Last Week to Submit to JPG Issue 8
Just a thought from 24 November 2006 about JPG Magazine.

There's just a few days left to submit to JPG Magazine Issue 8 on the themes Tourist, Intimate, and Embrace the Blur. Published photographers get a hundred bucks and a year's subscription - and if you're published in Embrace the Blur, you'll also get a Lensbaby 3G! So what are you waiting for? Here are mine.

Subscribe to JPG Magazine!
Just a thought from 11 November 2006 about JPG Magazine.

After over two years of publishing, just under two months of life on the new site, and two weeks of really hard work, I'm thrilled to say that subscriptions to JPG Magazine are now available!

Subscriptions cost $24.99 for six issues a year in the US. It's a little more pricey for international shipping, but we've made it as affordable as possible. (Pesky shipping!) In addition to the basic 1-year subscription, we're also offering two other packages that include a gift box filled with goodies: a copy of Issue 7, some stickers, and an awesome JPG pocket ultra-pod.

I've been using my JPG tripod for a couple weeks and it's great. It stands up to my heavy gear like a champ, and still folds up small enough to fit in my camera bag. We think these gift boxes are a great deal, and the perfect gift for the photographer in your life ... especially if that's you!

Oh, and one more thing: As a special thank-you for all my peeps, here's a $5-off coupon. Subscribe with this link and it's just 19.99 (in the US). That's how much a single issue used to cost. Cool, huh?

Our little magazine is all growed up. Sniff.

Magazine Thinking: A Tale of Three Communities
Just a thought from 31 October 2006 about Internet, JPG Magazine, Magazines.

One of the many gifts of our increasingly networked world is the diminishing boundaries between communities. And the magazine business is about to get hit by a boundary-blurring tidal wave.

It's already started. What's the difference between NBC and Joe Everynerd on MySpace or YouTube? They're all just usernames - each with an equal chance of getting seen. The traditional roles of content creator and consumer have been irrevocably blurred.

Magazines, on the other hand, still have very high walls between their writers and readers. The writers and editors enjoy the illusion that they do something no one else can. The readers, then, have only one job: to consume the product.

But if the internet has taught us anything, it's that the world is full of people who know a lot more than you do about something.

Continued at the 8020 blog. »

Vote for JPG Issue 7 Now
Just a thought from 5 October 2006 about JPG Magazine, Photography, Photos.

The submission period for Issue 7 of JPG Magazine has just ended, but you can still vote for another week. Get your vote on in Big, Self-portraiture, and Hometown! Here are my submissions.

And submissions are now open for the first theme in Issue 8: Tourist. Let's see your best travel shot!

Will Post for Money
Just a thought from 22 September 2006 about Blogging, Internet, JPG Magazine, Technology.

Or: Consumer-Made Media and the Almighty Buck

Jason Calacanis is the P.T. Barnum of the weblog world. Barnum took a hirsute woman and turned her into The Bearded Lady. Calacanis took something as banal as paying writers to write and turned it into An Issue That Must Be Discussed. And I'm glad, because it is.

If you don't know the story, here's a recap. Calacanis sold Weblogs Inc, a network of topical blogs, to AOL for a staggering amount of money. Then he was put in charge of netscape.com, another AOL purchase, which was once the most visited site on the web but had since been micromanaged into a wasted wreck of pointless marketing nonsense. Calacanis announced that he was simply going to clone the tech news darling Digg. And then he did.

The new Netscape differentiated itself from Digg in three key ways: It was uglier, it worked against its own bottoms-up process by pegging stories approved by staffers at the top of the page, and they started paying the top contributors.

Continue reading “Will Post for Money” »

JPG 2.0
Just a thought from 18 September 2006 about JPG Magazine.

Exactly two years ago today, JPG Magazine began with a simple mission to honor the amazing work coming out of the online photographic community. Today, after six issues, on JPG's 2nd birthday, JPG has been reborn.

Everything is new. You can now create a membership and upload your photos. Members can directly create the magazine by submitting their work, and voting for other members' submissions. And then there's the magazine itself: bigger, fatter, less expensive, more often, and, soon, subscribeable.

I feel like what I imagine fathers feel like: Proud, happy, exhausted, and in desperate need of a nap and a shower.

But enough about me. Go see the new baby.

JPG Issue 6 is here!
Just a thought from 17 July 2006 about JPG Magazine.

Whether it was faulty settings, old film, the random photo on the last frame of film, or the last photo a camera ever took, issue 6 features some of the finest slip-ups, freak-outs, and happy accidents ever captured on film or pixels. We're also joined by featured photographer Rion Nakaya, who shares some of her favorite serendipitous moments, and Ryan Gallagher, to talk about camera tossing. Check it!

JPG Issue 5 Published
Just a thought from 25 March 2006 about For Sale, JPG Magazine, Photography.

Tonight Heather and I published Issue 5 of JPG Magazine. This issue was a real labor of love for us.

The "Photography is Not a Crime" theme is very close to our hearts, and something we talked about a year ago when we were first starting the magazine. We left submissions for this issue open twice as long as usual, and it took twice as long to produce.

