Michael Ray
[www.foodportfolio.com...] -- I found Michael Ray’s online portfolio and website last year when I was researching photographers. I had gotten interested in food photography and his website is pretty much only filled with food photography. Looking at Ray’s photographs makes you hungry and then in his blog he tells his viewers exactly how he did that. He talks about food styling tricks, studio photography special effects, light sources, and practical knowledge like costs of studio shooting. I enjoyed going through his website because it feels like Ray is just giving you inside photographer tips that you probably should know about. It’s easy to read and fun to look at.
Posted at 16:43 #

A Photo Editor Blog
[www.aphotoeditor.com...] -- This blog is mainly a discussion about ethics and photography. It focuses both on the art and photojournalism aspects of photography. Rob Haggart, the Photo Editor, was the former Director of Photography for Men’s Journal and Outside Magazine. The website has an interesting conversation that, since the creation of digital, has become even more heated because of the simplicity of altering photographs to say or reflect something untrue. Some of the posts introduce some really innovative ideas like a video portfolio of their photographs. This website seems to be a professional forum for discussion, advice, and brainstorming.
Posted at 16:43 #

ICP
[www.icp.org...] -- This website covers the museum, school, events, resources and store at the International Center of Photography. You can search over 300,000 images and numerous collections of photographers from the past hundred years. The website also features a link to the collaborative website Photomuse which provides access to exhibitions organized by the ICP and George Eastman House.
Posted at 16:42 #

MOCP
[www.mocp.org...] -- A good place to look for photographers is at museums. The Museum of Contemporary Photography features a few photography exhibits at a time. Not only does the website feature images from each photographer’s collection, but there is also an artist’s bio and a review of their work. This could also include information on their style, purpose, and approach.
Posted at 16:41 #

National Geographic Photography
[www.photography.nationalgeographic.com...] -- If you’re looking to be inspired by photography, to get an idea of the impact you want your photography to have, National Geographic has some of the most amazing and moving photographs in the world. Sifting through the pieces featured on this website, you not only want to travel to foreign places and hear the stories of people around the world, but you want to understand how and why these images are so incredible outside of the subject matter. What kind of camera did they use, what lens, did they use natural light or artificial? Looking at and studying photographs will help you develop and eye for good composition. Photography isn’t just about taking a picture, it’s about knowing how to take an interesting and appealing one.
Posted at 16:41 #

Pros Photos
[www.prosphotos.com...] -- rosPhotos is a Photography Website Directory that is useful for practical and educational reasons. New photographers can learn by practice or they can learn from professional photographers who already understand the mechanics of photography and the different techniques there are for certain types of photography. This database has links to numerous websites revolving in some way around the art of photography. Besides that, it has a library of photography articles and How-To websites that can be great guides for an inexperienced photographer or someone who is trying to learn more about photography.
Posted at 16:40 #

Camera Mad
[www.cameramad.co.uk...] -- This website is solely on the camera and the different accessories that photographers might need or want to use when working. The website lists links of different categories to pages of different sizes, ranges, and brands of accessories like lenses, flash units, tripods, cleaning products and photography books. The site also features reviews of the different instruments photographers use so you can figure out which is the best buy for your style and need. You can purchase merchandise right there on the website and have it shipped to you. There are options for you to shop by manufacturer or you can just pick and choose what you find on the website.
Posted at 16:39 #

DPS
[www.digital-photography-school.com...] -- This blog contains mostly entries about different aspects of photography. There are reviews on the variety of cameras available and their different features; advice about different techniques to use depending on the type of photography (indoor, outdoor, silhouettes, movement, portraits, panoramic, wedding, night, macro, ect.); tips on how to frame a composition (rule of thirds); and weekly assignments and critiques.
Posted at 16:39 #

