A couple of years ago when adults began emptying their thoughts onto online journals(teenagers had been using them to complain on the internet for a decade-Livejournal anyone?), the word "blog" really bugged me. The words "web log" just seemed to me like they should have been joined together so that people were posting on wogs or even wegs. "Blog" just doesn't roll off of the tongue. It sounds like some sort of onomatopoeic word to describe someone choking on a pork chop. Pow! Kerplunk! Blog!But as more and more photographers, artists and publications started using blogs as an avenue to organically share and exchange information with the public, I started warming up to the idea of blogs. I got a sense of personality from the people writing them, rather than just seeing a photographer's work or reading an interview or bio about them.
In the photographic world, blogs have transformed into an evolving community that creates conversations between big time pro shooters, amateurs and wannabe pros alike. People like David Hobby, of Strobist.com, are the forefathers of this share-all mentality. Being a veteran pro shooter himself, he created his blog to show off some of his DIY, low cost tips for great photographic lighting. Other than expensive workshops, personal experience and schooling, photographers had few resources that offered detailed, practical and useful information in this high of volume. People flocked to his site in droves and internet chatter about his helpful blog spread like the plague. As advertisers and sponsors started noticing the traffic that he was attracting, a blog was turned into a useful business tool.
I've obviously waved the white flag in the fight against all things blog and recognize how valuable they've become. Time I spend browsing the internet is now almost exclusively used to click through a number of blogs I have bookmarked that offer great content and regular updates. I still prefer paging through an issue of PDN to sitting in front of my computer monitor, but there's much to be said about the instant availability of information over the blogsphere. Did I really just use the word blogsphere? What have I become?
So, here's just a handful of my favorites from both pros and ams that if you don't have them bookmarked already then now would be a good time. Click away:
www.zarias.com
whereisben.com
Tony Sweet's blog
http://robertbenson.com/blog
Chase Jarvis' blog
http://www.digitalprotalk.blogspot.com
PopPhoto blog
http://www.photoattorney.com
http://www.davidbergman.net/blog
Joe Mcnally's blog
http://photobusinessforum.blogspot.com/
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/
Enjoy! - RS
