats aren’t really all that impressive. Like I said before, this site isn’t that well known, and I don’t make my living from it. This isn’t really even a business – it’s a glorified hobby. It’s a hobby I am incredibly passionate about – but a hobby nonetheless.
At some point, you start Googling certain things to see if you come up near the top of the search for them. And if not, you think about how to fix that. Then, you will hear about Alexa and start checking your blog out there too. You start considering what you can do to drive higher reader engagement, and more views, and all that stuff. I hate to admit it, but it’s true. Why bother putting all this out there if no one can find it and benefit from it?
4) You will get excited when you get comments.
With social media being so prevalent, it’s hard to get people to leave their social media site of choice in order to click over and read your post. You have to make it sound enticing, and that is hard to do. Plus as a photographer, you usually post the photo on said social media site anyways (because photos get more engagement than links), so they don’t really have to leave to see it.
In other words, while people may “Like” your photos, getting them to come over to your website and leave a comment is a whole other deal. It’s incredibly difficult. While I get a few comments from other photo-bloggers (which I greatly appreciate, and try to reciprocate), whenever I get a comment from a name I do not recognize (and it’s not spam LOL) that gets me excited. It means someone was willing to cross over, and that makes me feel good. Something resonated with a reader. That’s good.
This all may seem small and insignificant to you – and it may actually be small and insignificant – but it matters to a blogger. It really does.
And yes, I do consider myself a blogger. That was hard to swallow at first, but I am embracing it. You can read about that here.
5) It’s a very crowded blogosphere.
When you get started blogging, you will quickly find out that it is very crowded out there, despite the vastness of the internet. In other words – it’s hard to get noticed. There are so many talented bloggers out there, and more are coming online everyday.
I read a stat somewhere that in 2013 there were 10 million new blogs created – just in that one year! That is on top of the millions that were created before then. While all of these won’t be in your niche, many will be. It’s like standing in a crowded stadium and trying to get your voice heard over the din of a massive crowd.
So as you can imagine this leads to the above-listed things: thinking about how to grow the blog, thinking of new content, thinking of ways to be different, etc.
6.) Social Media takes on a whole new meaning.
Everyone is on some sort of social media site, and there are a LOT of choices - too many, if you ask me. But when you start a blog, one of the key things you will find yourself doing is sharing your content on whatever sites you frequent, with the intent of bringing people back over to your blog. It’s no longer just “hey, let me check out what my friends are doing” but rather you have to look at it with a critical eye and figure out how to engage people. You need a strategy. (No, I don't really have one.) How do you get more fans and followers? Just add this to the increased time commitment I mentioned earlier. Social media could be a full-time job. Promoting yourself is time-consuming and difficult work (not to mention the payback is questionable, hard to define, intangible, etc), and there is never a time when you are actually done with it. It goes on forever. Let me repeat: you are never done.
7.) Every other site will seem more popular than yours, and every other photographer will seem more popular on social media.
Here's another thing I try really hard not to do, but end up doing anyways: comparing my site to "the big sites". That's a crappy game to play, and it never ends well, but I do it anyways. It's human nature to compare yourself to others, and it's the nature of a blogger to compare their site to someone else's. But this usually leads me to think I am not doing enough, or not good enough, or something stupid like that. It's a waste of time and energy, frankly.
The same thing happens with social media. You see someone else's images get SO MUCH ENGAGEMENT and you wonder what is wrong with your images, or your approach, or something like that. It's better to just turn that voice off and leave that game. There is no sense in how things work, and really...it doesn't matter one bit. Just do what you do and enjoy the creative process. That's the only advice that makes sense.
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So, what do you think now? Do you still want to start a blog?
I sure hope these “Cons” did not dissuade you from getting out there and creating your own photo blog (or whatever kind of blog you want to create). I firmly believe that anyone who has an interest in this should try it out. Why not? It’s easy to get started, and in many cases it’s free as well. Why not take it for a test drive?
You may find that it is something that grows on you (and hopefully, grows in readership too) and you get just as much back from it as you put into it, or more. I know I certainly do. You may learn a thing or two about yourself. You may learn a thing or two about what you like, what gets you excited, and what makes you want to get up in the morning. In other words, what makes you want to come alive.
With that, I will end with one of my favorite quotes, because it seems to fit here:
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people that have come alive”. – Howard Thurman
Thanks for stopping by today!