It's full of stories about photography, brushes with the law, and helpful information for photographers who get hassled. Most of the photos come with little stories of getting yelled at for shooting, or bending the rules to get the shot. Together, they paint a portrait of some of the darker corners of the life of a photographer.

Continue reading “JPG Issue 5 Published” »

JPGs in the Wild
Just a thought from 4 January 2006 about JPG Magazine, Photography, Photos.

JPG Magazine Issue 4 has been out for a couple weeks now, and the contributors are just starting to get their copies in the mail. This week, two of them took their copies out into the wild and photographed their subjects again with the magazine. And, honestly, it's shit like this that makes this project so much fun.

By Deborah Lattimore

By Dockmaster

Wanna play? Submit to Issue 5 now! Also new in JPG, the Year One Box Set is on sale now. Rock!

New in JPG Magazine
Just a thought from 4 December 2005 about For Sale, JPG Magazine, Photography.

Heather and I just put the finishing touches on some great new stuff for JPG Magazine.

JPG Magazine Issue 4: No Theme is now available! For the final issue of our first year, we decided to take a break from the usual theme. We just asked for your best photos of 2005. And we got 'em!

Inside issue 4 you'll find 35 amazing photographs, an interview with Youngna Park and Zach Klein about their "Candy Cane for Your Portrait" project, and a set of brilliant lomos by featured photographer, Kevin Meredith.

We've also announced the theme for Issue 5: Photography is Not a Crime. In a post 9/11 age of paranoia and suspicion, public photography has become threatening, even criminal. And we here at JPG are sick of it.

For Issue 5, we're asking you to go out in public and take photos. Insist on your rights as a photographer. Shoot where people tell you not to. And, of course, send the best one to us. Submissions are open now until January 15, 2006.

I suspect that I am part of a teaser campaign
Just a thought from 10 August 2005 about Flickr, Internet, JPG Magazine, Photography.

Today I received two very special surprises in the mail. Inside was the first glimpse of the dream of every Flickr user with more than a few photos online: If only I could order prints. Well, it looks like, very soon now, you'll be able to.

(Full disclosure: My wife, the lovely and talented Heather Powazek Champ is Flickr's community manager. And Flickr was started by Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield, who are dear friends of ours. I'm told that none of those things are why I received these surprises. They are, however, several of the reasons I consider myself a lucky, lucky man.)

The first surprise was a huge envelope with a 13x19 print inside. The print is a large grid of thumbnails from a seemingly random assortment of my Flickr photos. It reminded me a lot of the grid of photos I made of the first year of Ephemera, except with more whitespace.

The print quality is good - not as good as the prints I make at home on the Epson 1280, but nearly so. The paper is high quality and it looks great hanging on the wall.

Continue reading “I suspect that I am part of a teaser campaign” »

Heather and I on Lulu
Just a thought from 3 May 2005 about Fun, JPG Magazine, Photography, Photos, Powazek.

Jason took this fabulous photo of Heather and I to help promote JPG Magazine. It's currently in rotation on the Lulu homepage. Hooray!

Get Lost!
Just a thought from 11 April 2005 about JPG Magazine, Photography, Powazek.

The second issue of Heather's and my labor of love photo maagazine has been published!

Issue 2 of JPG Magazine, the quarterly of brave new photography, is here! Inside you'll find 43 photographic interpretations of the word "lost." Also includes a set of powerful portraits by featured photographer Ryan Keberly of Detroit's disposessed, as well as an interview with Adriene Hughes, who is using photography in her battle with cancer. This issue of JPG Magazine paints a new picture of what it means to be lost ... and found.

The magazine is 62 pages (ten more than last issue!) and looks a little something like this inside. More Info & Buy »

Party Friday Night!
Just a thought from 23 February 2005 about Art, Event, JPG Magazine, Photography, Powazek, San Francisco.

Me and the lovely wife have some photos up in our neighborhood cafe and we're having a little wine and cheese opening. The event also doubles as a launch party for our new photo magazine, JPG. Please come celebrate with us!

When: This Friday, February 25, 6-8pm.
Where: Reverie Cafe: 848 Cole Street (near Carl).

Yes, there'll be copies of JPG Magazine avaliable. Also, cheese. And coffee. And wine and beer. And us.

Here's hoping you'll be there too!

UPDATE: It rocked! Thanks to all who attended.

JPG Magazine is GO!
Just a thought from 13 January 2005 about JPG Magazine, Photography, Powazek.

The first issue of JPG Magazine is out!

JPG Begins
Just a thought from 18 September 2004 about JPG Magazine.

They're called "photobloggers" - a sloppy term for sloppy times. They're people who, armed with cameras ranging from cheap to expensive, film to digital, wander the streets documenting their world and posting the results to the web.

In another time they would have been called artists. Personal documentarians. But we have a simpler word for them: Photographers.

JPG Magazine is for photographers like us who fall somewhere in between the strict definitions of "amateur" and "professional." People who, enabled by new technology that makes imagemaking and self-publishing easier than ever, have fallen in love with photography and sought out others with the same passion.

A Powazek/Champ Production
Just a thought from 6 September 2004 about JPG Magazine.