New column: Photographer crush

I spend a lot of time online, and before I know it, I’ve got 25 tabs open in Firefox. I rarely have time to get through all of those links by the time I need to move on, and so I am constantly trying to figure out how to organize all of that newfound information. I email myself a lot of links (bad!) and sometimes bookmark them when I’m at home, but I hate not being able to find what I want, wherever I am. I fairly recently started using Diigo, which has been a great resource for mobile bookmarking. (thanks for the suggestion, Julie!) I have gotten pretty good at tagging things, too, which makes future searches a lot less annoying than an inbox overflowing with unread emails…from myself.

One of the recurring themes in my Diigo account is the portfolios of photographers whose work I admire, would like to emulate in some way, or am generally awed by. When I heard Mary Virginia Swanson speak last year, she said something that has really stuck with me. She said, “To help people get to know you, share your sources of inspiration…To create and communicate, educate yourself.”

This week, I’m starting an online blogging class, and one of my goals has been to create some ongoing column-style posts for this blog. I’m putting two and two together and launching what I hope will be a new little series: Photographer Crush. I’ll post photographers, professional or from Flickr, who are creating eye-catching and evocative images. I’ll be both sharing my inspiration and educating myself. And who knows, maybe the quality of my own photos will noticeably improve over time.

I’ll post my first Photographer Crush tomorrow – I’ll be curious to hear what you think. Hope the Labor Day weekend treated you well, all!