The Phoblographer

One year ago on December 28th 2009, I sat on my bed and said to myself, “I’m tired of being unemployed and unproductive. And so I started ThePhoblographer.com, and it has taken off in ways that I haven’t even thought were possible for a site started on a Macbook, on my bed, while in my pajamas. It’s been a crazy year and the staff and site have evolved. There are even more changes to come (like us moving to a faster server and a slight redesign and better search bar.) I’m straying off the topic though: here are the top 20 postings of the past year according to WordPress (though our other analytics have different numbers.)

Which One Should I Buy: Canon 60D? T2i? or 7D?		75,771
Which One Should I Get?: Canon S95 vs Panasonic LX-5K		49,050
The Best Budget Lenses		32,752
Hands On: Nikon D3100, D7000 and the SB-700 Speedlight		25,019
The Canon 7D vs Nikon D300s In Shooting Concerts		24,955
Hands on and Hands Off: Olympus EPL-1		22,710
Hands-On: Canon S95		20,117
The Ultimate Wedding Photography Checklist		17,774
What Would You Do With a Lens This Long?		17,022
Leica V-LUX 20 Review Based on The Panasonic ZS-7		15,545
Long Term Test: Canon 7D Vs Nikon D300s		14,608
Hands On: Sony A55, A560 and 24mm F2 ZA SSM		14,473
The Complete Canon PowerShot S95 Review		14,162
Field Test: Apple iPhone 4 Camera		12,919
4 Reasons Why You Should Get the Leica D-LUX 5 vs Panasonic LX-5		12,815
Pentax K-5 Beats Out Canon 5D Mk II, 7D, Nikon D700, D300s		12,227
Canon Announces 60D and Lens Updates		11,702
Hands On Review: Panasonic ZS-7		10,923
Lens Sharpness Test: Sony 16mm F2.8 vs Panasonic 20mm F1.7		10,726
The Worst Excuses I’ve Ever Heard For Not Wanting to Pay a Photographer Appropriately		10,165

Reader Sara Emanuel sent in some images to Thephoblographer, asking how to capture some images of colorful lights strung in tress: her images either had burnt-out white lights or a lack of detail in the background, and she wasn’t happy with either.

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One of the most important things to think about in landscape photography is your image’s location. It does not matter if your location is a super secret spot or a national park. It is important to find a vista that can make an interesting photo. It may take a little research, a walk around your town, or looking in your backyard, but before you compose your image, you have to find it.

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A little over a year ago today, I sat on my bed, after having left Photography Bay’s staff and the paparazzo agency I worked for, with my Macbook on my lap and I told myself, “I’m sick of being unemployed and unproductive.” I had recently graduated college and felt that as soon as I stopped overpaying for tuition that they had cut me off from all sources of finding employment.

So I started looking for more freelance writing and shooting, and so, I built a blog.

Today, at exactly around 10:28PM, The Phoblographer was born. It started on Blogger first and then I moved it to WordPress all in a matter of one night. As the Editor in Chief and founder of this site, we’ve managed to achieve a Google Pagerank of 5 and an Alexa score of, “only 113,000 in the world” as one source stated that offered to rent our content. I’ve had three private offers to buy the site so far and I’ve turned them all down.

We’ve evolved: from the days where I used to write all postings, to bringing on Vincent Pastore, to moving onto publishing on weekends as well, to the powerhouse of a staff we’ve got already. And we’re only still growing. We’ve had a wonderful year: we’ve made Gizmodo, Engadget, Petapixel, and the SEO skills of this team are probably the reason why the rumors sites link in so often (I don’t know you cryptic dudes, but thanks.)

The Phoblographer has carved out our own niche: our Field Reviews examine products in the way that they’re supposed to be used. Our tips and features break terminology down into a down to earth format so that the average person can understand them, and we understand you.

With this said, I’d like to thank you, the readers. Without many of you, we wouldn’t be here today and I’ve honestly never thought that there could have been a bunch of folks out there on the interwebs that are as kind as you all are.

So one last time and from the bottom of my heart (and even that isn’t enough): thank you for your kindness and continued support. You’ve put tears of joy and happiness in my eyes as I have written this and reflected back on the year that I’ve had.

With rumors of a new Apple iPadstarting to gain traction on the interwebs, it was thrown out to me by Phoblographer’s Grand Poobah Gampat that I, as the resident iPad lover, should write about what a photographer wants from the next iteration of the iPad.

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Earlier last year, I tried the Sony A55pellicle mirror camera—and I liked it! Everyone in the industry touted it as cutting edge and breakthrough technology. On a different note, there were also lots of consumers saying that they were going to wait and see what Canon and Nikon were going to come out with (as they say with mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras.) Well, I’ve uncovered information hinting towards a Canon version a while back, but kept very quiet about it because I wanted to see the new technology that may be coming out: and I have seen good things. Here is how Canon will try to kill the Sony A55.

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