Reflections: My Time in the Blogging World

Film and photography have always been my life. My father's occupation in the industry has not only instilled in me a love of the medium, but has also keep me in contact with its latest issues. At first the idea of keeping a blog was intimidating since I have never been comfortable sharing my work with even the closest of friends let alone strangers, but the experience allowed me to become an instant authority figure in those subjects I hold so dear. That fact made me strive to "get" people to my site. The blog required many new things that paper essays just do not. My work needed a level of hypertextuality, and a consciousness of visual design in every post as well as in the over all blog. All which were new and unfamiliar to me. One detail of this blog that I feel I have excelled in is my fast exploitation of these items. I tried to use images as much as possible without overwhelming the page, and also chose a design that reflected this emphasis on the visual.

My essay on Jodi Cobb was definitely elevated by the visual characteristic of the site. It allowed me to choose photographs that most represented her contributions and talent. However my writing still relied on one person for its strength...me. If there was one part of my posts that I would have worked harder on it would be my writing. You might be wondering how I could possibly say this about a writing course, but my posts were filled with numerous small errors that took away from my professionalism and authority. Even with these errors I was amazed that people took the time to respond to my stories. After posting about the consumer digital camcorder I received a comment that let me know how others feel about these products. After leaving a comment on a photographer's page about the perspective and angles in his photos, he took the time to thank me for my loaded comment; since most of the comments he receive only mark the physical beauty of what he captures. In essays two and three I learned how to formulate arguments for my readers. I chose topics that fit within the site's perimeters and highlighted the parts of these subjects that fit as well. Overall, my experience within the blogging world was an enlightening one, and I hope to keep the blogs (and the connections) coming for a long time!