Winners and Losers
Of course not all of my posts have been wildly popular. It is not always clear why some have caught on and others have died in obscurity. I suspect one important factor may be the titles. My most popular blog was bravely labeled "Call of the Sea" and despite it being a fairly routine, blatant self-promotion of a show of my seacoast images in Portsmouth New Hampshire last summer, it has received well over 400 views. My least visited effort was, I felt, a reasonable discussion of the value of going on shoots with other photographers. Unfortunately its uninspired title "Flying Solo ?" didn't generate the same interest. Only 7 people dropped by. Titles are important, so from now on all of my blog postings (or at least this one for awhile) will begin with the words "Naked Women". I deeply apologize to all those who have arrived under false pretenses, although I am confident you all left long ago. Good hunting.
A Second Look
Regardless of the reasons, there are a few of my posts that didn't get the interest that I felt they deserved. Perhaps it was the title, but some were published early when I had a nearly nonexistent following. Although they are all my children, I thought this might be an appropriate time to mention a couple that might be of belated interest.
One of the my most exciting recent photoshoots was a winter overnight at the Mount Washington Observatory on the highest mountain in New England. If you want to learn about cold weather photography there is no better place. Try 20 degrees below zero and winds gusting over 90 mph. For my readers in India that's 30 degrees below zero Celsius and 145 Kilometers per hour. To get a feeling for the experience check out my lonely blog from April 2009:
Winter on the Top of New England
New Hampshire's far northern region is usually referred to as the Great North Woods. I regret that I haven't been back to this photographically rich area since my weekend back in the spring of 2009. It is well worth the trip. Check out my brief early post:
New Hampshire's Great North Woods
Goals
In my first post in January 2009 I discussed my reasons for starting a blog:
- To improve my ability to talk reasonably about my work without the usual pretentious "artsy" jargon. Sadly no tree, mountain or shrub has ever "talked" to me about how to capture its "essence".
- To tell stories about how my images were captured and processed. Story telling is, after all, what photography achieves at its best.
- To share what I've learned and as a result expand my own knowledge.
- To offer a forum to share information about my special and often under-appreciated corner of New England.
At the start I had no conception of the amount of time and effort this would require, but I find that my goals have not changed and that the task remains remarkably rewarding. Now I have to start trying to find SOMETHING to talk about next week! I'm thinking the snow outside (Finally !) may help.
The map you posted on flickr enticed me to this blog entry, I generally don't read them. I've found the most popular photos I've posted are of my cooking; cats, however cute I think they are, don't get a look; architecture and cars do well; landscapes less so. I am surprised by how few hits some landscapes of which I think highly get. I've seen some pages with images of interesting spots in Chesterfield, I suppose that's your work- well done, you capture their interesting-ness. They're on my to-visit list in the back of my mind.
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