PhotoDude.com

It’s precisely because of all the navel-gazing that goes on around here that I keep coming back. It’s your deliberate, rational approach to what’s going on in the world. It’s an island of sanity in a sea of blithering idiocy.

OK, except for the Falcons stuff. But I’ve said before, I don’t begrudge you that. Since I’m stuck with carpetbaggers from Missouri masquerading as football players, I appreciate a little genuine hometown fandom.

And, of course, more photos of cats couldn’t hurt.

I enjoy reading your political rants because you call it like you see it and you’re not beholden to a party line. If you’re not tired of writing them, I’m not tired of reading them.

However, I’d LOVE to see more technical/artistic content too- more photography-related articles would be especially welcome.

It seems that Bloggers spend a great deal of time writing about things that they find online, rather than things that they find offline. I suppose that this is partially because we are slaves to the hyperlink in our writing, and partially because we tend to surf the “wide web” about things we are interested in in the “world”.

In any event, you complain alot (rightfully) about this red-blue divide. But that divide is, itself, primarily an online phenomenon. I don’t see it so much among people I actually see. A remedy to that might be to blog about things that aren’t online. (The challenge is to do that without really navelgazing.)

And you could blur the line between the weblog and pixelpile too. I never stray into the pictures only portion of the site, since I prefer wods. But the occasional picture might help illustrate a point. It could also anchor a given post into the “world” rather than just the “wide web,” since you would presumably not take pictures of your computer.

As a final note: the red/blue divide that bothers you so much is not merely annoying because of the division that it creates. It is also annoying because its terrifically constraining. What about people who might prefer that the country is run by people who are neither pacifict nor evangelical. Moderate isn’t the right word. If someone is both extremely secular and extremely hawkish, how does that make them moderate?

And, on a dissenting note, I’m not so much into cats.

Me, I love the politics (domestic, Iraq, whatever), don’t mind the Falcons or the cats, like the photography, could do without the technical-computer stuff. IOW, mostly more of the same, please…maybe with a little more photography mixed in.

I like your domestic politics posts because they tend to be more analytical and a refreshing change from the partisan hackery I find elsewhere.

Personally, I’d like to read some introspection on the why & how of choosing & shooting a photographic subject. I’m not a photographer myself, but I can tell the difference between your COMPOSED photos, and the sloppy-looking things *I* capture.

If you don’t mind talking shop, that is.

As for Iraq… no offense, but I mostly go to bloggers with either a military background or a keen interest in military history when I’m looking for big-picture analysis on that topic.

Just to clarify, I do read and enjoy your posts on ANY topic, since they’re all well-written, so I’ll keep coming back no matter WHAT you write about.

Reid~

I was initially drawn to your site because of its creative usage of CSS; I love hearing about the technical aspects of coding/programming/design, et cetera. Your color schemes are interesting; I found myself incorporating a similar color scheme (perhaps subconsciously) into a navigation bar on one of my own sites.

I also enjoy your rants —such as your recent Circuit City posting. Unlike Iraq or the Falcons, that’s something most of us can relate to. Personal happenings and stories are always a treat, Don’t get me wrong—I don’t mind the occasional Iraq story —but I’ve heard so much Iraq commentary over the past two years or so, that sometimes it just makes me want to go into political hibernation.

~Matt

MORE KITTY PHOTOS!

I’ll second the call for more “shop talk,” but I’m horribly biased in that regard. (Besides, you are PhotoDude, not PoliticsDude!) I’ll always read most anything you write about, but I can’t deny it makes me happy to see photo stuff.

But with that said, in my experience trying to please everybody ends up pleasing exactly nobody, so go where your heart leads you and write what you want to write about… and don’t mind us back here in the peanut gallery too much.

Thanks to each of you, this has been illuminating.

First of all, if we go by the 10%-90% Active-Passive Rule, these comments clearly show my site stats translate to 80-100 people, each of them refreshing the page 30 times per day. It’s good to finally have a firm answer on that.

The area where there’s the most divide seems to be over the same issue that has torn this country for some time … catblogging. Sorry, gang, I was catbloggin’ before catbloggin’ was cool, so that tradition must be upheld. I have seriously considered having an All Catblog Week. Unfortunately, it would require timely cooperation by felines, and that is truly tilting at windmills.