Photo.net
[www.photo.net...] -- hoto.net is kind of like a photography community with advice, discussion forums, critiques of not only different cameras but actual photographs, educational information on techniques, types of equipment photographers need and why, and many other features. This site even lets you upload and exhibit your photography and receive “insightful critiques from the community.” With Photo.net you can either subscribe ($25/1 year) which gives you nearly unlimited access to the web site. You can upload as many photographs you want to the gallery and the photography classifieds, and it sets you up with a Person ImagePro web site to promote your services and exhibit your photography. Or you can be a registered user on photo.net for free, but you have a limited number of critiques and can only upload five images to the gallery.
Posted at 16:38 #

Photo Blog 1
[www.picnik.com...] -- This site shows viewers how to edit photos using tools for effects, fonts, shapes and frames. It’s a quick way to alter or enhance an image. Picnik is a free web site that lets you upload the photos you want to work from whether they’re stored on flickr, MySpace, Picasa Web Albums, Facebook, ect. When you don’t have a program like Photoshop on your computer, sometimes it’s difficult to edit photos the way you want to. This is a helpful alternative that leaves enough from for creativity and individuality.
Posted at 16:37 #

NAXOS Music Library
[goshen.naxosmusiclibrary.com...] -- This musical database has over 357,000 tracks, including classical, jazz, world, folk and Chinese. We have been using this Web site in my Humanities course to listen to different styles and movements in music around the world. It’s a huge library of a Web site and relies a lot on its search options and topic links in the hover bar. The rest of the front page is devoted to a long list of links to news articles, recent additions of musical pieces, and featured additions of albums. Although it might look as though there’s a lot on the page, there really isn’t. Most of the actual library is further and further away from the homepage. It might not be the most interesting homepage, but it does enable viewers to piece through different genres, labels, playlists, composers, and other advanced searches. This is probably helpful for people visiting the site who might not know exactly what they’re looking for. The Keyword Search Bar is pretty powerful. You can enter in a keyword, disc, composition title, composer or artist and the library will come up with numerous options, sometimes of the same song with different artists or different instruments or a different arrangement of the same song. Even though there’s obviously so much information on this Web site, it’s pretty easy to get to where you want to be.
Posted at 13:45 #

Hulu
[www.hulu.com...] -- Hulu is an internet database launched in March 2008 that houses hundreds of television shows and movies from networks like NBC, FOX, and other networks and studios. This website is legal because it offers ad-supported streaming video from its own Web site and other sites like abc.com. Its organization is pretty understandable. If you’re looking for a television show, there’s numerous ways to go about it. You can either search broadly by moving through types of channels like: food and leisure, reality and game shows, science fiction, action and adventure, sports, ect. Or you can search more specifically through browsing the A-Z list. The two most prominent links are TV and Movies. The second hover bar has links to channels, a most popular list, recently added, collections, HD gallery and spotlight. The homepage is fun to look at because its main feature is a moving box with images of scenes from recent movies or television episodes as well as new features and how to’s about the Web site. Below the large moving images are smaller thumbnails from episodes, clips and movies with links to the actual video.
Posted at 13:45 #

NPR (National Public Radio)
[www.npr.org...] -- NPR is also a very organized Web site, probably because of its news, information based purpose. Much like the front page of a newspaper, NPR’s homepage has a side box with links to topics of pages that one might see in a paper like: nation, world, politics, business, health & science, people & places, ect. Underneath this box is another with different services NPR offers. One part of this feature I enjoyed was the little images placed next to the services like radio, podcast, community, news feeds, ect. The hover search bar at the top of the page only has eight links, so they seem to have their Web site pretty well organized into broader subjects. The rest of the homepage looks like the front page of a newspaper. There is a lead story with an engaging photo. There is a brief summary of the article with the headline of the story acting as a link to the full story. This method gives enough information that the viewer is lead further into the Web site. The colors and boxes help the viewer move through the page at a speed they like and all the headlines and links probably make it easier for the robots to find certain things on the site.
Posted at 13:45 #

