Top 10 Web Design Tips

This has been out there for a while, so it's not really new, but Jakob Nielsen has updated his "Top 10 Mistakes in Web Design." Good reading if you're about to build (or rebuild) your web pages.

He's done this for a few years - see the 2005 version, the 2003 version, the 2002 version, the 1999 version and the 1996 version (I admit to having violated #7 in 1996 - I was young and arrogant).

Karen Ballard talks about photographing Sadam Hussein's arraignment

Photojournalist Karen Ballard was chosen to photograph the arraignment of Saddam Hussein six months after he was found in a spider hole. In a video posted on PhotographyChannel.tv, she talks about what happened that day and some of her impressions.

Camera wonks or photographers?

Some of you already know of my affection for "elitist" cameras (like my recently departed Leica, the last of my usable film cameras ... *sigh*). But I hope I have always stressed the importance of the tool only in relationship to the final product - that the image is what matters most.

There's a comic strip out there and today's edition brings to mind all those photographers on some forums who like to talk more about gear than great images. I've been a fan of Aaron Johnson's "What the Duck" since discovering it a few months ago. Spend some time reading through the archives, well worth an hour of your time. (No relation, by the way.)

Arm Wrestling

During our UGA Weekend Photojournalism Workshop we heard many of the editors cajoling us to use longer lens, to get away from the wide angle zooms and explore the beauty of the 70-200 mm lens. Scott Lewis has posted an audio slideshow from the 2005 Arm Wrestling Championships that has some great, tight, indoor images - a good model on how you can use long glass to get to real emotion and impact.

Gmail Paper

Google has a beta program to print all of your Gmail correspondence and mail it to you. Attachments? Those, too - and if you're emailing photos around, then you'll get those printed on high quality paper.

Limited time offer, I suspect - just today.

Skills journalism students NEED

I kind of feel bad about stealing so many things from Mindy McAdams' blog, but she's so friendly I hope she doesn't mind too much ...

So here's another post of hers that journalism students Must Read - it's a look at "The Changing Skill Set for Journalists."

How blogs get ranked by Google

Google, if you weren't aware, indexes and ranks blogs like they do everything else on the web. (Can they rank produce vendors? I can't find good apples in Georgia.) Mindy McAdams put up a link to a blog entry by Danny Sanchez on how the rankings work.

(For what it's worth, Technorati ranks blogs by popularity - you're reading the 1,883,223rd most popular blog on the web.)