©2012 Lane Orsak. "Kirk at Work."
A little over a month ago, June 9th to be exact, we reached what I thought was a fun milestone: The VisualScienceLab blog had just clocked its 6 millionth pageview. It took a while to get there. Almost four years. Well, pageviews fly when you're having fun; VSL will celebrate the 7 millionth pageview today!
I thought I'd take a second to reaffirm what VSL is all about. I've been involved in photo education and in the business of commercial and advertising photography for a long time. I've seen trends come and go. I've seen "truths" about the market and about gear be embraced and discarded over and over again. But for most of us the love of a good image endures.
VSL is my medium for discussing the trends and gear that affect us right now. Today. Most of the time the essays and ensuing discussions can be good, clean fun. Sometimes we'll have honest differences and perceptions (and that's what the "Comments" are for...) but most of the time we'll discuss the relevant (to me) issues of the day, speak the truth about doing this nutty artform for a living, and occasionally wade into the raucous swamp of the hobby's craziness.
I have made a lot of good virtual and real friends along the way and I hope to keep up the conversation with you (or, in Texas, "y'all") for some time to come.
If you haven't signed up as a "follower" you might consider it. It doesn't affect anything other than my ego. No junk mail from me will follow. But it lets me know that you appreciate the time and energy it takes to write and share.
I'd love to read more comments (even if I disagree with them) so sharpen your virtual pencils and let it fly. Thank you very much for reading. Thank you for clicking on the Amazon links when you feel the lure of good gear calling your name. It doesn't cost you more and it earns me a small commission which I generally use to buy more gear to play with and review.
Whether you shoot film or digital or both or even with (gulp) your phone I am happy you are here. Unless you're a jerk. And then all bets are off.
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20 comments:
Congratulations, Kirk! I think Chinese food is in order.
Congratulations and many thanks Kirk, I'll have a celebratory cup of coffee later on! ;^)
> "If you haven't signed up as a "follower" you might consider it."
Does subscribing to your posts on Google Reader count? I've read pretty much every one for about six months now. And I guess unlike some people, I quite enjoy the off-topic diversions (e.g. about how cutting out coffee improved your swimming); there's more to life that photography, and there's more to photography than cameras.
I am *de facto* a follower as I've read every post (and commented on most !) for the past few weeks.. How do I sign up as such ?? Keep the great stuff coming, you're certainly the most enjoyable photo read in the Internet !
Congrats Kirk - and keep up the good work. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and photos here with us since years. And as you probably know, I've bought all of your five books (and then some, like M. O'Brien's, which is wonderful as well), and I'm waiting for your novel.
Long time lurker (via Google Reader...does that go towards the page view count?) and very very rare commenter here. Congrats!! That's a hell of a milestone. And it's proof that your hard work on the blog and your willingness to share your thoughts, opinions, and knowledge are very very much appreciated!!
Congrats Kirk. I love the blog and share your approach to life, well most of the time. The articles I've enjoyed the most are the ones that don't directly have anything to do with photography per se. Camera specs bore me rather quickly but I did love reading about your struggles with caffeine. It's these types of issues that have a lot more to do with art than discussions about megapixels and lens sharpness.
Kirk, Amazon is not very friendly to Big Island PO Box folks. They will send us books and CDs but not expensive stuff like cameras. Why don't you link up with B&H, they are very friendly to us. They will ship anything to us and very quickly. Thanks for your blog, I read it everyday.
Congratulations on 7 million. That is a lot of page views. I have enjoyed your take on various issues, even if I didn't agree with you on them. It is good to hear other points of view.
A semantics question: A relative from S. Carolina told me recently that when addressing a large group of people it was "all y'all", with y'all being reserved for one or two people. Any comment, or is that something peculiar to South Carolina?
How did you customize the template?
Congratulations on having such an enduring popular success with this site, Kirk.
I suspect a great deal of the blog's popularity derives from your energy and enthusiasm for photography and, particularly, for photo gear. It's a bit like reading a monographic fashion blog, watching your equipment styles change over time. Great FREE fun!
I read everyday, but don't comment very often. The posts here are bery well written and always enjoyable to read, or thought provocing, or both. Thanks Kirk.
-Brad
Oh, and congratulations on the Milestone!
Kirk, I love the content of your blog, but I've been reading much less after you switched the template. And yes, I've read the "user's guide to the new design", but seriously - how good is a design if it needs a user's guide?
Why are you reading less with the new design? The typestyles haven't changed, the margins are the same, it's still black type against white, the images are still 2000 px wide when clicked. Just what has made a difference for you?
[apologies if this comment got re-posted]
Hi Kirk,
The most frustrating part is that the the new design is slow. It's less noticeable on faster machines, but on my 3-year old macbook pro, the delays that I experience when browsing this site (on all major browsers) are beyond what I anticipate from reading a blog.
In terms of appearance, I like how the new main page looks. But I am not a fan that blog posts are presented in inner windows with an [X] button on top right, and then these windows disappear with a press of Esc key. I believe that is something that should be reserved for short messages/notifications, not for longer free-flowing texts -- I can't help feeling claustrophobic when reading long posts now. You report 200% increase in page views. I won't be surprised if these are significantly correlated with that users are jumping back and forth on the site because the navigation is not very intuitive and because of the way pages are re-rendered with every click.
I have tried the website on iPad just once and felt confused. I yet have to give it another try after reading the guide… This actually reminded me of video tutorials on "how to open Microsoft office box" after MS redesigned their packaging in 2008…
Nitpicking: there is a "Send feedback" button on bottom right. It is unclear who the target of this feedback is - is that you, is that Google? Hard to tell given how generic that form looks.
Anyway, hope this helps.
Thanks for the feedback. I hope Blogger keeps tweaking until they get it just right. I'd change it back but it looks so damn nice on a 27 inch screen and it's nearly instantaneous on an i7 processor...
Yes, the iPad version could be better. Much better.
I agree with LEEO. The new spiffy site design is not at all an improvement. I had been just beginning to poke in here a few times a week but the sluggish response and awkward comment system dissuade me from visiting more frequently than every week or two.
I understand if you have no control over this new design, Kirk. But if you do...
Kirk: This is a No-post-me comment. Just for you and me. But I want to point out something: you are having higher visit ratios. Granted. But at least I gets less and less satisfied as time goes. Are your user staying (ingesting? deep charges as reading blasting you?)
I can frame exactly why, if I could I will tell you. Shallowness comes to my mind. May be is my. Dunno. My take right now is this one: you are writing in a micro-content oriented fashion. I miss your longer rants from 10K/week hits were the mark.
Miss you man.
By the way, feel free to destroy after read.
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