A New Rule, and Some Clarification of Purpose

I know I said there were going to be no rules here, but it seems that anarchy has failed to satisfy my dictatorial intent. Therefore I am laying down the smack:

Please limit your posts to 1 per week.
The week begins on Sunday and ends on Saturday, just like on the calendar. So if you wish to post once at 11:59 PM on Saturday, and then again at 12:01 AM on Sunday than feel free. But I do think that your purpose and mine would be better served by spacing them out a bit. I'll let you think on that.

The reasons for this rule are very simple. We all want our images to be seen. Unfortunately we know that the average internet/blog surfer has an attention span of 12 seconds or 3 images, whichever comes first. Therefore, in the community spirit of this blog, it is important that no one photographer is allowed to monopolize the real estate of this page.


With that said, I think we could all benefit a tad if I could further explain my intent in starting this thing. The original idea belonged to someone else who wanted to start a blog for him, myself, and Rachel to post photos on. Just for fun. I liked the idea so, when it sort of fell through, as these things do, I decided to start my own similar blog. My initial thinking was just that it would force me to keep photography in my weekly routine to some extent, even when I am busy with the more mundane stuff of life. I also wanted to invite a whole gang of photographers, any who may be interested, in order to bring different styles and choice of subject matter into the mix.

Remember show-and-tell Fridays in Elementary School? That's sort of the gist of what I was thinking. I like the idea that we can all just post whatever we want with absolutely no technical or artistic limitations. It's about sharing, and getting to know one another, and all that warm-fuzzy stuff. I like not knowing what might pop up on here from one day to the next. For instance just this week there was a picture of an Octopus cocktail by James, and then some sort of awkward pool scene from Jake. (Both exceptional photos by the way.) I want to be able to scroll down the page and see a wide variety of perspectives and ideas.

Although I started this blog, I do not think of it as simply mine. I want this blog to belong to all of us. It is not meant to be a photography forum, or a message board. There are plenty of better places for that. I want everyone to feel free to offer comment or criticism where it is appropriate, but I hope to avoid the sort of pissing contests that photo forums are known for. We don't need any lens measuring contest here. Nobody needs to know the size of your tripod, or the f/stop you used. Let's just let it be about the photographs themselves.

Furthermore, I do not see this as an extension of my portfolio, or something that will ever be listed on a resume. I will never "monetize", or sell advertising space here. Maybe that's just the artsy-fartsy purist in me speaking. But I want this to be something that exists separately from the terrible ordeals of self-promotion/pimping that commercial success may require of us as photographers. I have my very own photo blog, so I see no reason why this one should have to be about how terribly awesome I am.

So, with all that said and done, I hope that this does not make anybody feel limited or restricted. I believe in freedom of expression. Whatever you want to photograph is the thing you should photograph. I will never put any restrictions on that (within obvious legalities).

So let's make some F***ing art!

-Brandon