Farewell 2013
Farewell 2013 - you were good to me!
2013 was a great year for me in a lot of ways. Photographically speaking, it was amazing. I went a lot of places, shot a lot of things, and shared a lot of photos. In other words, 2013 rocked!
Here are some key travel stats for the year that I wanted to share:
- Hit these great cities/regions in Europe: London (3x), Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dublin, Amsterdam, Brussels, Leipzig, Dresden, Berlin, Paris, Loire Valley, and Normandy
- Visited multiple US cities (some multiple times): San Francisco, Phoenix, Nashville, the Texas Coast, multiple spots in the Texas hill country, Dallas and Ft Worth, Santa Fe, Oklahoma City, and Maui
- Shot several great spots here in Austin (downtown, Bull Creek, Loop 360 Bridge etc)
- Made it down to Panama in Central America once too!
- Flew ~100,000 miles (about the same as 2012, oddly). Thanks American Airlines!
And here are some blog stats that went along with the above:
- Blog views up by 40+%
- Blog visitors up by 25+%
- Facebook fans up from ~1400 to over 4100!!
- Google+ followers up from ~14,000 to ~27,000!!
- Flickr views up over 125%! Wow, Flickr went big for me this year.
- I added several “Top Photo Spots” lists to the blog and they are really popular!
And a few accomplishments:
- I finally launched a gallery/portfolio site where you can buy prints - and you can find it here (courtesy of SmugMug): http://nomadicpursuits.smugmug.com/
- I completely overhauled this blog to the new version of Squarespace (v6), giving me much more creative control, a responsive design, and many new options that I still need to explore and take advantage of! Thanks Squarespace!
- I was honored to be named on this list of the Top 100 Travel Photographers in the World: http://blog.chillisauce.co.uk/top-100-travel-photographers-in-the-world/
- Licensing and print sales were more than 3x that of 2012 (though admittedly the numbers are relatively small), including some recent licenses to a company in Copenhagen which will turn one of my photos into an iPhone cover:
As far as the blog goes, my most popular pages and posts in 2013 are:
- Top Photo Spots in Austin
- Top Photo Spots in London
- My main blog landing page
- Top Photo Spots in San Antonio
- Top Photo Spots in San Francisco
- Top Photo Spots in Las Vegas
- Flickr is getting better. 500px is getting worse.
- Top Photo Spots in Nashville
- Top Photo Spots in The Texas Hill Country
- Top Photo Spots in Dublin
That list of my most popular pages tells me a few things. First, people like lists. Guess that’s common knowledge but wow 8 of my top 10 pages were lists! Guess I should write more of them! (And I plan to, but of course that depends on whether I go places enough to feel comfortable writing one. I currently have 1 in development.)
It also tells me that my article about Flickr and 500px was either controversial or popular (or maybe both), because I only published it in mid-October but it made #7 for the year! That’s really interesting to me for another reason: I enjoy writing. It’s only been in the last few months that I’ve really gotten more into writing, but I really do enjoy it, and plan to do more in 2014 (more on that soon - I’m still writing my “2014 plans” post LOL).
And lastly, where does my traffic come from? This one is always interesting to me, because it lets me know what is working, and I want to double down on things that work as I wrote about here.
- Google organic search leads the pack by a wide margin
- Direct traffic (someone typed in my URL specifically)
- Facebook is 3rd and by far the highest in the social networking category
- Lightstalking ranks 4th thanks to getting mentioned in the weekly roundup done by my friends at Toad Hollow!
- Yahoo organic search is 5th
- From there it falls off a bit: Bing, Google+, Stumbleupon, Pinterest, HDR One, Flickr and a few others...
Well, thanks for stopping by today, and for all your visits in 2013. I hope that I can continue to create compelling content to draw you back in 2014. And of course, I plan to continue taking, processing and sharing LOTS of photos in the new year, because I love to do so!
Thanks so much for your support, I sincerely appreciate it. Happy New Year!
I'll be back soon with my look ahead to 2014, so come back soon!
And since this is the last day of 2013 - or the sunset of the year, if you will - here is a beautiful sunset that I shot earlier this year in downtown Austin. Enjoy!