Digg
[digg.com...] -- When you read a news story you link online, you can “digg” the article by clicking a link at the end of the story. The more “diggs" a story gets, the higher it rises in the popularity ranking on Digg.com. It’s a pretty lackluster design scheme. It basically just lists stories arranged by how many “diggs" it’s received. Each link to a full story has a thumbnail image next to it. Viewers and readers have the opportunity to comment, share or bury an article. Besides the links to articles, Digg.com’s hover bar lists popular, upcoming, news, videos, images and the opportunity for participants to customize their page. There are also categories of technology, world business, science, gaming, lifestyle, entertainment, sports and offbeat to enable viewers to more easily work through the Web site for articles they are interested in. I think this Web site is pretty easy to navigate through, although some of the most popular articles sometimes seem a little silly. The design of the site is focused entirely around the articles, specifically the headlines. Digg.com is an interesting idea that seems to function exactly how it means to function.
Posted at 13:44 #

ESPN
[espn.go.com...] -- I don’t really visit the ESPN Web site, but its often up on my computer for one reason or the other. And although I don’t sift through the football coverage, fantasy sports league offerings, video highlights, games, scores or schedules, I have noticed the design and layout of the Web site. At first glance, it’s a very organized page, the kind of layout that you might see in a newspaper. It has a focal image with the story underneath, linking to another page for the full story. Along the right side are news headlines in a hover bar that also contains “Rumor Central,” “Fantasy,” and “On ESPN TV.” This isn’t the only search bar though, there’s actually two more with over thirty options to links. Although this might help make the page less cluttered, it also seems like a lot of subjects and sub-subjects to be in a hover bar. So, that seems a little unnecessary. However, the rest of the page is organized using lots of images, some of them shifting after a few moments to another photo, which is linked to a different sports story. ESPN is able to fit a lot on its front page by organizing everything into boxes and links. Although the design is appealing, I’m not sure it’s the easiest Web site to navigate through.
Posted at 13:44 #

Post Secret
[www.postsecret.blogspot.com...] -- Post Secret is a blog that posts postcards that people send it to Frank Warren, the creator of the blog. Each postcard contains a secret that whoever sends it in, wants to share, but is afraid or nervous to actually confess. On the Web site, the only explanation is “PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard.” So, it’s an anonymous way to confess or share dreams, fears, mistakes, ect. with the world, but with no consequences or judgment. I think its purpose is to comfort and provide a space for people to feel connected. One person wrote that “PostSecret reminds us that we are never as alone as we feel. It shows us that we are all connected, whether we recognize it or not, and that the world is a more beautiful place than we give it credit for. And the most beautiful thing of all is the one thing that joins everyone who has ever submitted a secret together – courage. Because in the end, courage is where it all begins.” The PostSecret blog is simply a black back ground with photos of scanned or downloaded postcards and link to larger images of the postcards. Sometimes the confession is right on the postcard, other times there is a typed explanation of the secret below it. I think it’s a really interesting idea, however, some of the confessions are a little weird, frightening or just something you didn’t want to know about anybody – even if you don’t know who wrote it. There is little else on the site besides the postcards. There is only a link to their Facebook page and an interview with Reese Butler. You can get PostSecret news by entering in your e-mail address into a text input box.
Posted at 14:44 #

Planet Earth from the Discovery Channel
[dsc.discovery.com...] -- Planet Earth was an 11 part mini-series on The Discovery Channel that was amazing and now Disney is getting in on the earth love are putting out a feature film called “Earth” that follows migratory journeys of four animal families as well as the earth’s journey around the sun and its influence on life on the planet. But, the Planet Earth Web site is just as awe-inspiring as the cinematography in the mini-series. I like the black and blue colors that are featured on each site, especially with the main image of the earth on the home page. It looks very sleek along with the typography used for “Planet Earth.” The search bar at the top is highlighted really well. It’s not competing too much with the visuals on the home page. The links on the search bar are “animals up close”, “guide to the planet,” “video highlights.” “about the series,” “play the game,” and “buy the DVD.” So they’re all very straight forward, but not exactly the subjects or grouping I would have thought would be in the main search bar. Another feature of the search bar that I like is that when you scroll over one of the links, an explanation comes up. For example, when a viewer scrolls over “Animals close up” a dialogue box pops up saying, “Meet earth’s rare and endangered inhabitants.” It’s a feature that helps the viewer navigate through the Web site even better and for more specific things. One of my favorite parts of the page is the scrolling features box toward the bottom of the page. It plays through different links like: “Earth Live: track the planet’s movements, melts and more on our virtual globe,” and other links to news briefs and such.
Posted at 14:44 #

