Some more images have been uploaded to the test version of the Hetq Online Photoblog. I’ve also been thinking on ideas that I’ve had in the past regarding using a photoblog effectively as a way to draw attention to related information. Given that this is a Hetq Photoblog, that means linking to articles on stories and issues depicted in the photographs.

The above photograph is an example of that, and now contains a link to an article on the main Hetq site about some of the thousands of families that still live in domiks in Gyumri, Armenia’s second largest city. Another example can be found with this photograph of Yerevan rock band MDP performing at the British Embassy Sponsored Rock the Referendum event. It links to more photographs taken during the period of the vote.

I sometimes wonder if the difference between online publications and blogs won’t disappear and actually merge in the future, and certainly I’d like to see Hetq Online move in that direction, allowing more avenues into information via either the article itself, a blog by the journalist, or by the photographer. Readers are then able to comment on the article, correct possible mistakes, or offer their own opinion.

Already some sites are following this direction even if they haven’t yet transformed their sites into something more sophisticated based on blogging software.

Katy over at Blogrel makes a good case for the use of web-based databases/storage areas such as Flickr, and she’s right in some ways. However, as branding has been mentioned recently with regards to taking blogs to a new level, I personally don’t favor this approach. The main reason for choosing Wordpress over sites such as Flickr was simply that I am afforded more flexibility in personalizing and customizing the photoblog.

I’d also like to expand the idea and set up a normal Hetq blog, helping Hetq’s journalists post background info and personal opinions on how and why they followed a particular story if it wasn’t mainstream news at the time. I can also more easily post accounts of my own experience behind the lens, and both blogs can then link to any completed photostories or articles.

Here, using software such as Wordpress are the only way to integrate all three and keeping in style with the product brand.

No doubt that Flickr fits the definition of what a photoblog is at the simplest of levels, but it lacks the ability to personalized and expanded in the future, and while it does enable a simple search for all photographs related to a particular subject, there’s no doubt that most serious photographers will be looking elsewhere in the future, or simply use Flickr as a glorified storage area for including in their own blogs stored elsewhere.

The main problem, however, is that many users simply upload too many images and seldom take care in editing down their selections. This is why I think that other sites such as http://photoblogs.org/ are more desirable portals to the world of photoblogging. In a sense, we are going through the same phase that the web did in around 1996 when large organizations and professionals established a more thought out presence on the Internet.

Prior to that, the situation was too anarchic and often, the quality of information was questionable.

Nevertheless, both approaches are necessary, but it’s only a matter of time before the most succesful blogs are those that are thought out and constructed in ways that most online publications are. That means design, typography, editing, photoediting and something that many blogs still fail to do, linking to sources of further information that can also provide a context to simpler posts on specific issues.

And while the BBC chose something close to blogging to supplement its traditional reporting on the summer bomb blasts in London, ordinary citizens used blogs to send news out and the use of camera phones made headline news. In this case, Flickr really showed its potential as a searchable database of images.

Flickr, the online photo sharing website, has also started to see images from people of the blasts.

A search for “London” reveals one image of the shredded London bus. Others include screenshots of TV news reports and general crowd scenes.

Groups are being set up to pool all the photos which are “tagged” with words such as “explosions”, “bomb” and “London”. Tagging makes it easier for people to find relevant photos.

A good friend in London, Edmond Terakopian, even wrote a personal account of his feelings as he photographed the news that day for Associated Press for The Digital Journalist.

There must have been around 20 photographers waiting to photograph the world’s largest uncut diamond. I was waiting patiently, macro lens and lights in hand, for my turn. As I contemplated getting a coffee, my phone rang; it was the Press Association office, for whom I was working. “There’s been an explosion at Aldgate East tube station. Get there. They’re saying it’s a power surge.” I caught everyone’s attention as I started to pack away my gear. Slowly, the others began to get calls.

I got in my car with a friend from AP and we started making our way as quickly as traffic allowed. The phone rang, “There’s been a second explosion at Edgware Road tube. Go there instead as you’re closer.” My heart sank. This was no longer an accident as originally thought. How can there be two explosions on the tube in the same morning? I knew it must be terrorism. I began to think of 9/11. The first plane could have been an accident …

If only Edo’s personal web site could turn into a hybrid of a means to present his work to potential picture editors and a way for him to detail his feelings or experience behind the camera. Already I’ve tended to ignore my own personal web site and have fast become a blogging-addict.

It’s also worth looking at the recent Eurasianet Photoblog covering the parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan, itself part of special coverage by the online publication to cover the elections in Azerbaijan. This represents a perfect example of how electronic media can incorporate photoblogging to supplement its more traditional content.

Would have been nice to have also incorporated blogging by journalists, civil society activists and politicians as well to fully appreciate the potential for encouraging open discussion on specific issues.

Notice, however, that key to the success and effectiveness of the Eurasianet photoblog was not posting hundreds or even thousands of images, but rather, selecting the best and posting those. Sometimes in this new digital world it is too easy to favor quantity over quality. This, in my opinion, represents the fine line between supplying content and confusing, distracting and ultimately failing to communicate to people.

Anyway, to end this rant on blogging — something I was very cynical towards in the past mainly because of the low quality of the Armenian blogosphere — I want to point readers to one of my favorite photoblogs by Clay Enos. He seems to have understood the importance of blogging, utilizing as most of us do a blogging platform (Blogspot), Flickr, and his personal site. Check it out at http://clayenos.blogspot.com/.

One final example is In the Hot Zone, a photoblog by Kevin Sites that’s sponsored by Yahoo. This represents the best example for the potential of real photoblogging, but requires a more sophisticated setup than Flickr. It also probably needs a team of people in order to function.

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone is news reporting for the new millennium - a nexus of backpack journalism, narrative story-telling techniques, and the Internet, designed to reach a global audience hungry for information.

Perhaps it’s even a sign of how internet-based news reporting might look in the future. Certainly, when people outside of Armenia are generally only confronted with images of churches, stone crosses and other “feel-good” photographs from inside the Republic I at least hope the Hetq Photoblog can present a more realistic image, and that means striking a more representative balance.

In the meantime, check out photoblogs from around the world at http://www.photoblogs.org/countries/.