revjim.net

blogging

Five A Week: on hiatus

Jul 20th, 2006
by Jim Reverend.
3 comments

I pulled the plug on “Five-A-Week”:http://revjim.net/five-a-week/. The majority of the audience that I have here just isn’t supportive enough or feedbacky enough when it comes to art to warrant the unimaginable amount of time I spent creating for it.

Those of you that miss it, fear not. My regular photography posting will return soon — even sooner when I learn that people actually do miss it. I’ve got a new place to hold it all that will allow me to better express this art, and to find other like-minded people to share my work with, to support my work, and to better myself from. As soon as I unveil it, I’ll let you know.

support the things you love

Jul 19th, 2006
by Jim Reverend.
2 comments

Last night Jess and I stopped by “Art Six”:http://www.myspace.com/artsixcoffee for a cup of coffee. This place has everything that I look for in a coffee house. First and foremost, it makes good coffee. It also has nice cozy places to sit, lots of tables, lots of corners to hide in with a book, and lots of open space to be social with whomever else happens to be there. There’s always a friendly face behind the counter, art on the walls, and, fairly often, live music. If you’ve never been, give me a call and I’ll personally take you there and buy you your first cup.

This time, pouring out from the back room, was the beautiful, soulful voice of “Arielle Silver”:http://www.ariellesilver.com/ (on “MySpace”:http://www.myspace.com/ariellesilver) accompanied by rich, fluid bass and percussion with subtlety and finesse, something sure to make the misses a very happy woman. I’d never heard of them before but I’m glad I found them there. The poetic lyrics, complicated melodies, and tight rhythm give them polished sound of “real musicians” yet leave them with enough of a raw edge to keep them interesting. Give them a listen, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. They are playing tonight at the “Standards and Pours”:http://www.standardandpours.com/ coffee house and are currently “touring all over the US”:http://www.ariellesilver.com/calendar.html. Find out when they’ll be near you and check them out.

In this morning’s dose of the world wide web, I learned that David Hobby, photographer for the Baltimore Sun and creator and author of “Strobist”:http://strobist.com/, is feeling the pain of “putting in too much personal time for not nearly enough money”:http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/07/strobists-next-phase.html, something I’m all too familiar with.

For the photographers in my readership, “Strobist”:http://strobist.com/ is a website that encourages the use of small, inexpensive, off-camera flashes and simple light modifiers in a manual fashion to allow lit photography to become a often used tool in every photographers repertoire. David offers “well written instruction”:http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101.html, provides a wide range of “well explained examples”:http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/on-assignment.html, gives his opinion on a big selection of “related gear”:http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/04/gear-articles-and-reviews.html and is holding a “lighting boot camp”:http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/06/lighting-boot-camp-archive-page.html where he encourages his readers, assignment after assignment, to take the flashes off their cameras and make some incredible images. Check it out! It’ll change the way you look at flash photography.

Unfortunately for this budding new blogger, David is learning that most people these days expect handouts and a free ride and are rarely willing to part with their own money, time, or resources when they don’t have to. Despite thousands of new readers all scraping together equipment based on David’s simple suggestions and millions of hits to his website from all parts of the world, he’s making very little from his affiliate banners, product links, and advertising. Why? Because people are too lazy to be bothered to use a link from David’s site to buy the products he recommends.

I make it a point to use links from David’s site (or other sites like his that I support) even when purchasing products he didn’t recommend because it’s important to me to have such a valuable resource (and others like it) continue to exist. It’s important to me that a place like Art Six exists that, even when it’s a longer drive than other places for me, I still make the effort to get out there and I always leave a good tip. While I’m grateful that Arielle Silver was able to gain some exposure last night, it really made me sad to see so many people enjoying this music and yet so few willing to drop a few bucks in the tip jar or buy a CD. Jess and I bought a CD and a small tip, though it doesn’t even cover their hotel room for the evening, let alone gas, food, equipment and a decent wage for the three of them.

If you don’t support the things you love they will go away.

where to be?

Jun 20th, 2006
by Jim Reverend.
2 comments

I’ve given this a lot of thought. Trust me when I say that this seemingly trivial bit of information and the small seemingly insignificant question that follows are, in fact, very important to my success as an artist. Please read this carefully and give your opinion honestly.

h2. the future.

