As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve been reassessing my marketing in different aspects. One of the quandaries that many professional photographers face on the interweb is that some people that follow you are clients and some are fellow photographers. For a while I posted for the photographers, but I read that I should be writing to whom I am attempting to market. I’ve flipped and flopped on this and realized that I could post to both – but I would preface the post with a little note that it’s intended for photographers. Not to say that non-professional photographers wouldn’t enjoy posts on how to use a tilt/shift and what mirror lockup means, but I believe many of my clients may want to see some new photographs, products, photography uses, etc. and I understand that. So, with that said, this post is for the photographers who read this blog, non-photographers are welcome to read on or visit tomorrow to view my Photo Friday image.
When I first started out – I mean back in my black and white film days – Photo communities on the Internet were fledgling little websites trying to find their feet. I joined Photo.net, a site that is still around and very active today. It was a great experience for me, I saw inspirational images, found new techniques and I learned what was technically and compositionally wrong with the photos I had taken to that point. From there I moved on to TrekEarth and Usefilm, both of which I was only a part of for a few months. I guess I thought the more sites I joined, the better I would be become. There is some truth to that as I was exposed to a lot more material.
Well, interest in those sites waned for me and I eventually joined BetterPhoto.com. The thing that piqued my interest with BetterPhoto.com was that there was a monthly contest in different subjects with decent prizes. I found myself more motivated to post and I also found the community very welcoming. There were people at all skill levels brought together for a love of photography and a want of discussion. I went on a couple of group excursions with some members of this site and had a great time. I was very active with BetterPhoto for about 3 years and two things happened – My first daughter was born (Riley) and my photography became more focused. Time became very limited.
When Riley was about a year old, things slowed down (just a little) and I decided to return to the photographic communities and I joined a site called NaturePhotographers.net, mainly because a fellow photographer was a member and he recommended that I check it out. For a while I was semi-active, but I never really connected with the individuals like I had with BetterPhoto.com. That’s not to say that the people weren’t nice or helpful, but I think I was just in a different place artistically and in life than many of them. During this time I became really worried about defining myself as an artist. I wanted to define my style and vision and set photographic goals. Many of the people on NaturePhotographers.net liked a set of people and sought to emulate them. As such they would often critique my work and I would be compard to these other artists. Well, I didn’t want my work to look like theirs, I wanted it to look like mine! Sure, some of the suggestions were helpful, but many were just how to get my stuff to look like someone else’s. 2 years ago I posed – “Why You Should Always or Never Listen to Your Critics” to this blog regarding my frustrations. Needless to say I needed some introspection away from the noise of the forums and I just left one day.
After that I thought I would be done interacting with communities. From there I focused on building my artistic vision and style and connecting with other photographers through their blogs. This experience has proven to be more personable, but slow at the same time. I still visit some forums to find images I like or to get inspiration, but I became a silent observer.
Yesterday, that changed, I decided to join 500px. Like Facebook and Twitter it seems to be the “in” thing for many photographers. From the outside it seems to be a fairly friendly community which is one reason why I joined. The second reason is simply for marketing. The more your work is on the web, the better your online marketing, in the simplest manner I suppose. We’ll see where it goes. I am beginning with some trepidation. They have a rating scale similar to Photo.net, which I’m not really a fan. (Eye of the beholder and all that Jazz) Still, having feedback on some images might be useful. I might even give out some feedback on photographs. We’ll see how it goes and I might give everyone a report in a little bit to what I think, time permitting, of course. Until then, you can check out my profile at http://500px.com/JourneyOfLight.