10 Questions with...Jeff Clow
Thanks for stopping by today folks, and I have a real treat for you! Today’s post is the 2nd installment in my ongoing interview series, called “10 Questions with...”. As the name implies, I ask a photographer that I admire 10 questions, and sometimes the answers are not what you think! It’s great fun for me (and I assume for you, too) and I think we all learn something in the process.
Today is a treat because I am honored to feature Jeff Clow - landscape photographer, tour guide leader, and all-around nice guy - to share his thoughts on some topics of interest to all of us!
If for some reason you have been under a rock and are not familiar with Jeff or his work (or if you just want to follow him more closely), then here are the places to do just that:
Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/u/0/105284909171916066479/posts
500px: http://500px.com/jeffclow
Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffclow/
Dirt Cheap Photo Tours: http://www.dirtcheapphototours.com/
Jeff’s work is very popular, and when I first came across his images years ago I loved them. I am apparently not the only one who loves them, because he has almost 5,000,000 views on Flickr, and an affection rating on 500px exceeding 26,000!! That’s insane!
Ok, enough with the introduction Jim, let’s get into it! Read on and enjoy....and thanks Jeff for doing this!
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1. How did you get started in photography?
Up until seven years ago, I was simply a point and shoot Dad taking photos of my family. Then I read an article in the Wall Street Journal about a new site called Flickr that was a good place to back up your family photos. I joined in November, 2004 and started uploading my family photos .... a few days later some kind soul commented on one of my shots and I was shocked. I didn’t even know at that time that there was a comment function built in to the site. But, being somewhat achievement oriented, I decided that if strangers were going to be looking at my photos, I better get better and I started reading voraciously everything I could about photography. I took lots of bad photos but the more I read and the more I shot, the images started getting better and pretty soon I had a lot of people following my work on Flickr.
2. You call yourself “the accidental pro”. Can you share how that happened?
A few months later another stranger asked me if I ever thought about putting my photos in a photo stock agency. Funny thing is, I had to look up what stock photography was because I didn’t have a clue. But I decided to give it a try and uploaded what I thought were ten good shots to one of the online sites. Every one of them was rejected. That fueled my inner fire a bit and I decided I would really concentrate on getting better at the craft of photography. Six months later I submitted ten different images and every one was approved. And then Flickr exploded with lots and lots of new members and I was fortunate to be on Flickr’s front page several times with the Explore feature and soon I was getting a steady stream of people asking to license my photos for advertising campaigns. I was floored, but after figuring out how to price my photos by reading lots of online articles, I was off and running. A few years later a Getty editor invited several dozen of my images into the Getty collection and now I have several hundred images with them and the monthly commission checks have bought me a lot of new lenses and equipment – as well as funded lots of trips to fun places. I didn’t set out to be a pro or a photo tour host or an author of a book about photography – all of these things happened more or less accidently. Opportunity knocked and I answered the door – plain and simple.
3. What is your favorite photograph that you have taken thus far? Why?
Seems like that changes with the years. The first photo that got me noticed on Flickr was this one – a frog hiding inside a canna plant:
...and that one is still a personal favorite. But lately I’d say that this shot is my most recent favorite:
4. You have started a photo-tour company, Dirt Cheap Photo Tours. Can you tell us about that?
I was fortunate to have my stepdaughter and her husband live near Jackson Hole, Wyoming for several years and so my wife and I made many trips up to the land of the Tetons. I took a lot of photos of the area and many ended up being featured on Flickr’s Explore front page. That led to a lot of people asking me about the area when they themselves were headed to Grand Teton National Park. After being asked many, many times about where and when to shoot, I decided to organize a photo tour and see if there was any interest. I didn’t want it to be a workshop where you sit in a hotel room for much of the time and critique photos or work on software processing, so I purposely called it a photo tour. I also wanted it to be different than the multitude of other workshops out there so I came up with the name Dirt Cheap Photo Tours because I wanted it to be much more reasonably priced than anything out there at the time. The concept of shooting photos all day at a fair price was a success and I’ve been doing multiple tours every year with lots of return participants. It has also enable me to meet a lot of nice people who I am now friends with in real life instead of simply online. I have a website that features many kind testimonials:
http://www.dirtcheapphototours.com/Page_4.html
And the photo tours led me to write an eBook about photography in the Tetons that was picked up by a book publisher and now is also available as a paperback guide:
http://www.amazon.com/Cheap-Photo-Guide-National-ebook/dp/B005EN738U/ref=zg_bs_154715011_84
5. I assume your favorite place to shoot then is in Jackson Hole, WY. If so, what attracts you there as opposed to other mountain spots?
