Monday, June 02, 2008

RAW Files Nearly Damage Auto Suspension At Weekend Wedding

Hi Everybody,
I'm tired, I'm beat, I'm wiped out - just too many RAW files this weekend. Boy, that's the truth. We loaded up the car at the end of the evening with lighting gear, camera gear, and almost 19 gigs of RAW files. I still remember the groan of the car's suspension as the three of us loaded all those RAW files into the trunk. The car sagged heavily over the rear wheels, with the muffler almost touching the ground. We carefully pulled out of the country club's driveway and slowly into the main thoroughfare trying to avoid bottoming out with the added weight of the RAW files in the trunk ;~)

OK, OK I'm finished with the RAW jokes, at least for a while. So let me tell you about a few changes going on around here at DigitalProTalk. It's been reported to me that I may be over-blogging a bit. If you miss a day or two, you could be 12 - 15 posts behind and catching up is too much to do, so many posts get skipped. To resolve the issue, I'm going to start rolling multiple posts into single posts of the same nature - this should be a good thing. Let me know what you think in the comments below.

The second issue that has come to my attention is the long scrolls to read each post. Thanks to my buddy, RC Concepcion over at Layers Magazine Blog, he helped me set up "jump page posting" with blogger. Your will see what I mean in the next post. You get a little preview and if you like what you read, you can read more by hitting the link and having the rest of the story pop up in a new window. I think it's really cool and should help with the look and feel of the site.

I also got some nice tips from fellow blogger 1001 Noisy Cameras which I plan to incorporate into the site. Check out their new layout right here - I think 1001 has it rockin' over there. Again, my thanks for all the good tips and suggestions.

Hey gang, don't forget to check in tomorrow for Technique Tuesday. Lot's of good stuff planned including a studio tour. See you then. -David

8 comments:

  1. Yes, we get it! The RAW files are big! hehe! :)

    I know that at 6 posts a day, I simply don't have time to look at them all, especially since they all happen at once...This is definitely one of the blogs I am most likely to hit "mark all as read" and move on if there are a dozen unread posts.

    Honestly, I dislike the "jump blogging." For someone like myself who subscribes to dozens of them, I like to read them in Google reader. If I really like what I read, I may click on it and pop up a tab for it, but more than often I just won't do that.

    You may get some people who complain at the length of the blog post, but by putting a majority of each single post "after the jump" you are going to hurt your readership, as anyone who doesn't actually take the time to click the post won't read it. Which means the readers you have will be more interested than average, but you will lose some readers too. Just something to think about!

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  2. Hey David,
    I'm a daily visitor at your blog and i love it.
    You're right, sometimes due to my schedule i might not be able to read all your posts for that day and if that happens, in about 2-3 days time I'm left with alot of unread posts(even though i somehow catch up)...so i think its a great idea merge up few in to one.

    Long scrolls...I never found it as an issue.
    Anyway i look forward for the improvements coming.

    Thanks and you're doing a great job.

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  3. I, too, am an avid fan of yours and an almost 5 day per week reader. I don't mind long scrolls and I guess I'm ambivalent about the jumping. I can get a good overview of your daily posts quicker with the jump, but sometimes I'm less likely to read a jump than a scroll. Go figure.

    You have taught me so much and since I am shooting my first wedding this week, I'm really spending a lot of time gazing at your photos and printing out some of your posts to put under my pillow in hopes that it will soak into my head through osmosis while I sleep, since I don't have time to memorize them all. Heh. Thank you so much for all your work on this blog. I don't think you will ever know how many photographers you have helped.

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  4. David -

    The powerful thing about Digital Pro Talk is that your passion comes through loud and clear. You are not just passionate about photography, you are also clearly passionate about teaching and mentoring as a way to refine the art.

    Change the format all you want, but don't let anyone talk you out of your great style!

    Also, I didn't realize you were from Cincinnati (as I am) when I first started reading your blog. I love seeing all of these great local sites captured so well...

    Cheers,
    Erik

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  5. David,I wish there was MORE! I am like a photography addict right now and I can't seem to get enough photography knowledge. I love that if I miss a few days I know when I do find time to look at Digital Protalk, I will get a large fix. It may not be enough for my crazy addiction but it will hold me over.

    Really I can't believe you can do that much blogging, I mean we aren't talking about nonsense blogging we are talking about good quality information. You really are the man!

    I don't mind the long scrolling either. I'll scroll as much as you can type, just keep typing. My only suggestion would be that the categories are getting long. I don't know if that really could be more efficient.

    Thanks for all that you do! You continue to make me a better photographer, and I really mean that. I had my first wedding last month and I know that I used a lot of your suggestions. And please whatever you do don't slow it down with the post. It would take me 10 other blogs to get the fix I can get here!

    P.S. I shot RAW and there were sparks coming from underneath my little car as I drove home.

    Rich Becker
    www.richbecker.net

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  6. Digital ProTalk would be much easier to read if the type was black and the background was white. Scott Kelby's Photoshop Insider is a good example.

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  7. Hi David,My Name is Nishita and I read digitalprotalk every day. I like this 'Post Jumping' idea a lot. Can you please tell me how you achieved it? My blog is nishmphoto.blogspot.com. I have the long scroll issue as well due to the pictures I post. If you get a chance I would love to hear what you think of it. I am working on adding a site traffic counter, and a way to acquire email from visitors etc.

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  8. I actually stopped reading your blog about 2 months ago because I couldn't keep up with half a dozen posts a day. I found I was just skipping them all, so I killed your feed from my Feed Reader.

    I only came back for a peek because of a link I saw about you switching to RAW, and now that I see that you plan to cut down on the number of posts I'll give it another go. Thanks for the switch...

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