This post just evolved from a 5 minute post linking a site, to a long winded tangent about competition in photo blogging and then into three full paragraphs of ass kissing.  Sorry.

I was just talking to someone about how all the top blogs on the internet all link to each other and the community drives the traffic.  When I ran this site back in 2001 I was part of a community of bloggers that were posting weird videos and pictures and stuff.  We were sort of united by the fact that we were doing the whole blog thing before most people.  I got and sent a lot of traffic from a community.  Most of those people quit blogging or turned their sites in to porn sites.  So these days my site most easily falls into the category of a party photo blog although only about 1/3rd of my posts are party pictures.

The problem is there is no photo blogging community.  Everyone seems so competitive.  I get along with all the photographers in NYC, and I think we all get a long, but none of us is doing anything to support the other sites.  And I think people seem to get the idea that we must hate each other because I have people come up to me every day talking shit about other local photographers.  I hate hearing about it, and I rarely comment on this, but it just makes me think about all the shit that is talked about me and my site.  I think it is bullshit.

In the party blog game there are two big sites and everyone else is playing catch up.  And those guys aren’t linking anyone.  I think of all the party sites on the internet the only one who links me is Clayton Hauck and he is based out of Chicago.  (Jess links me, but he is more of a promoter/dj than he is a party photographer.)  Anyway, these sites are just not designed to be part of a web community.  And that is fine, I am not writing this because I want links, I am just pointing out the issues and my desire for some place to belong.  My only community is the adult networks that I have because of some of the Not Safe For Work nature of my site.  And while I appreciate that traffic, that is not quality traffic.  Those people are coming to jerk off, not to dig on my photos or read my shit.  So, I need to find some bloggers to take me under their wing.

Sorry, this has completely gone off topic.  The whole point of this was that I wanted to plug fellow  party blogger Nikola Tamindzic formerly of ambrel.net.  He is getting out of the party game, which in the spirit of aforementioned competition I guess is good for the rest of us since he pretty much murders everyone in the party blog game.  Nikola is a constant inspiration to me and he has started a new site whos RSS feed is now up at the top of my RSS Reader.   Welcome to the new Home Of The Vain.

Nikola has some times been derisive of the “copy cat” photo bloggers out there, and he certainly does not link other sites, but Nikola has always offered advise and support for what I am doing and I recently read an exceedingly long flickr thread about him in which he explained exactly how he does what he does.  He was giving the “copy cats” exactly what they needed to know to rip him off.  He is more than willing to help people take better photos, probably because even if they could do what he does, he could still do it better.

I think that in the year that I have been doing this night life thing I have gone from taking bullshit party photos, to bordering on something artistic.  In the last few months I have really become proud of the work I am doing, but nearly every shot that Nikola posts makes me jealous.  He makes event photography inspiring, he makes sleazy bathroom photography artistic, and I am glad to finally see some of his photos that weren’t taken south of 14th St.

Longest post ever.

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