Ecophlog
[www.ecophlog.com...] -- Ecophlog is a phlog, which is unlike a blog, which promotes ecological green products and sustainable lifestyles. I’ve never really heard of a phlog but in looking into it, their page says that a phlog is similar to a blog but run via a Gopher protocol server. From what I’ve read, the gopher protocol doesn’t provide a way for users to update the content using the protocol itself, so the majority of phlogs that exist aren’t updated regularly. There are also limitations on how much you can publish and the ability for viewers to comment or add entries, so phlogs seem a little useless to me. The Ecophlog Web site is really simple looking, but in a contemporary, clean kind of way that one would associate with eco-friendly sites. The color palate is white, with green and gray accents. There is a search engine and a hover bar with links to the home page, archives, downloads, services, support and about. The Menu on the homepage also links to the home page (which is a bit redundant I think) and the About Us and Contact Us pages. There is one image on the homepage but it is rather small and is connected with an article link. I think the page could have more article links and images or visuals on it. Right now it looks really nice and professional, but there isn’t much on the actual Web site.
Posted at 14:44 #

Paper Cuts
[www.papercuts.blogs.nytimes.com...] -- Paper Cuts is a New York Times blog about books. It’s written by the editors of The Book Review and contains book news and opinion, interviews with writers, archives of The Book Review and other features. The layout is basically the same as The New York Times Web site because they host the blog in the Art & Design section of their online paper. It’s pretty simple to search through. The main page is the blog which contains reviews and opinions of books as well as some video and audio with writers. One featured recently on their blog was Toni Morrison discussing her new novel and the election of Barack Obama as President. I enjoy the brevity of the articles, some of the longer ones they just cut off and link to a page where the whole article exists. They also make sure to use graphics and images along the side of the blogs entries, which adds a nice visual aspect to the site. Other features on the blog are an Archive search by month and a Tag list of links to certain popular searches like: Poets, Eats, Science Fiction, Podcast, J.K. Rowling, Sports, ect. There is also a sub-search bar that contains links to the Best-Seller Lists and First Chapters, which is a page that has links to the first chapters of recently published and reviewed books. This seems like a really smart feature because it allows viewers to not only read reviews, but to read a little bit of the books featured on their own.
Posted at 14:43 #

Paste Magazine Web site
[www.pastemagazine.com...] -- Paste Magazine is a magazine mostly about music that I get monthly in the mail. However, in the latest issue they advertised their new online version of the magazine. Instead of subscribing to snail mail magazine subscriptions, you can subscribe online and still get the same amenities like sampler CDs and DVDs of music and performances. So I checked out their web site and, just like the magazine, its very well laid out and pretty trendy looking. I wasn’t a big fan of their use of a moving advertisement as the banner image of the Web site, but I thought the structure of Paste’s sight is designed just as professionally as the actual magazine. There is a search bar at the top that has the home page, news, features, reviews, blogs, calendar, an alphabetical search page and a page for their store. They have a floating column on the left with the “Most Read” “Most Listened” and “Most Watched” lists. The middle, main column has lead stories and photos running pretty far down the page. It seemed like they were trying to make the most of their home page, but it was kind of irritating to have to keep scrolling and scrolling to read the main stories. But, they have links to audio and video where you can listen to contemporary indie music or read tongue and cheek reviews of new/old music, movies, books, video-games, television shows, ect. Although Paste mostly concentrates on music, there is a lot more to their Web site.
Posted at 14:43 #

