If you (and I’m assuming you’re a blogger) were interviewed for a feature in a magazine, you would want to blog about it, right (Rico and Sasha both come to mind)? You’d probably want to post a photo of the publication, and you would definitely want to link to the online edition of the article, right?

What if that publication told you you weren’t allowed to do that?

That’s exactly what Business Week told SmugMug “Head Geek” Don MacAskill after they put him on a feature spread (this links to Google by the way). In the words of the Head Geek himself:

They’ve made it impossible to link to their articles directly (ie, drive money-making traffic to them)… BusinessWeek actually asked us specifically *not* to link to the article. Yes, that’s right, an ad-driven publication doesn’t want us to drive traffic to them. They were kind enough to point us to their User Agreement where, sure enough, they prohibit deep linking.

Gawker, The Blog Herald, and CNET have already picked up the story, and I’m sure several others will be following suit soon.

On a tangent note, the title of Don MacAskill’s post (Why traditional ‘print’ media is doomed) reminds me of Andrew dela Serna’s Three Reasons Why Manila Bulletin’s Website is Stuck in the Stone Age.

Janette Toral of Influential Blogger has a project: she wants to highlight The Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs in 2008. She did this last year with considerable success, and that’s why it’s back this year, and hopefully, bigger and better.

Before I get to my picks for this year’s top 10 blogs, let me share this thought on last year’s winners: the winners were all local blogs.

The rules stated that “any blog in the world can be picked,” but it seemed like nobody cared to look beyond the blogs of people they knew. The world may be a small place, but it seems like the world according 2007’s list of emerging blogs was limited to our archipelago.

I’m all for Filipino pride, but hey, is our world really that limited?

Having said that, let me throw in my picks for this year’s list. I admit, this list might just prove how small my world is, but I’ll take that chance:
Continue reading ‘Emerging Influential Blogs 2008′

I had to check after reading this on ProBlogger, and it looks like Google really is updating page rankings.

What did I find?

Half a year old, and LightChasers Photography has grown considerably. I’m pretty proud of that.

Hmm… I wonder if my ratified ranking will jump anytime soon.

update 2008.05.03: It looks like my old site, despite getting no updates since November, has stepped up to a PR4. It looks like 6 months of silence isn’t quite the PR killer I expected it to be.

update 2008.05.06: My ratified ranking has been updated! I’ve jumped 57 spots and broken into the top 100!

Blogging has finally bought me something, and it’s something that will definitely let me buy more things. I’ve got a new Transcend 8GB CF card plus a pair of new batteries for my camera.

No, it’s nowhere near as extravagant as the house, car, laptop, camera, or even phone that blogging has bought other people, but still, I can’t say that blogging hasn’t been good to me. Still, with the heat (not to mention all the walking I’ve been doing), I’m also very tempted by these fruits of blogging.

Of course, I’m still counting on photography to bring better things to the table.

In case you’re wondering why I said I had a new Transcend 8GB CF card when there are 2 of them in the photo - a lucky bear is getting the other card for her kit.

The title pretty much says it all, but I’ll say it again, nominations for 2008 Philippine Blog Awards are now open. Awards are up for grabs for best blog and best post as well as for special awards (best design, bloggers’ choice, etc.). Details and nomination forms for these divisions after the jump.

Continue reading ‘2008 Philippine Blog Awards Up for Grabs’

Starting today, I’ll be going offline for a few days - no Internet, no blogging, no computers.

I’m not going totally off the grid though - I’m just going offline for a few days.  I will have my phones, and unless traffic gets unimaginably snarled up, I won’t be more than 3 hours away.

See you on the other side!

It was bad enough when I read this post about anti-terror police targeting “suspicious” photographers. It highlighted the poster to the right. The text?

Thousands of people take photos every day. What if one of them seems odd?
Terrorists use surveillance to help plan attacks, taking photos and making notes about security measures like the location of CCTV cameras. If you soee someone doing that, we need to know. Let experienced officers decide what action to take.

I reacted by writing a little guide on shooting like a terrorist. Of course, I was talking about shooting photographs, but that’s beside the point. The point is that as photographer, I’m already viewed with a certain level of suspicion.

I didn’t really dig any deeper then, but now that I have and I’ve learned more about this counter-terrorism campaign directly from the source (found via thomashawk.com), I’ve learned that I’ve got two strikes against me in this whole campaign. Why?

Continue reading ‘I’m a Terrorist Twice Over’

I blame everybody else too…
see more strips at WhattheDuck.net

This is supposed to be “the place where I write about pretty much anything I want.”

Apparently, I don’t want to write that much.

It’s ok though - with only a handful of subscribers here, it’s just a dark but cozy little corner.

Let LightChasers Photography get all the attention. 

The strip says it all…

see more strips at WhattheDuck.net