When Twitter, Now X,  first appeared, I felt like many others that I did not need to know how someone I was following was enjoying breakfast.

But I began to tweet almost daily, and each tweet had an image attached. What these tweets became was a visual diary of images that are special to me.

On this page, I have included only pictures from tweets from one month. I have published 18 others during the month, but the images selected here show the variety of my subject matter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In my career, photography was a way to share experiences with an audience, and publishing in National Geographic magazine guaranteed millions of viewers worldwide.

In the global, networked community of today, the Internet is a nascent communications tool, which provides expanding opportunities for us to share information and experiences. We have the opportunity to re-define how stories are communicated or published; hence, the visual diary.

There are many ways to use social media to publish. Facebook, blogs, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and TicTok are some of the current opportunities. As a photographer, I could use those that feature photography as an integral part of the published piece.

 

However, I have been avoiding social media, for several reasons.

I used to think that If users of Facebook and Instagram who were “friends” or followers saw my images on these platforms that they would come to my website and I would be able to sell them the rights to use those photographs or convince them to buy prints of images on my website.

We call driving traffic to the site “social media integration” or “translation”.  What I found was that no one came to my site from any social media.

I found out that 75 percent of the Instagram users were not in the United States and that the majority were under thirty (read few financial resources).  I would receive 35K “likes”, but many would take screen shots and steal the images.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My YouTube channel is filled with themed slideshows of images from around the world – Cuba, Patagonia. Venice, Peru, Tanzania – as well as workshops where student work is featured.

I now have  blog where I explore photographic subjects of interest.

 

My blog (you are reading one) about many things, from instructional tutorials to items such as photographic exhibits that I have recently seen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am an inexorable photographer. I find that it keeps me alert to the world around me, and through my images I try to make sense of it all.