Last year I abruptly stopped viewing two photoblogs I had previously enjoyed very much. The reason I stopped looking? I was overwhelmed by how cruel people can be. That sounds so naive and childish but it's the truth. In the first instance the photographer had posted a photo of a little girl with a chubby belly in her bathing suit at the beach. The girl was smiling and beautiful. The photographer didn't see so much beauty and instead made a cruel comment about her stomach and weight. Many of the comments on the photo were worse. Much, much worse. Apparently the world really hates fat people, even fat little girls enjoying a day at the beach, and the commentors had no hesitation about spewing extremely cruel comments about a child whose photo had been posted on the internet. I was horrified at the things the people would say and even more so that the photographer seemed to have posted the photo just to get the kind of reaction he got.

The other photoblog I stopped viewing is very popular and I've seen many people admiring the photographer's work. The post that turned me off the photographer was of an older women in summer enjoying an afternoon out. She was wearing quite small, tight clothes and looked as though she'd been drinking quite a bit at the bar. Did the photographer take and post the photo just to elicit cruel comments about the woman? Honestly I don't know but my gut says yes. I think he took and posted the photo to make fun of her and the internet loves nothing more than a pile on.

I myself have taken and posted a photo of people because their appearance made me chuckle. The difference I think is that I was doing it good naturedly. I didn't want people to say mean things about the women in my photo and if anybody had I would have deleted the comment and pointed out that cruelty is not what my photography is about.

I mention this now because there seems to be a semi-common thread in photoblogs and Flickr of posting pictures that are very unflattering to the subjects or that were taken with the express purpose of mean spiritedly making fun of the subject. Or photos are posted and the comments immediately go into disparaging, cruel remarks about the subject and the photographer doesn't intervene and human kindness goes right out the window.

The ease and immediacy of digital cameras and online photo sharing tools seem to allow the lowest common denominator to creep into our photographic endeavors. An easy picture for a quick laugh, or a fast growing cruelty filled comment thread that pulls in traffic are easy enough to accomplish. That doesn't make them right though. I respect the medium of photography and enjoy photoblogging too much to enjoy them become simple tools for cruelty.

Weblogs Inc's Digital Photography Weblog was shuttered today. The cryptic closing notice said the blog's end "fits right in with the evolution of Weblogs Inc." Weblogs Inc. tends to shut down blogs that don't grow as quickly or as strongly as they like no matter how good the content is or isn't. At least that's my impression.

I was never overly impressed with the Digital Photography Weblog because it seemed to have a bit of an identity crisis. First much of the content was British based such as notices about British specific contests or events etc. Nothing wrong with that per se but I can't think of any other pro blog company based in the states with that setup. Also it seemed hard pressed to find enough content to fit in the digital photography model. There are tons of digital photography content out there and tons more waiting to be written so I suspect the staff just didn't have the time and resources to tend to it.

It's a loss for the blog's regular readers to be sure but with a little searching (check Exposure's blogroll for example) they'll be able to find many photography and digital photography blogs and sites that will more than pick up the slack.

Link: Attach lens cap; fade to black

Tags: Weblogs Inc., pro blogs

It's said that there are more cat photos on the internet than any other kind of picture. Or maybe I just imagined that because I've seen so many. Either way it's no secret that cat photos were a staple of early personal websites and are still frequent favorite subjects of photobloggers and flickr folks. As often is the case when something becomes really popular, perhaps even becomes a cliché, the self-appointed critics appear with their claws out.

Replace cat blogging with your favorite photographic cliché (mine happens to be flowers) and you'll be able to find plenty of self-imagined cool kids who will knock it because it's not arty or hip enough or doesn't live up to their aesthetic standards. But you know what? They've got their own clichés, we all do, photography is an extremely personal art and it's common for us to photograph things we like. Repeatedly. Over time that favored subject of yours is going to meet the definition of cliché but it doesn't matter. As long as you still enjoy shooting something and still find beauty and interest in it then it's still a worthy subject. That doesn't mean you should get lazy and take the same cat picture over and over again. You should try every time to take the best cat photo the world has ever seen. You won't hit it out of the park every time but you should try.

Here are some tips to help you embrace a few common photography clichés and and create wonderful shots.

Scanning My Life is an incredibly interesting "analog" photoblog. Bob recently got a slide scanner and is uploading from an incredibly deep pool of images taken by himself and his father over the past 50 years.