The suggestion to “blog about things that aren’t online” is a good one. But the reality is that I don’t get out much lately. The combination of winter weather, working from home, and a surge of work in 2005 is keeping me pretty wrapped up and “internal.” That’s why I’d been thinking about a series of stories from my radio days, something I’ve thought about doing for a while. Or some more observational things. We’ll see.

Some of you actually seem to enjoy the contrarian political rants. Go figure. That’s as flummoxing as anything, since I’ve come to feel so completely out of step with the current political realities. But, duly noted. I just don’t think I’ll be as prolific about it as I once was. And since the political blogosphere has become so All Powerful and Important, my wisest course is probably to do my best to ignore it, and get my political information from elsewhere. Like the media, or something. Similar biases, but less cussing and ad hominem. And less steam generated inside my head. Plus those wonderful web filters, like Memeorandum, Blognow, and del.icio.us. The bottom line is that I see quite a few overfilled balloons out there desperately in need of a pin, and I don’t want to become one of those. So Grandpa probably won’t be doing much more lecturing on that. Because he won’t be reading it as much.

More photo geekery, and more photo related commentary. That’s a fair cop. Perhaps a detailing of the workflow I use for getting shots online in Pixel Pile, since most people only publish to the web, and I have a few tips and tricks. Harvey’s question could be an article in itself (and maybe will be).

Maybe I should place a new button on the home page somewhere (like there isn’t enough crap there already) ... “Ask PhotoDude” ... and take questions from the love-lorn and photo-confused. Well, I don’t know about that one…

And finally, Noah says “go where your heart leads you and write what you want to write about … and don’t mind us back here in the peanut gallery too much.”

Oh, as I’ve said many times before, I’ll always do this for myself, and if that ever changes, I’ll stop doing it (unless there’s a salary involved). But I’ll always be using this palette for creative expression of some sort, because I have no choice. It’s in my blood, and probably has been since I was a child and took oil painting lessons. I just need a creative outlet.

Lucky you, you get to watch me flail about with this one. But the reason this kind of response is helpful to me (and it’s not too late to add more, if anyone is inclined), is because there are times I wonder if, for example, the depletion of my spleen with political rants is not only pure vanity (which is what most sites are about), but as much a turn off to a visitor here as they are for me at some other sites. Because there are times I think I could do without it. Partisan screed, isolationist Jeremiad … what’s the difference?

But beyond the politics, all of your comments have been helpful, and appreciated.

You can tell story when you want to, Reid, about as well as Mark Twain,and you enjoy the considerable advantage on him of being able to tell new ones, if you want to. One of the earliest and most profound wishes of every person is simply “Tell me a story.”

So please, tell us some stories.

I’m firmly in the “more of the same” camp myself. I’m not a football fan, so I skip those posts—and that’s why God made the Page Down button, isn’t it? You can catblog all you want and I’ll be right there with you.

I like the idea of radio stories—especially since the music business has changed so much since then. I honestly don’t know why anyone wants to be a DJ these days; it wouldn’t hurt to be reminded of a time when the DJ was more than chatter to fill up the spaces between slices of Clear Channel-approved pap.

You know I’m not exaggerating when I mention a DJ friend of mine on a classic rock station was almost fired because he played the Pink Floyd song before the Bad Company song, instead of afterwards as he’d been told. Yeesh.

My schedule has me doing a little skimming here, a little skimming there at the few blogs I frequent. With a schedule like that, I should be a fatcat Republican contributer, but instead I’m wondering which Rice Surprise is on the menu this evening. But I digress….

Political stuff….probably my least favorite here, although this may be one of the few places to get news that actually is Fair and Balanced. I find I want to check out all your sources, etc. and just don’t have to time, so I skim.

Cats – Yes.
Photography….Yes (I like to look at the pictures) but have no idea about any of the technical stuff. I don’t know a megapixel from a zoom lens.
Stories…Yes, interesting and almost always something I can relate to.
Football….yeah, I read these, but I’m not a fan unless Atlanta makes it to the playoffs, etc. I don’t know football. Ironically, not a fan, but I learn from your posts, so I read them with interest.
Radio days…Yes!! The Time Before the Music Died. Very interesting period, and the more stories the better.
Computer stuff, blog stuff…Yes, can’t get enough of it. Although a lot of the inner details on blogware are over my head. Again, no time to keep up to date, so I’m fairly ignorant.

Thanks for the comments, guys. The Gods of Irony have seen fit to make sure I won’t be writing much of anything for now, as an avalanche of work came down … I tried to run, but it was too late.