You Tube
[www.youtube.com...] -- I don't usually go on the You Tube website and spend hours mulling through the crazy, hilarious, and sometimes useful videos, but I know lots of people who do. Usually I just wait for someone to tell me what to look for on this website because it is so massive. When I know I can search just about anything I want and find hundreds of videos on the subject, I suddenly can't decide what I want to search for, and then I just start wasting my time. This website, because of how much information is on it, relies heavily on it's search bar. It helps that you can make your own account and have friends send you messages and videos. That feature also enables the website to predict what kinds of information you are typically watching or searching. They are always adding new features, so they keep those organized until visitors have noticed or grown accustomed to changes. The website provides a lot divided clearly. I just think there is typically so much info, so many links, and so many headlines that I'm not familiar with that I usually feel that I would need hours on end at this website, and, usually, I don't have that time.
Posted at 22:21 #

ABC
[www.abc.com...] -- For college students who have busy days and even busier nights, you can find a lot of your favorite TV shows on abc.com. Although it's convenient to have my favorite TV shows available to watch online, getting there is kind of a hassle. When you first go to ABC's website, some loud video always pops up. This is an irritation that I want to immediately stop. If I wanted to watch that clip about Dancing with the Stars I would have clicked on it. The home page is pretty organized with a bar at the top with links to a schedule of the week's line-up, a list of the shows and links to their websites, full episodes link (which is usually where I go first), and a community page. There are also links to daytime shows, mobile uploads, news, espn, and shopping opportunities. Besides the bar, the rest of the page is composed of photo and video links to specific television show pages, episodes and, of course, there are plenty of commercials and trailers on this website. Besides it being kind of visually and audibly overwhelming, the website serves its purpose.
Posted at 22:07 #

The Internet Movie Database
[www.imdb.com...] -- The Internet Movie Database has proved to be an extremely useful tool if you've ever forgotten the name of that one actor you just saw in that one show. It is easy to search through movies and while doing so, you can find links to even more interesting information about the particular film, the actors in it, the location, the history, as well as reviews, favorite quotes, and a brief synopsis. I think its pretty simple to navigate through the site, especially when you know what movie, show or actor you are thinking of. In terms of organization, IMDB is rather straightforward. You can search upcoming movies, movies in theater, movies that just came out, ect. As you move through each page, the website gets more narrow and detailed, which is more helpful than it getting bigger and less readable. In terms of design, the website isn't the nicest to look at. The design, color use, type, ect. seem a little outdated.
Posted at 21:55 #

The New York Times Website
[wwwt.thenewyorktimes.com...] -- I visit The New York Times website on a daily basis, mostly because its a fast and easy way to keep basically updated on what is going on in the world. They have the website organized really well, with the most timely and significant stories at the top of the page. They have bolded headlines and then a summary of the article underneath which helps you not only read a little of each story, but allows you to choose which one you might be more interested in reading. The page is arranged pretty neatly into lots of boxes. There is a sidebar on the left which allows you to pick and choose the pages of news you want to look at. After the top stories, there is a middle space for multi-media projects and stories. There are links to video, audio, and photo slideshows. Lastly there is a listing of all the day's articles under their specific pages. Its organized and easy to go back and forth between articles. I like the bar at the top that allows you to look at the most read, most e-mailed, most searched and most blogged about articles on the website. I think that's a fun little feature. Of course, the graphics and quality of images is always great. The only bad thing about this Website is the fact that there is so much information on it that I would never be able to go through a day's worth of news without spending that whole day doing it.
Posted at 21:06 #

MediaStorm
[mediastorm.org...] -- MediaStorm is a website that publishes multimedia storytelling of social documentary projects. It's creators mix photojournalism with audio and video to produce interesting, multifaceted stories. The website itself has a very clean and professional appearance. It is organized well with a menu bar at the top of the page. Underneath is moving text with pull-out quotes from stories featured on the website. The blog and multimedia projects themselves are filled with amazing photography that illustrate and emphasize the intense stories that are presented here.
Posted at 22:32 #