I have always thought that the idea of creating static portfolios of images to display online was somehow missing the point. Showing your work at an art fair, where you get to hear what people think of it, is so much more stimulating and useful, even if someone doesn't like an image, rather than knowing it is being displayed on a wall in a gallery somewhere but you have no idea what the viewers think of it. It is the interaction with viewers that is the most valuable. So to put a static portfolio of images online is the same as them hanging in a gallery - you have no idea what people think, whether or not they like them, can relate to them, despise them or are completely ambivalent, unless you are there.

Unfortunately, for far too long the portfolio approach was the only practical way of displaying images on a website - it was long-winded to create, didn't allow for easy uploading of one or two new images so the content quickly became out of date. The biggest issue however, was that there was no way to interact with viewers and to listen to what they had to say. Examining site statistics might tell you which images got viewed the most but not whether anyone liked them or not and if not, why not.

Then blogging came along and at last came an opportunity to provide the means for that interaction and for the ability to quickly and easily add and update content. Blogs were initially more suited to text content but then along came the Photoblog, bringing with it, finally, the opportunity and means to show images which could be easily and quickly updated whilst providing viewers with the opportunity and means to comment if they choose to do so. This was something I really wanted to include on this site.

Having spent a little while finding and configuring the right solution and then integrating it into the rest of the site, a photoblog is now up and running. Please take look - and don't forget to tell me what you think of any of the images as I genuinely want to hear your comments. I will be adding lots more images over the next week or so and then aim to add at least one each day thereafter, so do I hope you will add me to your Favourites and visit again as it grows. The portfolio galleries will still remain on the site at least until the photoblog galleries get properly established and contain a reasonable number of images but eventually I may replace or at least reduce the portfolio galleries.

You can reach the photoblog by clicking either on the link in the Pages menu to the left or on the thumbnail image below or on any of the pages within the site.