iffles.com

One Year Celebration!

Today, June 18, 2010 marks the one year anniversary of iffles.com!

It’s been quite a year of ups and downs – articles that came out just how I wanted them to, and articles that really flopped. Days I was proud of all that I’ve accomplished, and days I struggled with what I would write next. I launched when I had the website “good enough for launching” but still had a To Do list with bunches of items on it left to clean things up. Wouldn’t you know it, there’s still bunches of items on that list.

I’ve learned so much about photography from running this site, forcing myself to learn new and different things so that I have something to write about, which was something I was hoping would happen… and it did!

I was also, however, incredibly shocked with how much time running this site has taken up, which is why I can’t write all that often, which means I’ll never be one of the Big Dogs when it comes to photography sites. And you know what? I’m totally ok with that. One of the main reasons I decided I never wanted to try to make money off of photography was because I didn’t want it to turn into a job, an obligation and/or a stress in my life. So if I get a couple of comments on a blog that posts once a week or so, I’m ok with that.

Speaking of comments – I want to thank all of you that have stuck around, offering encouragement and advice. I feel like I’ve gotten to know a number of you through your comments (and your blogs and flickr streams!).

Top Ten Posts

Ok, enough mushy stuff. Let’s do the typical “one year anniversary of a blog” thing and show you the top ten posts of the past year (for the record, I did this by pageviews. It’s debatable what the best method for this type of thing is, but, well, that’s the one I chose):

1. Gimp Script Showcase: National Geographic
2. What I Learned from the Death of my Computer
3. Why I Think You Should Go On the Third Annual Worldwide Photo Walk
4. Some New Features in UFRaw
5. Making Eyes Pop Using Gimp
6. Introduction to Using UFRaw to Edit RAW Files
7. Faking HDR in Gimp (I cringe putting this one on the list. This is my least favorite post I’ve written for various reasons)
8. Gimp Script Showcase: Warming and Cooling Filter
9. Adding a Vignette (or Blurry Dark Edges) to a Photo in Gimp
10. Gimp Script Showcase: Vintage Photos

What You’ve Missed

A few of my favorite posts didn’t make the Top Ten, and I figure it’s probably because some of you weren’t reading a year ago. I wanted to point out some of my favorite posts that you might have missed:

• Gimp 101: Levels. I think this is such a basic starting point for photo editing.
• Gimp 101: Curves – part one and two. Ok, so I needed two parts because I didn’t do a good enough job explaining the first time, so maybe I shouldn’t include these as a favorite, but I still think it’s good information that can dramatically impact a photo. (btw, there’s a part three to this series still brewing)
• 5 Things to do When You’re in a Photo Rut. Hey, we’ve all been there.
• Layer Blending Modes in Gimp. Ok, so, my hover-over-the-image thing takes way too long to load. And I apologize for that. But if you have a bit of patience, I think you’ll find this entry pretty helpful if you use Gimp.
• How I Did It: The Boots Photo. One of my favorite self portraits I’ve ever taken, explained step-by-step from set-up to final product.

A Final Thank You

I know I mentioned it above, but I do really appreciate the comments I get (even the negative ones – because those are the ones I learn from!), and so I’d like thank you by giving you one more chance to leave a comment. I’ll pick one comment at random from this post to get one year of Flickr Pro. I’m sure you all realize by now that I have one of these things, and while the unlimited uploads and storage, as well as the ability to archive high-resolution photos is nice, I have to admit my favorite perk of a pro account are the stats! Anyway, this is a gift from me to a random noter and is not sponsered by flickr in any way, I just happen to like the site a lot. All you have to do to enter is leave a note before midnight on Tuesday night (I’m in the Eastern time zone, but to be honest, I’m pretty flexible on this timing, but that’s the earliest I’ll choose a winner). One comment per person, please!

I’ll announce the winner on the blog and use the email address from your comment to email the pro code to the winner – flickr upgrade codes are not associated with the email account at all, so you can use any (working) email address in your comment and you’ll be able to use the code even if that’s not the same email address associated with my flickr account. This also means you can pass it on to a friend or family member that you think will really appreciate it.

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