New News for Old Readers
A man reading the newspaper in Georgetown, Penang.
I realize most people don’t like change. We love things to remain the same. We love the comfort and security of what we know. So, change becomes almost an advisory rather than a friend. Yet, change is inevitable. Personally, I thrive on change. I always have. If things remain the same for too long then I feel either boxed in or stagnate. I come by this honestly. My Pop was the same way. He loved to travel. If he wasn’t driving across the country or flying to some distant land then he felt uneasy. I think he developed this need for change or wanderlust in the military. Our family was always being transferred. From Germany to Texas, from Tennessee to Alaska we were always moving. With that said, I decided I needed more change. Not wanting to uproot my family and move to Mongolia I made the choice to simply make changes to my blog and give it a new look.
You are always welcome to criticize, but never without a suggestion. It is a bit like a photo critique. It is never helpful to just say, “I don’t like it” or “I love it” alone. Why do you not like it or love it?
A little background information on this blog’s new theme seems appropriate. This theme allows me to format the three types of posts. Yesterday’s post was formatted in a style called “Image”. This is designed to simply post one image with a short paragraph about the shot. It automatically puts a tab under the photo with the EXIF data. I like this format because as a photographic blog this gives an opportunity to post an image frequently without having to spend a lot of time writing a blog post to go with it. The next format is simply called “Gallery”. The gallery format, as you can surmise from the title, allows you to do a post with a gallery of images. There seems to be some bugs in this. Once I get it worked out I’ll post a gallery of images. The “Standard” format is what you’re reading now.
Changes like these always are a work in progress. There are small little issues that I’ve yet to figure out. I didn’t change only for the sake of change. There was actually some thoughtful motivation behind it. I was listening to a podcast on Photoshelter a few months back. They were interviewing a photo editor from a major magazine and this editor stated several times that when she visits a photographer’s website she wants quick access to a series of galleries. She said that photo editors want to get a feel of a photographer’s work and abilities. My old blog theme I used did not allow for this. This is why I’ve set up, what I’ve called “My Best”. Of course these portfolios will grow over time and images will change and rotate through. Another area that I wanted to change was how people comment in posts. My old blog didn’t allow for commenting on the homepage. This new theme not only allows for comments but with the tab that states “Comments” it really invites people to comment.
Poke around if you see problems e-mail me. (Thanks Erin) If you like it or don’t like – it feel free to leave a comment with suggestions on how it might improve. Let me leave you with this this thought:
“20 years from now you will be disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the one’s you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” -Mark Twain