In the not too distant future, I will be represented online in the following fashion:

* revjim.net
** The public side of me: technology, life, politics, humor, electronics, poetry, pleas for the baring of breasts.
* djamesphoto.com
** The business side of me: Portfolio, Rates, Events, Sales, Projects, Travel Notifications
* somedomain.com/someclevername/
** The starving artist side of me: Photoblog, Five-A-Week, Donations, Casting Calls
* un.dis.clos.ed.com
** The intimate side of me: more intimate aspects of my life and personality
* myspace.com/revjim
** Links to the public side of me (and, under filter, the intimate side)
* myspace.com/djamesphoto
** Links to the artist side of me
* revjim.livejournal.com
** Links to the public side of me (and, under filter, the intimate side)
* djamesphoto.livejournal.com
** Links to the artist side of me

My public site will frequently link to my business site through the use of images in the article, as well as links in the side bar, and random images in the side bar. My artist site will also link to my business site with each posted image, as well as in the side bar. Somewhere deep in the bio pages of my business site, my public site and artist site will be linked to as well.

h2. the question.

So, there’s only one remaining question to be determined: Where do I put my starving artist site?

Since my business site is merely the hopefully profitable wing of my artistry, it makes sense to include it with the business site, perhaps as a subsite within my business site. However, displaying VERY edgy images, asking for donations, making casting calls, and looking for subscribers are hardly “business like” things to do.

Since it’s more an aspect of who I am and what I do, including it as a part of revjim.net makes a lot of sense too. People who take interest in my life and my opinion are also likely to take interest in my art and my vision. Therefore, I may find more patronage in this setting than I would from a site where I look more like a professional begging for handouts.

However, the artsy side of me and, therefore, my artsy work tends to draw an entirely different audience. Therefore, it may be better to keep it separate from revjim.net in order to attract more visitors and patrons. An alternative is to place the starving artist site at another domain all together, but that just seems silly.

Another alternative is to give djamesphoto.com a very edgy, quirky, honest yet still professional feel. In other words, state clearly on djamesphoto.com that photography is not my only source of income and, in fact, is not really a source of income at all. Allow djamesphoto.com to be artsy, seek donations, subscribtions AND paid customers all in one shot. Stop trying to “act professional” and just be who I am using the separate domain names to provide a separation of audience.

h2. the poll.

[poll=5]

Your opinion is very important to me, so please vote.

IndieKarma: 1 penny per visit

Jun 5th, 2006
by Jim Reverend.
2 comments

Thanks to “IndieKarma”:http://indiekarma.com/ you can now support your favorite internet websites, authors, and artists by easily contributing 1 penny every time you visit their website with no effort required on your part. What’s more, if you act now IndieKarma will give you your first $1. That’s 100 free donations to websites that you enjoy and visit on a regular basis.

Just to give you an idea of what this means… in the articles that I’ve written and photographs I’ve posted in the last 6 days alone, I would have made $6.81 so far. Or, if you look at my top ten posts of all time (since I started counting, anyway) I’d have made $111.06 so far. That doesn’t seem like a lot, but, I assure you, it adds up quite quickly. And it costs you, my dear reader, a tiny, puny, insignificant, $0.01. That’s 0.25% of the cost of that latte you bought at Starbucks this morning. In fact, if you view five of my photographs each week for an entire year you will have paid me a WHOPPING $2.60.

Here’s the real kicker, if every person who has ever visited my site, in passing, or on a regular basis, had given me a puny $0.01 per visit, I would be able to quit my job, take photographs full time, and be giving away free photo sessions and prints left and right.

So do me a favor and sign up for “IndieKarma”:http://indiekarma.com/. It doesn’t take long, you’ll get $1 for free, and even if you don’t ever put any more money into your account (and why wouldn’t you since it’s such a cheap, effective way to support the sites you visit on the internet?) at least you’ll have donated that $1 to the sites that enrich your life on a regular basis.

So I’ve added IndieKarma to this site. You’ll see the banner pop up at the bottom of your browser for about 15 seconds every time you visit a page here. Additionally, I’ve signed up for a donations account myself and intend to keep funds in my account so I can support the sites that I visit easily and without hassle or effort.

