Welcome to the New Deep Green Photography Blog

It’s taken me a while to really commit to a blog. When I first started a simple blog last year I still was not entirely comfortable with the idea. I saw blogs as places where the authors presumed that lots of people cared about every little thought that they might have on a given day. (And I definitely don’t get Twitter, but maybe a guy lost in the cloud forests of Costa Rica just can’t be expected to understand Twitter!) Yet as I started to think more and more about my web browsing habits, I noticed that I really enjoyed good blogs related to my interests. I’m a big fan of Adobe Lightroom, which I’ll discuss in a future post, so, for instance, I visit and enjoy Matt Kloskowski’s blog at lightroomkillertips.com at least once a week. So, I decided that when a blog was informative, well-designed and let people know about new techniques and products, it can be a great addition to people’s day. I hope that this blog accomplishes this goal for many of you. Below, I describe the process that went into creating the blog in the hopes that it will be of interest to you as a behind the scenes look at some of the other multiple skills a photographer needs to be successful in the digital age.

In designing the blog I started with a fundamental question: if I were to visit regularly a photo blog to be inspired by fresh work and creative techniques and to keep on top of new products and information, what would I want that blog to look like? From there I addressed a number of more specific issues.

• For instance, the blog should reflect what I consider to be my strengths as a professional nature photographer and a workshop instructor.
• The blog should be well-designed to make for an efficient and comfortable browsing experience for visitors.
• The blog should have a dynamic comment and reply functionality that will lend a type of community feel to the site.
• The blog should also have a color scheme and design that keeps in line with the general brand look of my main portfolio site and online print store, www.deepgreenphotography.com, and my photo tour company, www.fotoverdetours.com.
• The blog needs to use a software setup that allows someone like me (e.g., not a computer programmer!) to easily design, maintain, and update it.
• The visitor shouldn’t have to visit the blog every day just to see if there is something new and interesting. I should tell them.
• And finally, it shouldn’t cost much!

So, with these questions and considerations in mind, here’s how the process went.

First, I went back to my fundamental question and thought about the top ten things I want if I visit a photography blog. If you’re like me, and I suspect you are, then the list below suggests that I’ve got my work cut out for me!

• I want to see new images that inspire me in my own work.
• I want to know a bit about how the photographer is taking these images.
• I want to know what kind of gear the photographer uses to capture these images.
• I want to get some tips about how to make the most of the gear I already own.
• I want to know a bit about their post-processing techniques and digital workflow.
• I want to know some behind the scenes stuff about what the photographer does in their normal routine and how they might approach a particular new project.
• I want a fresh perspective and good explanations of some of the basic digital photography concepts and techniques.
• I want to know what new products are out there.
• I want to know about other sites on the web that I might find interesting.
• And I want the photographer to update regularly.

With this in mind, the new Deep Green blog contains categories that include featured images, photo techniques and tips, photo gear, and processing/software. I will be writing a lot about how some of my favorite images were taken and what gear was used. And I’ll also describe the post-processing techniques used, though I am decidedly a minimalist in this regard.  Plus I will be sharing lots of great articles and information that I’ve found elsewhere on the web. In the future, I will be adding video clips from the field and video tutorials, and I’ll also have some guest photographers to share some articles and images from time to time.

So, how did I set all of this up? I’m no web design whiz, but I didn’t want to pay a designer for two reasons: first, I’m too cheap and second, I wanted to be in control of the design and make sure I could update easily. Fortunately, WordPress exists and has a lot of software that will fill the requirements I had for a nice browsing experience, dynamic content including comments and reply, easy updates, and ability to customize the look of the blog to go with my existing sites.

I worked through WordPress, going for the self-hosting option and also purchased a ready made and nicely-designed template from StudioPress. But let me tell you, it was not as easy as I thought. You have to download a large number of plug-ins to get the site to look and act as you want. And you have to learn a little bit of PHP and CSS code. Since I knew none, this was a problem. Luckily, my nephew David, who is in his last year of computer science studies at the University of Costa Rica, came over and gave me a two-hour crash course. After that, it was pretty much smooth sailing. You’ll also need a basic knowledge of FTP to transfer files from your computer to your web server, Photoshop or a similar image-editing program to customize the site graphics, and though not a total necessity, a web design program such as Adobe Dreamweaver or Coffee Cup is immensely helpful. Just for fun, here is a screenshot showing all of the software packages I had to download, install, and configure to get the blog to its current state:

One of the great advantages of a blog as opposed to a website is the capability for visitors to subscribe easily via e-mail or their favorite web service so that they are updated when new content is posted. And since the blog has a very easy to use comment functionality you can also subscribe to be notified when new comments appear. So, if you question something I’ve written (What is Greg talking about? That lens is sharp!) you can be notified immediately when I post my reply to tell you why you are wrong You can also share or save any post via the easy to use share/save button bar that appears at the bottom of each post.

So, I do hope that you enjoy the new blog. I really want this to be a place where we can interact, so please ask questions and share your thoughts via the comments box. And let me know if there is anything I can improve to provide a better experience and if you have any questions or issues you’d like me to address in a future post or article.

Cheers,

Greg