I’ve been to a lot of mountain locations but the Tetons are unique because of the fact that the mountain range juts out in such strong relief from the floor of the Jackson Hole valley. In Colorado, you’ve got lots of 14,000 foot mountains but they don’t jut out from a valley at 6,500 feet like they do in Grand Teton National Park. And it is a compact park about 50 miles in length ... so it is very easy to get around without spending hours and hours driving. Plus the wildlife and the many great landscape locations make it a photographer’s paradise. I’ve been to Glacier and Banff and they are spectacular, but there’s nothing like the Tetons in North America.
6. What is the best advice you can give someone about how to improve their photography?
I have been asked that question many, many times. My answer never changes. My advice is simple: Stand in front of better things. As a photographer, you need to know about things like depth of field and focal length and composition – and you can learn those through self study and looking at lots of other photos and seeing what “works” from your vantage point. But you’ve got to force yourself to get up and find great things to stand in front of with your lens. And it doesn’t have to be a mountain range. Some of my most popular photos were taken in my backyard garden or in the forest not too far from my home. Don’t bemoan the fact that you don’t have great scenery nearby – make do with what you can photograph. That’s what so great about macro photography. There are bugs and insect and flowers everywhere. If a person takes lots of photos and learns from their successes and failures, then their photography will improve. I have seen it happen many, many times on my photo tours.
7. What is your most-viewed photo?
I honestly didn’t know which one had been viewed until you posed the question, but it is this one on Flickr:
I sure don’t think its in my own personal top ten, but it has been viewed by 145,000 people via Flickr. In terms of all time views, this shot has been used in a worldwide ad campaign and as a book and album cover, so I believe it probably is the most viewed photo I’ve taken overall:
8. You are probably best known for your landscapes photos. What other subjects do you like to shoot, and why?
I really like nature in all its forms – macro, wildlife, birding and trees and plants. I enjoy attempting to capture a scene that speaks to me and to share it with others. After all, that’s why I shoot – to ultimately share what I photograph with others. I’m a validation junkie – and when a stranger tells me that they like a shot or that they want to use a shot of mine for some purpose, then I feel that I’ve done a decent job of capturing something that others find appealing.
9. Can you describe your typical workflow for a landscape shot?
I normally shoot from a tripod in RAW/jpeg format and I usually bracket three or five shots with auto bracketing. Sometimes I blend the images, but often I’ll just use one of the frames to create the finished image. I don’t spend more than ten or fifteen minutes on post processing but I do know my way around Photoshop CS5 and I have several plug ins that I use regularly like Topaz Adjust and Viveza. I find that if is taking more than ten minutes or so, its too much post processing and I move on to another image – I’m much happier shooting that I am spending tons of time in the digital darkroom.
10. What spots are on your bucket list, and what plans do you have to cross them off?
I’ve been fortunate to have been able to catch a lot of places in North America during my travels, but places I’ve not been that I would enjoy visiting include the many national parks in Utah and the shoreline in upstate California, Oregon and Washington. Like so many other photographers, I’d enjoy visiting and photographing wildlife in Africa and the magic of Machu Picchu in Peru. They are on my life list and I plan to hit them all if circumstances allow it.
An amazing hill country sunset
I took this shot in the Texas hill country back in January, when I was headed out for a photographic ramble through the area with a good buddy. It was one of those “right place, right time” things. We both thought the light beam shooting up through the middle there was cool, and my buddy aptly named it "the solar cannon". Obviously the clouds were doing some cool things, and that's what I love about HDR. It just brings these things to life, almost like being there again.
A little excitement
In addition to always posting my shots here on the blog, I add them to a cool photo sharing website called Flickr. It's a community of photographers that share their work, their advice, and all that good stuff. It's great to participate in and I must admit I have made some great friends thanks to Flickr. This morning when I went to take a quick look at my account there, to check on any activity and all that, I was pleasantly surprised to see my post from yesterday had made their "Explore" page, which is where the folks behind Flickr select the most popular photos from the day before. That's big news for me, as it not at all common and I have only had one other photo make in on the list, and it was way down on the list that time. Yesterday my shot hit #43 out of 500, so that's pretty cool! Anyways, thanks for all the support and I sincerely appreciate it.