I have been a Flickr user for two years now. I joined in March 2009 and instantly got my self an pro Account. First I used Flickr solely for Instant sharing of Screenshots or some (not many) photos. Than I started to grow my online Portfolio at CHRISSP.com. Doing that I scheduled photos every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to be published automatically to the Portfolio CHRISSP.com and to my Flickr account with no description and just a plain title saying the date and the time the photo was taken. The result was: I got just a few views per day (if any).

Thad made me a little upset some times! I thought why are you doing this? Why are you uploading to Flickr? Is there a way to improve that? And now since I stopped the automatic scheduling of my Portfolio due to some reconstructions of the way I want to present my Photography online, I also rethought the Flickr Publishing part.

Some weeks ago I started to upload one photo to Flickr each day. Give the photo a detailed Title, Description, Tags and add the Photos to Set’s and Groups at Flickr. The first few days the impact was not that great but I was able to see a change and kept going.

Now I am still doing it this way. Today was the first time I hit 500 views on just one day at my Flickr account. I have more Flickr contacts now and get more comments which is great. I am also commenting more and participate in the community more. Overall the experience improved. Flickr is a great service for photographers to get reviews of their images. To share them and eventually get work through that (or the photos sold).

Overall my resume is that I am going to keep publishing to Flickr and to try to get my self up there. Maybe I will get into explore someday?

If you are interested:
My Photography Portfolio: CHRISSP.com
My Facebook Page: Facebook – CHRISSP.com – Photography
My Photography Twitter: @CHRISSPphoto
My Flickr Account: Flickr.com/cspiegl

I usually do not blog about blogging that much. This time I want to write a post about the book Problogger written by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett.

The original version was the one which was published in 2008 and it was a success story for its own. The two wrote a book which really kinda took most aspects of blogging and described the way you can start blogging yourself. Overall it really is a step by step guide though the different aspects of writing online. How to present yourself and what not to do.

Now they have a new version out—published the 29th of April 2010. Which tries to tell you exactly how to launch, write and keep a blog running to make money online (even though I think that many do not intend to make money through it). I can recommend this book. It is a easy read and not just good for people who are new to blogging but also to people in the scene, for me it was a refresher on many areas of blogging which I nearly forgot.

Affiliate Links:

• ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income (Germany, Taschenbuch)
• ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income (USA, Paperback)

Some month ago I read through this book. And normally I need month to finish a book like that. But Delivering Happiness was a blast and I finished it in just one week!

The way Tony Hsieh writes is great, he gives a lot of insights in his personal development and bio. Also he gives great insights how the companies for which he worked work and how they implement the conzept of Delivering Happiness to the Customer, the Client, the Partner and the Employee.

I think this book is a mustered for business people, especially for entrepreneurs and also for freelancer since the tips and tricks named in this book do not just apply to big companies like Zappos!.

Affiliate Links:

• Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose (Germany, Hardcover Book)
• Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose (Germany, Taschenbuch)
• Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose (USA, Hardcover Book)

I am writing this blog at least twice a week since the end of 2008. I wrote over 200 articles over that time and I am proud that I mostly stuck to my plan—sometimes I was late by a day and I gave my self one or two breaks for vacations. I than in September 2009 started a 365 Project with my iPhone and just a couple month later in January 2010 I also started a Self-Portrait 365 Project. The iPhone 365 is finally over and I am just about 50 shots before the Self-Portrait 365 ends. All that will relief me somehow. I am sick of sticking to this ‘you have to shoot’!

But in addition to that I am also sick of having plans around me. I am going to stop writing this blog on the two posts per week schedule by the end of this year. I do not know how long this break will be and how much I will post during this break but I will give my self this break. Especially since I have my final exams in Mai 2011. I have to reschedule and get my self a little more discipline for school.

Overall I think that those plans can somehow lock your creativity. I am sometimes late with posting on here. I am sometimes uninspired and you can see that on what I write. And after the 365: you can see which photos have something special and inspiring and which are just plain ‘take the shot’ photos. I am looking forward to the end of the year! I am looking forward to the new and what will come than.

Movies or TV-Series. I know a couple of people who really enjoy watching a TV-series every week—or even daily. Some buy the whole Season on DVD and watch them one part after another. Most Series do not have an end. Some seem to be never ending, some have a defined end and some get discussed weather to continue or not after the current season was streamed. But what the Series all have in common is that they need your attention, they want to chain you into the story. They want you to want to watch the next episode and in conclusion: that needs your time — much of it!

Over the course of my interest in life-style design there are many who discuss weather you need a TV or not. I think the discussion is not weather you need a TV but more about how you use the TV or the content that comes through it. My take on the whole thins is the following:

First of: I think TV-Series are evil! I tend to enjoy some and that is kinda scary, cause I also tend to fall for them and have this feeling of: I want to watch the next episode. Currently I am pretty good at holding my self back. Some evening I lay my self down in front of the TV and switch it on, watch one episode of whatever I chose and just enjoy this one episode, currently I am am very good in not wanting to watch all the other episodes that would come afterwards. But overall my argument is that movies are much better! Movies are longer (per ‘episode’) but most of the time they are closed stories.

