An ostrich
Tweets to the world from the Chiang Mai Zoo in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand.
Photo ©
John Brown All Rights Reserved
Are you
Tweeting on Twitter? It seems that everyone, including photographers, is interested in sharing news and discussing hot topics on Twitter.
As
this post at the Online Journalism blog aptly puts it,
"It’s almost impossible to sum up
Twitter in one line. To some, it is a way of delivering content to mobiles as headline text alerts. To others, it’s a social networking tool for getting contacts and leads. Some use it as a research tool for developing stories; and still others as a project management tool to gather a number of contributors together."
Individual Photographers And TwitterIndividual photographers such as Tewfic el-Sawy at
the Travel Photography blog are
exposing the Twitter universe to their blogs so people can read what he has to say. Just the other day for example, he blogged his thoughts regarding
Gaia Photos, a newly formed
group of 51 photojournalists from around the globe who share a united mission of promoting quality and diversity in documentary photography worldwide. It's great stuff.
News About Giant Corporations And TwitterWhen CNET and others told the world that Microsoft was involved in some not so funny business regarding digital photo manipulation on a Microsoft subsidiary site in Poland, (a white head was placed over a black person's body although the hand was not changed)
Microsoft Tweeted their apology on Twitter.
While sitting
here in Third World Cambodia I felt the need to tell the world about Monsanto's morally bankrupt corporate culture,
I blogged about it to let you know and then I
Tweeted on Twitter that I had done so. I hope I disturbed a few Monsanto executives using
Mobile Safari on a small screen at a swanky Wall Street restaurant in New York.
Who And What You Will Find On TwitterAll the usual suspects that focus on photography are there of course. Folks such as
Photo District News,
Magnum Photos and
Photo News Today just to mention a few. If you're a photojournalist researching a specific subject or geographic location try
Tweetscan for key words (e.g. “health”, “NHS”) and then try
Twits Like Me to find people with similar interests (based on what you’ve twittered).
Clearly, Twitter is a great first step in mining for information before you start
your social book-marking process.
Your Photographs & Multimedia On TwitterAs the Online Journalism blog explains,
TwitPic allows you to send images from your phone and not only posts links straight to your Twitter account but allows people to post comments that are then posted on their own Twitter page (with a link to the photo).
Mobypicture does something similar.
TwitterSoap is a mashup of Mobypicture and Twitter.
SnapTweet posts your latest Flickr picture to Twitter.
Autopostr.com does much the same.
Twiddeo allows you to do the same with video.
Twixxer does both photo and video sharing.
Start ConnectingIf you are new to Twitter, you might want to start connecting by following this random "grab bag" of photographers to try it out. From African based photographers such as
Aida Muluneh and
Rushay Booysen to me,
John Brown right here in Cambodia, you'll probably
find a tweet that interests you. Here are some others:
Qiana Mestrich,
Greg Ponder,
Jesse Wright,
Mike Fox,
Matt Lutton and even
A Photo Student!
The Future For PhotographersLet's face facts. Few photographers have ever formed "cooperative and generous places where ideas, energy and goods are equally shared in order to produce intellectual and material improvements for the members." That's what a Magnum photographer "romantically" thought the culture of the famed photo agency would be about but has since learned, "I shouldn’t be romantic, shut my big mouth and be happy with what I can get."
Nevertheless, proceeding single-handedly won't be as financially rewarding as collaborating with other photographers in the future and besides, this misguided strategy has enabled everyone from stock houses to photography's end users successfully "divide and conquer" photo practitioners at all levels.
For example, I've yet to see a large group of photographers banded together in the way
more than 1,300 Michigan people use the Twitter network to send messages to one another and the world. Most photographers,
including me, are slogging alone on their individual promotional paths.
My advice to photographers? Don't bury your head in the sand. Stand up, unite and
TWEET on TWITTER!John Brown Photojournalist On LIGHTSTALKERSMy Mondo Library PhotographyMy Photoshelter Photography Archive Homepage
