What content do you like at a personal site?

Overread · Jul 24, 2013

Blogs are great as personal online diaries whilst your active in something, however if its "I'm writing a blog for my website" then chances are most people are all fire and energy - then a month later give up. The blogs that work tend to be joined to ongoing external influences and the blog just documents their activities - at which point the activity itself promotes the blog activity - when its more hobbyist without direct focus maintaining a blog is hard

PixelRabbit · Jul 24, 2013

Overread said:
Blogs are great as personal online diaries whilst your active in something, however if its "I'm writing a blog for my website" then chances are most people are all fire and energy - then a month later give up. The blogs that work tend to be joined to ongoing external influences and the blog just documents their activities - at which point the activity itself promotes the blog activity - when its more hobbyist without direct focus maintaining a blog is hard

True!! The road to hell is paved with good intentions!

Derrel, I read Alain's article, thanks for the suggestion, I'm a little closer to figuring it out. Unfortunately he iksnayed the idea of a ghost writer lol!!

PixelRabbit · Jul 24, 2013

Ok it took me all day with pen and paper to free write this, a little bit of editing as I typed it up but this is my jumping off point.
Now I'm going to find my happy place and let this stew a while!

My Story Long Version
(scroll down for the short version!)
It's funny how life can lead you back again and again to a certain theme, for me it is art and creativity. When I was very young my inspiritation was my Dad, he was a very creative man who loved being outdooors, he carved wood, designed and built our cottage, drew a bit here and there but best of all Dad was always the one behind the camera, thanks to this we have many albums of great memories, a wonderful record of our lives and the world around us through his beautiful eyes.

Some of my fondest memories of Dad are of getting up early to check if he was home, he worked snow removal and other odd jobs that often required him to leave in the middle of the night, if he was I would draw while he slept and when he woke we would cuddle up in bed and I would show him what I did, we would talk about the pictures and he would make suggestions on how to make them better and send me away to do another to discuss at the kitchen table over cereal for me and coffee for him. Unfortunately we lost Dad to a stroke way too early when I was 11, I stopped drawing.

Fast forward to high school, by this time I was ready to be creative again, I was so excited to have art as part of my curriculum but alas by this time my unique traits were starting to show. I loved art class and some things really twirled my beanie but when it came down to the structured schoolwork part of it I failed miserably. Assignments didn`t get turned in, I couldn`t get organized in art class just as I couldn`t in ANY class, grade 9 art was a complete and utter failure beyond a painting of a Common Loon that still hangs in my stepfather`s house. I gave up on art again and trudged through highschool and early adulthood trying to figure out what I wanted to do with myself.

Here and there I would pick up the pencil and draw something but life has a way of sweeping you along at it`s own pace and I didn`t persue anything, as most people will tell you art is no career anyway. Eventually I ended up in the boring dry insurance industry when life dealt us another card, I found myself without a job, with a special needs child that needed more of my time and failing health. The family couldn`t survive on one salary in the city so we found our silver lining and moved to a wee town up north in cottage country and life carried on.

The kids grew up, I taught myself jewelry making, graphic design and how to play poker online along the way. I did pretty well at all of them, I was even a profitable poker player! I did freelance graphic design for a couple of years and thought that might be ``it`` but as time went on I came to realize I couldn`t compete with online prices and eventually my business shut down. Jewelry making came at a time when money was low and I couldn`t afford to continue and then came online poker, and I was good at it! Alas the poker world got turned upside down by one of the major sites shutting down and life once again took a turn.

You will notice that everything I`ve done since my early 20`s has been an effort from home, partly because of raising the family, partly health issues, and partly because I to this day struggle with pulling off daily working life in a conventional sense. Structured daily life escapes me, it always has but boy oh boy can I obsess over an interst once I latch onto it. I`m the proverbial square peg trying to fit into that damn round hole and I`m finally at a point in my life when I`m done trying to figure that out, some people are just simply not cut out to be in that round hole and I`m one of them. You have no idea how liberating it is to finally accept that about myself! I learned so much teaching myself these different things along the way, I`ve always enjoyed being creative but none of it ever make me feel like photography has since I started to obsess over it.

Ah finally we are to recent times and we have found photography! This part of my journey started a few years ago with my husbandy innocently saying `lets find our land and move out of town``. We had always daydreamed about owning some land and living in the country self sufficiently. We found the most amazing place, 20 acres of certified organic land on the river with an amazing ``house within a house`` (click to learn more). As many of you kow buying a house is expensive! We had a lot of work to do on our 100 year old house that we were selling to maximize our profits so in the interest of savign money I did all of the renovations (self taught of course, my favourite phrase is ``Google is your friend``) My only request and my extra inspiration to bust my butt and do an awesome job was if we made a profit on the house sale I would get a camera, obviously we made a profit!

I know I didn`t include it but at all times in my life I`ve always had a camera, I`ve enjoyed taking pictures and bought my parents old Canon AE1 many years ago, ran maybe 5 films through it then life happened and it got put away. I`m not even sure what made me choose a camera as my personal reward for a job well done, sure it was an interest but I hadn`t persued it over the years. None the less I got my Canon 60D and cried like a girl as we walked out to the parking lot, I still have no clue where that came from!