Do it for me? Pretty please? With a cherry on top? I’ll be your best friend?

LifeHacker and the separation of content

May 3rd, 2006
by Jim Reverend.
1 comment

I love “LifeHacker”:http://lifehacker.com/, but I really wish I could find an “only interesting stuff” filter for it. I don’t care about Mac Software, iPods and the things you can do with them, technical HowTos and Cheatsheets that cover fairly obvious technology, unimportant or obvious research, obvious tips and tricks for daily life, write ups on how to make something utterly trivial look fancier, and reports of local events that I couldn’t possibly attend or care about.

But I still read because, when I do find something interesting, it’s really, really interesting. Like these tidbits:

* Make Right-Clicking in Windows faster by “disabling the SendTo menu”:http://www.lifehacker.com/software/windows/windows-tip-disable-the-send-to-menu-157977.php.
* Does an RSS reader make life on the web more livable for you? If so, how do you deal with sites that don’t offer an RSS feed. You can “track website changes with FeedWhip”:http://www.lifehacker.com/software/news-aggregation/track-website-changes-with-feedwhip-157963.php and get update reports via email. Or, “use DeltaSpy”:http://www.lifehacker.com/software/news-aggregation/track-web-site-changes-with-deltaspy-158016.php to track website changes and get all of the updates you’re interested displayed on one page. Or, see them in your RSS reader just like everything with “FeedYes”:http://www.lifehacker.com/software/rss/create-an-rss-feed-without-an-rss-feed-159455.php.
* Do you cook often? Learn “how to peel a potato in one easy step”:http://www.lifehacker.com/software/cooking/video-demonstration-peel-a-potato-in-one-step-158620.php from the same people that taught us to “fold a t-shirt”:http://www.lifehacker.com/software/household/folding-tshirts-fast-151214.php with lightning speed: the Japanese!
* Edit digital photographs quickly and easily with “Pixoh, the online image editor”:http://www.lifehacker.com/software/photos/edit-pictures-online-with-pixoh-158753.php.
* Did you know you can now “send money using PayPal and your mobile phone”:http://www.lifehacker.com/software/paypal/paypal-via-your-cell-phone-162417.php?
* Learn how to “repair a drywall hole”:http://www.lifehacker.com/software/household/weekend-project-repair-a-drywall-hole-164828.php, “get in on the Yahoo! Mail Beta”:http://www.lifehacker.com/software/yahoo-mail/get-in-on-the-yahoo-mail-beta-169223.php, “overcome procrastination”:http://www.lifehacker.com/software/procrastination/wikibook-on-overcoming-procrastination-169192.php, “build a loft”:http://www.lifehacker.com/software/how-to/how-to-build-a-loft-169215.php, “save money on your taxes”:http://www.lifehacker.com/software/taxes/tax-tips-own-your-own-business-169450.php, and “wake up and GET up when you really want to”:http://www.lifehacker.com/software/sleep/how-to-get-up-when-you-really-want-to-169533.php.

As you can see, LifeHacker is a great resource. But I find myself *dreading* going through it because there are a lot of posts on any given day and over 75% of these posts are not anything I’m interested in but I have to read in to each entry in order to determine that.

This is why I’m always trying to find new ways to separate the things that I write, the images that I display, and the information I provide on my website(s). Sure the “write for yourself” mantra is certainly one worth repeating, but, without organization and clear thought there’s no point in putting your writing online, as it’s unlikely that anyone else will ever bother to comb through it all to find the bits that are interesting to them.

Yes, I comb through LifeHacker, and that fact that I do so despite the trouble it presents is an argument against separation. However, I don’t imaging everyone is as diligent as I am about looking for useful information. On top of that, I imagine there are lots of good things on LifeHacker that I miss entirely, because I was either skimming too fast, didn’t read the right words within the first few seconds, missed a link burried in the article, or simply gave up on LifeHacker that day because its folder was more than I could bare to look at.

So if you find something interesting at “LifeHacker”:http://lifehacker.com/ be sure to let me know. I may have missed it.

Newer Posts →