Houston Photobloggers

Election Day

If you are heading out to the polls today take your camera and get some shots of the wheels of our democracy in motion.

Remember you can submit your photos to the New York Times under a Creative Commons license, but why should they alone have all the fun? Got some shots from Early Voting and/or the March 4th primary? Leave a link in the comments!

This is open to all Houston and Texas photographers whether you have a photoblog or not. Upload your photos online either at your personal photoblog, blog or website or at a file sharing service like Flickr or Smugmug and leave us a link. Please make sure it is a link directly to the election photos and not to your home page.

Photo Project: Blown Away

There is still time to participate in Brian Auer and Epic Edits latest photography project, Blown Away. As Brian describes it

The topic is overexposure and the subject is a photo of yours. I want you to post a photo that exhibits overexposure, or blown-out highlights. .... The image can be overexposed by the camera (which is really the intent of this project), or through post-processing.

Overexposure doesn't have to be a bad thing. Post the photo to your blog and then fill out the form at Brian's website. Once the project is complete he will post a list of all the submissions so everyone can see. It is a good way to get new visitors to your site and since people are encouraged to write about their choices it is a great way to get inspired in a much more personal way than generally happens with the weekly memes.

And while at Epic Edits, check out his related article on exposure, Should You Expose for Shadows or Highlights?

Shutterday

There is a new meme in town, filling the void on Saturday when Pxite stopped updating.

Shutterday - The photo meme for Saturdays. Go forth and enter!

Get Seen!

We have several recent additions to our group who are new to photoblogging from the Flickr Community. (Welcome our latest member, Tao of Splintar!). It is very easy to get your photos in front of other people on Flickr, but it takes a little more work with a photoblog.

One way of doing this is by participating in photo memes. In terms of photoblogging a meme is an idea that is shared and passed from blog to blog. It is a good way to get your photoblog in front of the community. You can find a list, albeit a little out of date, of photo memes here. There is a photography meme for every day of the week:

Sunday: MacroDay and See It Sunday
Monday: Moody Monday
Tuesday: Tuesdays Photos
Wednesday: Lensday
Thursday: Theme Thursday
Friday: Photo Friday
Saturday: Pxite

Just don't end up in the Photo Meme Hall of Shame!

So, a question to our veteran photobloggers (including those of you coming here from Photoblogs.org!) What recommendations do you have for new photobloggers to become a part of the photoblog community?

Assignment: Houston

I have started a new Flickr group and I invite all of you to join. The group is called Assignment: Houston and is open to any Flickr member.

At the first of each month a new assignment will be posted. Assignments will be locations or themes in the Houston area. Members will have one month to take pictures and submit up to THREE of their best photos of the selected location or theme.

Even if you do not live in Houston this will be a good place to get photo ideas when you visit the city. And of course if you are planning a visit you can check the assignment for that month and play along. See you there!

http://www.flickr.com/groups/assignmenthouston/

Sunday Meme

There is a new meme on the block to add to your list. See it Sunday. A new topic is posted on Saturday and links are submitted to the site on Sunday and Sunday only. I asked the administrator if it was just new pictures or if pictures were allowed from the archives. The answer:

The first idea was to announce the theme on Saturday and shoot the picture on Saturday or Sunday. But it's no problem if visitors place old pictures on SeeItSunday.net.

Personally I like it better with pictures taken the moment I know the theme and not entering my photoarchive, but it's not a rule.

A little twist on the traditional week long time frame of most memes. I haven't participated in this yet, but when I do I believe I will push myself to take a new picture for the theme.

One more caution from the site administrator:

By the way. Please let your visiters know that the website is based on Central European Time and so participation will close on Sunday night 23:59 CET. I had some people (from the USA) that were too late to post their picture, because it was after midnight over here.

Over here being the Netherlands. Need help with the time difference? Here you go. The World Clock.

Scavenger Hunt

There is a new meme in the photoblogging world and I think it is going to be a great one. Scavenger Hunt! Memes are a great way to bring visitors to your site, especially if you participate on a regular basis.

The Brookston Weekly Photo Scavenger Hunt is just getting underway. Jay Brookston has thought of a lot of little things that I think will really make this a community. And who doesn't like scavenger hunts!

Go and check it out.

i-Gizmo becomes Pxite

i-Gizmo has undergone a name change including a new URL; it is now known as Pxite (pics site). Everything from i-Gizmo has been moved over to Pxite including your login information and past entries. Everything is pretty much the same on first glance. One thing I'm very happy with is that there is now a way to change your password information, which I couldn't figure out over at i-Gizmo. You can also add camera information to your profile.

Update those bookmarks and links:
http://www.pxite.com