It’s pretty easy to start a blog about photography. Sign up with a host, select a few options, and there you go. Bingo. You’re on the web. Then comes the hard part — you’re all dressed up with nowhere to go. What do you do with the damn thing?

I wrestle with that question every time I sit down here, and I’ve yet to come up with a definitive answer. I’ve had various photoblogs over the past three years or so. I started out to post some of my own work, and to occasionally write some thoughts about photography. I’ll continue to do some of that, though I’m reluctant to simply post an endless parade of photos I’ve done. There are millions of blogs doing that, and many are quite good and a pleasure to look at, but why should I do the same? What makes my work special enough that anyone would care to keep returning to see it? Probably nothing — I don’t even like to look at my own stuff for long. I get sick of it. I’ll post some photos of course, but for me a blog needs more.

I don’t do equipment reviews. I’m not interested enough in equipment to get into that. There are many fine review sites that can steer a reader in the right direction. There are others that don’t. I don’t need to add to the confusion. Reviews aren’t my thing.

I don’t do how-to’s either. I don’t know enough, and besides, I’m a lousy teacher. The only advice I could possibly give on how to do it is to say just do it. You’ll figure out your own way. I’m not interested in how-to. I’m much more interested in why-to. Why do I do what I do? Why do you do what you do? That just might turn out to be the main theme of this blog.

One of my favorite photography quotes is by Edward Steichen. It says “no photographer is as good as the simplest camera.” I’m a firm believer in that; I think it’s profoundly true. When it comes to personal expression, art, no camera is going to make or break you. Only you can do that. Unless you are competing for high dollar commercial accounts or some such thing, the camera you use isn’t that important. It just needs to be functional. The rest is up to you.

But how about you, dear reader? What are your thoughts on equipment? On finding your own way to work? On what you’d like to see in a photography blog? Pass them along — I’d love to hear from you.

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As quick and convenient as digital photography may be, I still like to take an old film camera out for a ride now and then. I still have a few of them — the newest being an old original Nikkormat from 1967 with a few Nikkor lenses to crank onto it. It’s still a great piece of equipment, even after all these years.

This photo was done with an Agfa Silette. A simple camera, probably made in the late 50′s or early 60′s, it has three shutter speeds and a pretty good range of f-stops. You focus by guessing how far away you are from your subject. You get pretty good at that, and if the exposure allows you can stop down and gain a little fudge room. It’s primitive, but a hell of a lot of fun to play with. Besides — it only cost me two bucks at a yard sale.

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You see flickr everywhere. Blogs have their flickr widgets pointing to their work.  Some have their own flickr group based on their blog.  I always wonder though how effective it really is in generating interest in your work.

I have my own flickr account but have yet to upload any photos to it,  and I haven’t decided yet if I even will.  Maybe, if it seems worthwhile.  Mostly I posts photos here, upload a few to my gallery site, and I have listings on a couple of photoblog directories. So far I’ve felt that that’s enough. I’ve thought that it’s more important to spend my time getting better at posting quality stuff rather than to scatter my energies at numerous other places.  But I don’t know — am I missing out on something?

Any thoughts? Any experiences, pro or con, with flickr? Is it a useful tool for building up a blog, or is it more likely a collossal drain on one’s time and energy? Let me know what you think.

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You don’t always have to look far for interesting subjects. I stepped outside one morning and found this on the sidewalk right off of my front step. It’s amazing what you can find literally right at your feet.

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I was prowling the apartment one day with a little point-and-shoot digital in hand, looking for interesting objects to play around with. In my daughter’s room I happened to stumble across a basket of shells. Stashed right next to it was a box of rocks. I dug around in the basket for a couple of minutes, found this sand dollar, set it in the box of rocks, put the little camera on macro, and got this.

It’ll never hang on a gallery wall, but I kind of like the pattern on the shell and the contrast against the rocks.

It never hurts now and then to grab a simple camera and just play around with it inside your own home. You never know what you might come up with.

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