I have noticed what seems to be a trend of photographers moving away from static web sites to blogs that not only are full of text but of their photography. Why is this, are there advantages to photo blogging over having both a static web site and a blog. Make the jump and I’ll lay out a few thoughts on the subject.
One of the reasons I have read of why photographers move away from a static web site is the difficulty in adding images when they want. Some or most photographers sites were designed by a designer and when they want to add images they have to work with the designer to add the images. Just recently I completely revamped my entire site. The fortunate thing for me is my background is from 19 years in the Information Technology field so this is something I know how to do myself. One of the major goals in my sites redesign was to make sure that I could easily add or remove images. I did this by utilizing XML files that are just text files I can easily edit. So if I want to add a new image I simply upload it to my web site and then edit the appropriate XML file to add the new image.
One possibility, and one that makes a lot of sense, at least to me, is that a photo based blog allows people to get to know more about the photographer than just looking at their images on a static site. On a photo blog the photographer can provide the story behind the images, give an explanation of the shoot and what occurred. It’s a good way to be more interactive with your readers and or possible clients. It also gets around the issue I mentioned above about adding new images, with a blog it is much easier for the photographer to manage the whole process.
The one area of photography that I see this trend happening more and more is wedding photography. It makes sense, what is one of the primary goals of a wedding photographer, to tell the story. A blog makes sense here, not only can the photography put up some of the images from a wedding but they can also write out the story behind the images. I see this as an effective way to give future clients more insight into the photographer, their personality, their style, and how they would bring all that to a wedding.
For now I am sticking to my mix of static web site and blog but the world is constantly changing and we need to be aware of the changes. We need to be able to evolve if we are going to survive.
What do you think, gives us your thoughts.
~ William