(embiggenable) • iPhone
(embiggenable) • iPhone
(embiggenable) • iPhone
RE: THE DECLINE OF / INTEREST IN PHOTO BLOGS....
It is quite possible that one of the tidbits which Brooks Jensen wrote about in his Things I've Learned About Photography list contains some insight into the current photo blog decline....
For the first several years one struggles with the technical challenges, making sure and steady progress - a learning curve and growth process that is rewarding, stimulating and self-renewing. But, eventually every photographer who sticks with it long enough arrives at a technical plateau where production of a technically good photograph is relatively easy. It is here that real photography starts and most photographers quit.
One of my takes on that idea is that there was a period of growth, photo blog wise, that accompanied the emergence and growth of digital picture making. There were lots of picture makers-newbies and "old-timers" making the transition from analogue to digital-who were looking for info and advice on equipment and technique. And, as gear sales moved from the realm of real camera stores-thus ending the over-the-counter chat with a knowledgeable sales person-to the realm of the virtual camera store where nobody knows your name, the search for advice moved to the blog-o-sphere (no youtube yet).
That written, once the quest for info, together with the significant decline of the new gear sales and the emgerence of youtube, was satiated, the long slow decline of photo blog readership began. I would also suggest, re: the Brooks Jensen thing, that there was a significant decline in the number of "serious" amateurs-those who had reached the point where real photography starts-who lost whatever "passion" that they may (or may not) have had.
In any event, here I sit still doing my thing since blog post # 1 posted in January 2007. My heyday was 200-300 daily page views, with lots of comments, for quite a number of years. Most of those comments revolved around the medium of photography and its appartus (aka: conventions). Amost never about gear and/or technique. Today, the blog has a consistent 70-80 daily page views but, unforutnately from my POV, very few comments.
Nevertheless, I carry on and will do so for the foreseeable future.