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A S C R A P B O O K O F S O L U T I O N S F O R T H E P H O T O G R A P H E R
Enhancing the enjoyment of taking pictures with news that matters, features that entertain and images that delight. Published frequently.
September Archived
1 October 2021
We've just archived Volume 10, Number 9 of Photo Corners on the Archive page with 15 Features, 22 commented News stories, 25 Editor's Notes (which included 164 items of interest), no reviews and one site note for a total of 63 stories.
Thirty of those stories contained 125 images and 10 stories included gear specifications. In addition (if that's the word) to publishing no reviews last month, we also published no obituaries.
READERSHIP NUMBERS showed an increase in unique sites and visits as we served a million pages again in September.
We were glad to see a few more news stories this month than we've been accustomed to seeing lately. New cameras, lenses and software updates all spiced up the news. It was a relief, really.
OUR MOST POPULAR STORY, oddly enough, was our Hill Update slide show on efforts to control erosion in Glen Canyon.
Could you tell we were distracted?
We were also pleased to see our matinee on photojournalism featuring Austin photojournalist Julia Robinson was our third most popular story, barely edged out by a Horn.
And not far behind that was the matinee featuring Ivan Chow, An Introverted Street Photographer.
WE'VE NOTICED another trend beyond the news cycle. Derrick Story escapes to Hawaii after reducing his blog posts to a weekly schedule. The prolific Kirk Tuck considers retirement. Mike Johnston goes to three days a week next week. In the second year of the pandemic, some illuminating lights are dimming.
These are, no doubt, tough times. And so many worthwhile efforts in this sector are the work of individuals rather than companies. Because, frankly, nobody in this game is getting rich. And individuals get discouraged.
OUR PERSPECTIVE is a little different. You might be forgiven for suspecting we are independently wealthy. But we aren't. We've been in publishing since we were a child. We take some comfort in executing the same duties periodically.
September has been a difficult month here. We've been distracted by a pernicious plumbing problem at our elderly mother's house. We are her primary caregiver, electrician, plumber and gardener. It took five days, a thumb in the dike and some elbow grease to resolve it.
At the same time, Joyce* has been hospitalized since Sept. 10 to continue a series of surgeries over the last year related to her cancer surgery and radiation of six years ago. We have had in-home nursing duties all that time and kept a blog on her situation for friends and family that is now novel-length.
Could you tell we were distracted?
As we've pointed out before, photography itself is life affirming and the pursuit makes you stronger and happier than the alternative of retreating into self pity or succumbing to excuses. We didn't miss a beat here.
Thinking about photography (and writing about it) may be the hard part. Doing it is a joy and reflecting on what you've done extends the pleasure.
We are happy to keep the balling rolling here because it sustains us. Both of us, we hope.