The Wells Point after six months

The Wells Point site is now over six months old. I am still going strong, having written 65 blog entries and posted 13 pod casts. I have learned much along the way, about myself, the folks who visit The Wells Point and a bit about where this enterprise will be going in the future.

One of the great things about running the site is the feedback I get from folks who visit. An old friend who folows the site wrote this:

“I would love to hear you do interviews with established photographers about their work and their creative process…”

I too would love to do something like that, but I know there are others out there who are already doing similar things. I came across one such site recently, which I really liked and would suggest you look at. That is interviewwithanartist.com/ Please look at it closely and read the interviews slowly. You will learn a lot. One of the many things I like is that unlike many sites (including mine) they are not trying to sell anything. On the other hand, how the site will be sustained with out selling something is a bit of a mystery.

I have also become a big fan of Google alerts, which Google describes as: “Email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.” I have set that up so they can tell me, on a daily basis, where new links have appeared on the web referencing The Wells Point site. It is great for tracking any activity on the web. You can set up your own starting at: http://www.google.com/alerts?hl=en&gl=us

I am thrilled that folks have been posting links to The Wells Point site on their own sites/blogs. A few include:

http://storyportraitmedia.blogspot.com/

http://ashsight.blogspot.com/

http://magpiesbeads.blogspot.com/

http://strayshot.blogspot.com/

If you search on those pages you will eventually find a link back to The Wells Point.

Others who have linked The Wells Point to their own sites have written about what I am trying to do. One of those comes from a very interesting site called Forensic Photoshop that, as it says “offers a comprehensive imaging workflow for forensic professionals.” It is at: forensicphotoshop. blogspot.com/2009/02/wells-point As nice as it was that someone wrote positively about The Wells Point site, I was also drawn back to their site to read about what they are doing with their photography. As I was teaching on my site, I was learning from theirs.

Another equally curious find was what is called AOL Videos, which looks like America On Line’s (AOL) answer to iTunes. They actually are just a conduit from iTunes and reference The Wells Point feed on iTunes on their page at: http://video.aol.com/show/the-wells-point

Google Alerts even led me to an interesting commentary on the curious world of book cover art. Go to //therapsheet.blogspot.com/2006/05/ and scroll down a bit and you will see an image of mine used for two different book covers that do indeed look awfully similar. I will leave the expert commentary on that particular topic to that blogger, who knows a lot more about the book world than I do.

Speaking of expertise, so what are the topics that I will be discussing and exploring in pod casts in the future? Based on what folks find compelling, determined by what they write me about and what they link to, I expect to:

• Continue blogging, drawing on my long-time experience as a photographer, teacher and unofficial photo historian. Not that I am SO old, but I have been doing this for a good while. I am discovering as I sit down and write the blog entries that my collection of experiences and images do lead me to write about insights that others are interested in reading. I enjoy the process, others enjoy reading what I am writing and the ongoing dialogue is interesting.

• Continue producing pod casts exploring what I consider the hardest part of photography, getting the thing in front of the lens onto film or a memory chip, just the way you want. Every photographer has to get over that hurdle. Having nurtured hundreds of photographers through that “ah hah” moment when they “got it,” I know what I am good at and what I am not so good at. I have also found that exploring that topic over and over makes me a better photographer. Helping others become better photographers as I improve is certainly a win-win situation.

Although I have taught classes in photojournalism, and different aspects of commercial photography, there are people out there who are better at that than I am. Similarly, I am NOT a Photoshop whiz so I will not be teaching or writing about that. Similarly, there are many other folks who are better connected to the gear manufacturers who can do much more in-depth technical reviews of cameras or computers, so I will stay away from that as well.

I certainly will keep talking about certain new gear I come across and discussing the latest trends in photographic art and commerce. But, unless I can bring something special to the discussion, I will leave the rest to the experts. I want my blog entries and pod casts to offer something that is unique. Seeking out unique perspectives is why I go to most web sites and I assume you do the same.