I immediately jumped in with both feet, I shot for two days on auto, found an amazing photography forum thephotoforum.com , turned the dial to M and never looked back.

How I Approach Learning

I learned the basics pretty uickly, I`m a hands on learner, great for an obsessive personality. I would say that my creativity drives my learning. As with school book learning doesn`t work for me on the whole, everything has pretty much evolved so far from book learning a basic principal or concept andplaying with the the entire spectrum to the extremes like exposure, shutter speed, aperatures all with marea in hand.

My knowledge on art genres is layman at best, I`ve seen the stuff everyone has, Picasso, Rembrandt, Dahli etc... but I`m being led to learn what is out there by people making comment on my work and labelling them as impressionistic, cubist, abstract etc...

With the advent of modern day DSLRs I think there are two equally valid inexpensive routes to explore the creative possibilities, look at what`s been done and create your own version, and explore the entire range of possibilities of the tool (camera) with camera in hand which is how I learn best.

What`s my style?
I would call my photography style as eclectic evolving fine art, how`s that for a moniker? Right now I'm early in my journey and I'm exploring so many differnt things from macro to abstract. I learn every day and I feel like there is so much new and exciting waiting just around the corner for me to play with. I love photographs that blur the line and look more like pencil drawings or paintings. There is a perfection in the shape, lines, and form of nature I am now able to capture in ways I was neer able to translate when I put pencil to paper or brush to canvas.

Post Processing
As my Achilles Heel,you would think that having done graphic design that the processing part and programs would be a breeze, I actually fully expected to catch on and enjoy working with Photoshop but no, that is not the case. I started shooting RAW right at the start and learned the basics, white balance, shaprening, saturation, curves but the whole process feels like a chore to me now. I know it's cliche but I try to do it in camera, all of my work has very minimal processing unless otherwise stated, I can't see that changing in the forseeable future.

In a Nutshell

So there you have it, it is way longer than I expected this section to be, I toiled over what to write and share for a long time and I think I may have finally slayed that dragon. In a nutshell I'm an Evolving Eclectic Fine Art photographer who dislikes post processing, learning my way into the art world and loving every second behind the lens.

PixelRabbit · Jul 24, 2013

Please ignore spelling, Mr Rabbit got home from work and I rushed the end.

Ilovemycam · Jul 24, 2013

Gallery 1
About you 2
Blog...Seldom unless I adore you
If it is slow loading and hard to use.... forget it. The world is polluted with pix, I don't have time to waste on problem childs.

PixelRabbit · Jul 24, 2013

Thanks Ilovemycam.

As for the about me I posted, now that I've read it again, and it's pretty quiet since I posted it..I will enquire before bed.... TMI?

PixelRabbit · Jul 25, 2013

What the heck, morning bump to make it current and hopefully get some feedback on the about me I posted a few up, probably should have made a new thread with it.

runnah · Jul 25, 2013

I think you did a good job of expressing your feelings on the subject.
How do you feel about it?
Do you like the length and the way you share so much about yourself?
Would you buy services from someone if they had this as their information?

PixelRabbit · Jul 25, 2013

runnah said:
I think you did a good job of expressing your feelings on the subject.
How do you feel about it?
Do you like the length and the way you share so much about yourself?
Would you buy services from someone if they had this as their information?

Thanks Runnah, good questions that I've been asking myself after reading it again this morning.

I feel a bit exposed and I'm not sure if that is good or bad. I will say I found some peace writing it and no matter how much or how little ultimately hits my site it was good for my mental health

I'm not sure how I feel about the length and using it in its entirety, I worry that it is TMI but at the same time I think that it is a common enough story to resonate with some who will find a connection, but, who will it turn off?

Would I personally buy this persons art? I'm not a good measure because I can TOTALLY relate with her and I love her work, I would buy it in a heartbeat

PixelRabbit · Jul 25, 2013

Would YOU buy her work?

runnah · Jul 25, 2013

PixelRabbit said:
Would YOU buy her work?

I only buy American.

I am probably not your target demographic, but I feel it's a bit TMI. I would talk to your strengths and to your potential market. Doing baby photos? State how you are a mother of X and you are great with kids and this helps you to do X. Nature photos? Talkabout your love of nature and gardening. You want to be identifiable with your target customers. "Hey She likes X and I like X so lets be friends!"

Everything in this text should be selling me on your services. I noticed at times you talked down on yourself which is bad, you don't want to sound too arrogant but you want to sound confident in your abilities.

amolitor · Jul 25, 2013

I think you've done a fine first draft, and that now you can edit it down to a fierce, tight little document about half that long that hits the really important parts. Writing down that Dad did odd jobs and worked at night is important to you and getting that story onto the page, but it's not important to the reader, just as a for instance. You can probably drop much of that kind of detail, now that you've worked out how those details mattered to you and changed you.

Chop out anything that apologizes for anything, or describes your failings or weaknesses. Chop out technical detail - the words RAW, Photoshop, DSLR, and Processing have no place in a personal statement. This is about you, and you are awesome. It's your web site, after all