My Eyes’ Mind Blog

Over the last 6 months, I’ve been swirling around in the vortex of Web 2.0 development. Let me paraphrase. I’ve completed work on a new website. It’s called Storylicious.com. It’s been under wraps for the last 9 months — the first of many collaborations brought to you by FidgetLabs (of which I’m a founding member).

Storylicious is a website for story-tellers. I hear a collective internet yawn! So, what’s unique about Storylicious? Well, our service lets people write stories collaboratively. So, you, your sister, and crazy uncle Ned can — together — write the timeless story about your parents’ 25 wedding anniversary.

The website lets you write, share and publish your stories. You can collect them in an outline and then print them in PDF form. And soon, you’ll be able to have your stories bound in a professional book. Importantly, you can keep your stories private. However, you can invite others to comment on your stories and add articles too. Best of all, it’s free.

Perhaps, I and my fellow FidgetLabs team members are nuts. Time will tell.

Those of you wondering why I titled this “…Web 2.0…”, please read on. Storylicious is fundamentally a social publishing tool, about collaboration and sharing, which are 2 pillars of the so-called Web 2.0 revolution.

My relative absense from the blogsphere in recent months has been brought to you by: a) Blogfatigue; b) Kids on school holidays; c) Other and “real” web design work.

On the latter, I’ve co-founded a company to pursue some exciting untapped needs in the burgeoning social networking space. The inner machinations of the enterprise are still “hush-hush”. However, for future reference, the company’s name: Fidgetlabs

Yet, still, I am drawn back.

Of course, after this hiatus, I find that my current reading and listening lists are totally out of whack. Needless to say it’s time for me to update these as well.

And, I have much photography work to catch-up on. Including, my photo-series on China in the early 1980s; and more recent images from Tuscany and La Serenissima (Venice).

I have just finished adding RSS (Really Simple Syndication) to my blog. In the top right quadrant of the blog you’ll now see “subscribe to my blog” followed by several RSS chicklets. I’ve included feeds to half a dozen of the most popular RSS aggregators, such as Yahoo, Newsgator and Bloglines.

Now you can add my photography blog to your list of favorite sources of content with one click.

I use Feedburner to RSS enable my website. Follow this link to learn more about RSS in general.

I thought it would be interesting to make a quick list of online photosharing sites. While by no means exhaustive — please comment if you know of others — it does show the sea change in progress. Is that dusty photo album in your closet soon to be ejected into cyberspace?

So, here’s the list: aPop, Buzznet, Carbonmade, Flickr, FlyInside, 23h, Fotolia, Fotoflix, Mappr, Ourmedia, Panoramio, PhotoStack, PixPulse, Plogger, Riya, ShoZu, Shutterfly, Slide, textamerica, zenphoto, Zooomr.

Dare I make a couple of observations. First, one good original idea will be followed by hundreds of copies, some better, most mediocre. Second, if you wish to own a cool website you’ll need a name that stretches the boundaries of our language.

First Squidoo, now Carbonmade! Ever on the look out for new ways to promote my photographs, today I came across Carbonmade. “Not another online photography site!”, I hear you say. Well, it certainly seems that a new image show-and-tell or photosharing site appears on the web every 10 minutes. So, why Carbonmade?

Carbonmade is a new website that allows anyone to build and show off their art, photography, illustration or any other type of creative portfolio. It’s wonderfully easy to use and looks good too. I signed up for a free account, uploaded a dozen or so of my Prague photographs and configured the online portfolio in about 5 minutes. You can check out my portfolio here.

What on earth is a Squidoo? And what is a Lensmaster? Squidoo is a new, cooperative internet service that allows people to build communities and edit filters on topics they are passionate about. A Lensmaster is simply a member of Squidoo who acts as the filter and has editorial control over a particular topic.

I’m a Lensmaster for the Black and White Photography topic on Squidoo.

Squidoo is home to hundreds of Lensmasters on topics including: technology, travel, U2’s Bono, creativity, food, literature, writing, leadership, and many others. While there are several other websites like Squidoo, I joined Squidoo because it offers the broadest depth of services, it has a social conscience, it will soon provide monetary incentives, and appropriately enough its content editors / experts are called “Lensmasters”.

Visit the local camera store (if you have one) or scour the internet and you’ll doubtless see that film sales continue to decline, with digital photography on an unstoppable ascendant. I have both “analog” and digital equipment, and use both. Check out Nikon’s recent announcement regarding its exit from the mass-market for film cameras.

Currently, I use film cameras exclusively for professional work. I still prefer my old-world Nikon, Canon and Mamiya cameras over their digital equivalents. The cameras are fast, rugged, and, as yet, have an unmatched array of lenses and other accessories. On the other hand, I use my digital Canon Powershot for family snapshots.

Film has yet to be surpassed by digital in terms of responsiveness and dynamic range. But, it’s clearly only a matter of time before the converse is true. Professional level digital cameras do indeed exist, but, at the moment they are simply beyond my price-point. However, the incessant improvement of digital technology and the parallel downward spiral in price means that in a year or so it may be time for me to take the leap — towards a fully digital world.

As a child I used to love working with my father in his darkroom. I found the process of creating an original image both moving and fascinating. Of course, digital workflow removes the qualities of romance and alchemy from photography, but creativity lives on. Digital photography does not replace finding and establishing rapport with a subject; it does not eliminate the process of framing and composing an image; it does not remove the subjective process of development.

I’ve enjoyed working in the darkroom and its digital equivalent — Photoshop. I think my exposure (pun intended) to both have made me a better photographer.

The Stratford Green Gallery, home to my B+W photography exhibit, is taking part in the Old Town Holiday Stroll on Saturday, December 3. This annual family festival in downtown Lewisville features a parade at 3pm, ice sculpting, a kids’ coloring contest and lots of other fun events.

It’s a great opportunity to see downtown revitalization at work in the heart of the historic district of Lewisville. The address of the gallery is: Stratford Green Gallery, 112 West Main Street, Lewisville, Texas.

I visited the Great Smoky Mountains National Park over the Thanksgiving weekend. This is my first time in the Smokies. It rained on the first day, so I didn’t have much opportunity to get the camera warmed up. The next day, the first snow storm of the season dumped 8 inches above 3,000 feet. The snow turned the park into a beautiful winter wonderland. While the highest trails were closed due to weather, I did get to hike around Cade’s Cove, Newfound Gap and up above Rainbow Falls. As I clear by backlog of prints to post online, I’m hoping to add some images of the Smokies soon.

I’ve finally published online some of my photographs of Quebec City, Canada. I took most of these during the autumn of 1999.

Here’s the complete Quebec City index page