Rocks in Arches National Park

New Journal 36 – Progress in world of blogging

A blog, for me, is a social document – an almost real-time biography in which, for the first time, the readers can affect the outcome. Unlike typical biographies which are written after-the-matter, blogs are ever-changing. They are written as you read them, as you live your life. With every new follower, comment and like on a blog, the direction of that blogger’s life potentially changes forever.

Our readers not only experience our successes they are also a principle factor in that very same success. It isn’t however, the duty of our readers to create that success or to spread the word of our blog so that our readership grows. It is the blogger’s responsibility to create a blog so compelling that the reader feels no other choice but to share, like or leave a comment. At some point, when a blog reaches a tipping point in its number of readers, the dream of becoming a professional blogger becomes a reality.

Our readers, on the other hand, can also become part of that real-time biography. I’ve had the privilege of meeting and shooting with a good number of my readers, many of whom have enhanced our story.

Before a blogger gets to that fabled tipping point, as we are at now, you have no idea in what direction your life will go. You write about your goals utterly clueless as to whether or not you’ll achieve them. And sometimes, our readers experience our failures and difficulties, too.

My goal of becoming a professional photo-blogger is a long-shot. I can admit that. Very few have been successful in this field and I’m 5 years too late for the party. Nonetheless, with true optimism I continue visiting spots I previously only dreamed of in order to capture their beauty and document our adventures.

In the past 8 months I’ve made measurable progress. My journal entries on facebook have gone from an average of 20 likes to an average of 150, while followers on all social networks have risen sharply. My two courses are selling better than I ever expected at this point and I have regular requests to run HDR workshops.

With this in mind, how far am I from becoming a professional photo-blogger?

Well, it seems like I’m half-way up a mountain whose peak I still can’t see. My income from Through Strange Lenses is still not enough to support this wonderful adventure that we’ve had until now, although we do earn money from other sites as well.

We have the financial support to continue to live this adventure but I have to learn to market myself better in order to sustain it. At the moment I’m so immersed in photography and travel that the business and marketing end of blogging slips me by.

With so much uncertainty, what can I say about the future?

Not much, is the short answer. I’m so intimately connected to my blog that I can’t imagine a future without it. I’m here for the long run, or at least that’s my plan. The blog, and the readers I interact with, are as much a part of my adventure as the destinations we visit.

The next 12 months must represent a huge increase in readership and exposure. If I learn how to market myself more effectively, each chapter of this real-time biography could be more exciting than the last.

Until then, I want to thank each and every one of you for being a part of our adventure up to this point.  I hope you get as much from my blog as I get from you.

Today’s Photo – Rocks in Arches National Park

Since this scene was naturally very low in contrast,  a single exposure was more than enough to work with. I pulled details from the shadows through Photoshop’s ACR and was very gentle with contrast adjustment because I wanted this to be a more tranquil, relaxed scene.

While the bushes at the front of the image are of compositional value, the dirt in front or around it, is not. For that reason I created a vignette that guides the eyes away from that area.

Before the Joys of Post-Processing