Movies are the way to go! In January I tried something: I tried to watch 31 movies in 31 days. I actually made it. And I kept the habit of doing a statistics about the movies I watched till today and I will continue further but what is interesting: in the beginning of the year I nearly daily watched one movie. And if I have a look at the past 4 weeks: I watched less movies than before and if I watched a movie the percentage of movies watched in cinema is much higher!

Conclusion!

TV is not evil. The TV-Series are evil. The movies are the way to go and the right does is what you need to figure out!

If you have something that you enjoy more than watching a movie: you will not have the desire to watch as many movies / TV!

Well there is something that keeps me thinking. It is some time ago that I read everything about apple, all the news that hit the internet and there have been many. It is some time now that I stopped doing that. I am not even reading one ‘Apple only’ related blog. I am sure I will get all the information I need through Twitter. And if I get it a couple days later? Who cares?

One problem that came with this Apple Fanboy Addiction was that I wanted an iPhone the moment they presented the 1st generation. Than in-between I decided that I actually do not need one and eventually with the iPhone 3GS I was soled and got my self a new phone—the iPhone. I was happy, I used it, I thought I would need it. Now I think differently.

Some time ago I got to know that Tim Ferriss has his own approach to Smartphones. He does not want to have one with a constant internet connection in his pocket. And that is exactly what the iPhone is: a smartphone with way to many functions which has a constant internet connection. The problem that comes with it is that I am constantly checking on Twitter and eMail even though I probably know that nobody wrote anything. I am ruining many moments doing that!

Sometimes I am good at holding my self back and not checking Twitter. But most of the time if there is a moment of ‘nothing to do right now’ I will pull out my iPhone and do exactly what I do not want to do: check Mail or Twitter.

That is why I wish my iPhone contract would end as early as possible! There are still over 7 or 8 month left! I do not know what to do with those, probably I am just going to hold my self back a little more and be disciplined with the usage of the steady checking. After that I will for sure change my contract or go all the way to contract free phone! I will probably keep the iPhone but with out a internet connection—except the WiFi!

The idea: Give myself just a couple of months to achieve these goals, then reassess in January, when I am in the middle of good habits!

~ Josh Janssen

New goals are reserved for January first right? But why? Josh Janssen wrote a nice article about that and started three goals just on the 20th of October! Just like I did with my iPhone 365 Project which was started the 31st September 2009 and finished the same date 2010.

Just put the goals in place when you have the idea.

Today I would like to take the time and shift the focus of my posting from mostly ‘life’ related stuff to my passion in photography and to some people I currently discovered on the wide web.

The First Discovery: Joey L.

A young aspiring photographer who already had very famous people in front of his lense. Even though he keeps shooting own projects in India and Ethiopia. Look at his portfolio and you will be astound!

The Second Discovery: Lara Jade

Another very young photographer worse mentioning and admiring is the fashion photographer Lara Jade. She shot the New York Fashion week and shot many magazine covers.

The Third Discovery: Chase Jarvis

A photography and videographer with a whole studio behind him, a giant data-storage logistics and the desire to share experiences. Chase Jarvis does a great job with videography and photography in ad-campains, life-style photography and sports. He also blogs with some amazing behind the scenes videos and tutorials.

This was It

Currently I am very much into photography — especially since I have the new iMac with much more power to edit — and it is interesting to watch the work of great people. I am also again very active at Flickr commenting and looking on others works. Maybe this can help me improve and get my photography out there.

My Photography can be found at:

There is something about desks that is very important for me: I am spending a lot of time in front of it so I want it to be beautiful and clean. Now I started to share my desk a long time ago (actually the first time I posted about it was in February 2009). Finally there are some changes made and some new stuff added, which I am really exited about.

If you want to have a look at the evolution of my desk head over to the special site here at the blog: Workspace.

Now to the new one and what I have changed. It is the floor, the wall and the stuff on the desk!

First I got rid of the wallpaper and painted the walls plain white. Than the floor: there is some parquet laid out now. And the top of the desk: I minimalised it! I no longer have 3 screens but instead I added the giant 27″ iMac with a quad-core i5 inside with crazy 2.8GHz CPU power, 4GB DDR3 ram (which I may pump up to 12GB some time the next weeks, or maybe christmas) and maybe even more important a 1GB ATI graphic-card which is much faster than the one of my previous MacBook (bought in 2007). All I have to say is that it is awesome to finally have a full-HD screen and some horsepower to get work done faster. It is a blast!

Now to the interesting Stuff: Some Photos of the Setup!