Being an extreme amateur in the world of photography, I always appreciate someone that is dedicated and talented enough to regularly update and maintain a photography weblog. The author of “Deography†categorized his site as one of these rare photography weblogs, so I really could not wait to jump into the site.
The first thing I noticed as the site loaded was a link-filled menu right below the title of the site. I immediately began exploring these links. The FAQ is what it says it is, and the photoblogging link provides readers with a great amount of comprehensive information on the how-to behind creating their own photoblog. Also at the top of the site are quite a few different ways to go through past pictures – by the entire gallery which is sorted by category, by the last week or last month’s worth of pictures, by species, and, of course, by what the author feels like are his top ten pictures.
The complete design of the site is unique – it only has one column. While this might not make a lot of sense for a site that focuses mainly on text to use this kind of layout, it’s perfect for a site that primarily spotlights photography. The only grievance – and I use that word lightly – I can find is that the light gray text on the dark gray background may pose a readability problem for some people.
As I moved along from one picture to another, I incessantly appreciated Dylan’s talent. Instead of just highlighting his talent, he is also gone one step further. With each photograph, he includes the camera and file settings for the particular picture. Readers can see in a quick glance whether or not he used a flash for a particular photograph, and if they are somewhat advanced in their skills, they’ll be impressed to find what type of metering mode or exposure bias a particular picture contained.
As he says in his “photoblogging†area of the site, a picture is worth 1000 words, so he keeps his writing to a limit. He explains the picture – where it was taken, who is in the shot, etc. Then, it’s up to the viewer to make up the rest of the story.
With the different subjects he captures, it appears that Dylan takes his camera almost everywhere. Whether it be an amazing shot of a water droplet rolling down a leaf, the ocean water against the sandy beach, or someone he knows playing at an open mic night in a dimly lit room, Dylan uses his camera to capture things the average person would just skip right on by.
Deography breaks up the monotony of the regular, everyday text-based weblog. It’s a great addition to anyone’s list of daily reads, especially if you are in search of something that’s not like everything else you read.