When is enough really enough?
This weekend I spent a bit of time following the links to various different photography sites. I am not referring to people’s own sites where they showcase their own work but rather photo sharing sites where you can upload your images where a community of people then rate of comment on your pics. It’s all fine and well uploading your work to all these sites, for whatever reason, but when is it enough?
Apart from this blog I try and do regular updates on Facebook and Twitter and that’s about it. Honestly, I don’t have enough time to still go and upload some of my images to all these other sites as well. Tried Flickr, liked it, but just got a bit much trying to post images there as well not even mentioning any other sites.
So my question is this…
Do you think that uploading your work to as many photo sharing or photo communities as possible is a good thing or should you rather keep your work in a central place with just a few links here and there? I am not sure either way and I suppose you could argue both sides of the coin. Not referring to stock sites where the intention is to sell your work but the photo sharing sites or photo communities.
On the one side I quite like the idea of my work being all together on a single site and not spread out all over the web. Surely this makes it easier to create an identity for you and your work. Perhaps more exclusive? Then again, to have your work out there on as many sites as possible surely gets your images noticed by more people? More noticed yes, but does it not make your images loose that special bit of ‘you’ if they are all over the place? I can think of a few very well respected photographers that have their own site where they showcase their images and that’s about it. Does uploading your images to as many sites as possible make your images less ‘unique’? Does flooding the web with your work make your image loose it’s magic because it can be seen everywhere or is it just another part of modern photographic marketing to get your name out there?
Make no mistake, there are some amazing photo sharing sites out there, some of which giving you great learning opportunities, but even if just from a ‘not-enough-time’ point of view, for now I think I will keep my images together on this site with a few posts and pictures here and there. Perhaps when I find time I might post them on more sites. Or maybe not. What do you think?
During my surfing this weekend I found some amazing black and white photos in between some great wildlife images and that kinda inspired me to play with black and white again. Creating striking and powerful black and white image is truly not as easy as the click of a button. It has to do with the image you start with, vision and your processing skills but to mention a few. I quite like the ‘recipe’ I used to get the above image of a lion cub on a kill. Similar to the image below but it’s never quite the same. The image you are working on needs to guide you towards the final final black and white version but I suppose the same questions could pop up. When is enough really enough? No doubt I will be playing with a few more and I somehow have a feeling that, as soon as I find the time, there is a black and white project in the pipeline.
Will be back tomorrow. 
Gerry
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Gerry, I love the lion photo! I think a slight warm tone would really work here. If you are using Lightroom, try a neutral highlight (0,0) and a warm shadow (45,5) in the split toning section. Looks great!!
I like mine in one central place. It gives me more control over it and makes it easier for those who want to contact me to get in touch.
Thanks Andy!!
Will definitely give it a bash!
I post mostly to Flickr and have since 2006. It is my ‘central’ uploading site, but I will link my photos from there to a minimal number of other sites, only temporarily though, as after time I’d forget where I had posted them. I will only leave them linked for a day or so then go back and delete the link.
The only other place I upload to is Facebook, but those are mostly just uploads from my phone. I do use a app called FlickrTab that links to my Flickr photos, but it is not one of those apps that post every photo I upload to Flickr onto my feed (I find that annoying). It is like, if someone wants to see my Flickr stream they can click on the app. I am not forcing it onto them.
I have had streams on other sites, but I agree that it is too much, and unnecessary, so I have closed those. Though from a marketing standpoint, I have learned that it is best to market ones self and ones photos only to those who would best serve you through honest critique, etc.