Blogrolls

This morning, I saw a magnificent image of sunlit snow during a storm from Yosemite by Michael Frye…

I found myself enjoying the challenges this image required of the photographer as well as the inevitably gorgeous changes light makes with varying assistance of magnificent Yosemite foregrounds.

And I realized, once again, blogrolls are an essential element on creating a good blog. William Neill mentioned new blogs he liked. As I am want to do, I checked them out and found that superb Yosemite image. I am thinking about similar shoots involving moonrise and moonset in a regional setting of surreal, other-world dimensions like Mars (The Bisti) – adding another complication to the long list of demanding photography requirements for outstanding images.

A blogroll is simply a website which contains a list of blogs which interest the blogger. Blogger (Google’s free blog service) provides an ability to name the blogroll, sort its applicability as to when the blog was published, and just how long ago that was. In effect, it provides a quick assessment tool for surfing the ever expanging blogosphere…
We find Google’s Blogger has really facilitated this function. Simply find a blog you like, copy the browser address to the clipboard, open Blogger in Draft, select the proper gadget (Blogroll), and add that blog to an ever changing list.

Huzzah, Google, Frye, and Neill – its already a good day…

Blog Rolls

Last summer, my digital horizons began expanding.  Quickly, I became aware there are good blogs, better blogs, and consistently top blogs.  Before I began blogging, I was using browser favorites to keep up with what was new.  It might take an hour per morning to browse, download the PDF, and read at some other time.  I didn't want to sign up for e-mail or RSS; it seemed better to download if I needed it rather than to have it crud up an already beleaguered hard drive.
Then I began constructing my own blog.  Some of its benefits included Blog Rolls (Blog List from Google gadgets), an automatic feature under Layouts.  One can create a series of blog rolls on the right-hand side of the blog.  So I began to include blogs; rather than calling them a dull thing like Blog Rolls, I could create my own names (Big Guy’s (Gal's) Blogs).

New Way Home...
I really enjoy Blog Rolls now; there's provider's name, title, and how long ago the provider put that blog on the net.  Now, it's like a dynamic Table of Contents – latest first.  If I like the title, I click on it - just that blog comes on my screen, then I save it to a PDF.  If one of the blogs runs a regular progression on a certain weekday, and it is a very long download, I click on the provider's name, go down to the blog, and make a PDF.

Now, each time I read a new blogger, I'll look through their blog rolls and add anyone of new interest to my list.  Pretty quickly, I find out if they are active bloggers - top bloggers (content and timeliness) sort to the top each day.
When I found Lightroom Forums, I subscribed to several threads.  Now, at a glance, I can see where the latest newbie is confused, then read a moderator's clearly explained fix.
Or, in several Lightroom specific blogs, I might find a tutorial example which clearly shows a complicated workflow like merging catalogs using snapshots of different panels.

Try it; you might really like Blog Rolls for your blog...
Or, simply use mine!