After an extremely hectic and dramatic late April/early May I finally got a chance to actually get back to work on implementing some new features on Some Random Dude. Photography has become a very important part of my life and slowly eats up more and more of my interest. I feel I have learned so much about the craft in the past 6 months - which has shown me that I know very little about it. If anything, this revelation of my utter incompetence has fueled my desire to continue down this path.
As photography becomes a larger part of my creative life, I thought it only appropriate that this blog reflect the same. The current format of Some Random Dude frankly does not deal well with the photography format - all attempts to force the medium of photography on this blog has brought about a lot of effort with mediocre results. Because of these problems, I made the decision to create a photoblog within this blog. My hope is that the photoblog will be updated 2 or 3 times a week to better reflect the amount of photos I take. As expected, the photos will now be more of a reflection of where my photography is and less of a “greatest hits” collection.
Over the weekend I finally got the photoblog up in wireframe form and is available to preview. At this point, I am calling it 36 Clicks, but that could literally change at any minute. As you will see if you follow the link, there is not too much to look at but I thought it would be good to show it in its infancy. I really want all facets of this site to be a discussion, so it only made sense to open this up early on. I will not be adding a full link to it on the site until completion, but I am hoping to hear feedback and ideas on it from you all before then. I have a lot of ideas on content, structure, visuals, interactive elements, etc. All of these ideas will slowly come to existence in the coming weeks with subsequent calls to review the work and express your thoughts. I have come to learn that I like to interact with an interface for a period of time in order to get a feel for what works and what does not - it will be interesting to have the public be a part of the process.
One early conflict I have been having is whether to keep the same visual language in color, typography, structure, etc. or to spin off a bit and have the photoblog be its own visual entity that does not conflict with Some Random Dude, but works alone as well. Once again, everything is flexible and available for change. Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
The Discussion
8 Comments on “Photoblog Being Added To Some Random Dude”Ryan
23.05.07 8:19 amNice photoblog. It’s funny, it seems like web enthusiasts and designers are more and more getting into photography as well (including myself). I just recently bought a Nikon D80 and have been having a blast with it. I love reading about techniques and practicing those techniques with the D80. Good stuff.
Wild Guess
23.05.07 10:35 amMaybe you can make categories of linked pages dealing with topic, type of film, camera specifc, and then maybe cross reference them. Or you can just put up your photos each week on a main page and when the next week comes, those older photos are filed away into a category that best describes them. That way they can be archived. Hell, you could also have them archived according to the week they were shot.
Will there be articles concerning photography involved or is this strictly a picture book website? What kind of comments will you be expecting from these photos? I think you could use the SRD site as a template for how you might want to construct 36Clicks, or make it completely different. Also you could just construct the website, see what does and does not work with UI and adjust accordingly. The cool thing about this new website is that it is new. Nothign has been completely established yet and so there is room for quick change and evolution.
Can’t wait!
somerandomdude
23.05.07 11:13 amRyan - Thanks for the kind words. I totally agree with you - digital photography has opened up the doors for many new people to practice photography. It’s a wonder why I still use film…
Wild Guess - Great thoughts all around. Actually, there are quite a bit of photoblogs out there and mine will most likely follow the traditional model of nothing but photos. I will be adding a lot of secondary content for each photograph, something I have spent a lot of time thinking about. Any photography-related articles will go in Some Random Dude and may reference particular photos in the actual photo blog. I see a lot of cross-referencing going on.
And yes, I definitely see this blog opening its doors well before it should in order to give it a trial by fire. I really agree with the idea of just letting people play with it and making adjustments on the fly. Better to put it together in smaller pieces at a slower pace with user participation than to spend all this time building something that the audience does not enjoy using. Now that would be a disaster.
Kellie
23.05.07 12:17 pm“The cool thing about this new website is that it is new”
And you preach that redundancy is very, very, very bad….
somerandomdude
23.05.07 12:21 pmStaying out of this one…
Wild Guess
23.05.07 12:39 pmDid I mention that I work for the Department of Redundancy Department?
somerandomdude
23.05.07 12:44 pmThat’s a very, very interestingly fascinating insightful insight that I found fascinatingly interesting.
Steve Tucker
24.05.07 3:47 amGreat to hear, PJ! Look forwards very much to seeing the new expansion to somerandomdude
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