Happy New Year - 2008

Greetings and Best Wishes for the New current Year -- 2008. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly time rushes past. I sincerely hope that last year - 2007 was a good one for you, and true to the focus of this web site, a productive IR learning experience for you. It is also absolutely amazing to think that I, an amatuer photographer, and truly an amatuer at Infared Photography, could sit down and build a site like this from scratch. Possessing nothing more than a few years of IR shooting experience and the bold desire to do it, this site was born. The Internet is certainly an amazing place!

The first Post, the 'Welcome' went online in the waning days of February 2007, on the 20th day. It was another 7 days, Feb. 27th to be exact, until I learned how to include a site tracker to gather statistics on the hits my site was getting. The results were surprising to say the least. Importantly, they quickly told me that there is indeed a readership for this kind of information, and that the effort to build it was a worthwhile endeavor. So I perservered in my quest. In 2007 the IR Buzz received 21,850 visits from you, my readers. Currently the site receives around 60+ visits per day, and the number goes up dramatically when a new Featured Photographer is posted. Even more telling, you have stayed around to read from the site while you are here. You looked at a total of 56,882 pages from those visits, which during quiet times averages around 200+ pages opened per day. I never dreamed that this site would have so much activity, especially an unknown web site in it's first year of existance. For this, I am humbly and eternally grateful. Thank You!

(click on the graphics for a full size view, use your browser's Back button to return).

Accomplishments: I have built a Nine Part, self authored, "Infrared For Beginners Series" which I trust has been helpful to you, to understand some of the Issues of IR Photography, and hopefully has given you the information that you need in order to get started. But, the one thing that really makes this site successful is participation by you, my readers. This comes in the form of the highly successful "Featured IR Photographers Showcase" series, and "Guest Articles".

Guest Articles: Niek Haak has graced these pages with two highly informative technical articles, and more are in the works for 2008. If you have not read them, here are direct links:

Sony H9 Review

Sony 7x7 Modification for IR

Thank you Niek!

Featured IR Photographer Showcase: Not counting my own Feature to get the series kicked off, 13 of the very best IR Photographers from around the world have their work Featured here. I believe that the chance to view what other talented artists are doing in IR, is the best tool available to foster imagination, inspiration, and creativity in our own work. These people have been most generous with their efforts and time, and I just can't thank them enough for allowing their work on the IR Buzz. They certainly deserve a big "Thank You" from all of the site readership. If you have reviewed these Features in the past, you may be missing some of their best work. They continually add new images to their Galleries, so be sure to go back and take a fresh look at their work. Here are links, in alphabetical order.

Andrea Lohmann

Bevan Badcott

Bruce Burton

David Twede

Jesus Valenciano

Jim Kramer

John McDonough

Joseph Levy

Kort Kramer

Niek Haak

Peter De Ryche

Ruel Tafalla

Vernes Go

The list is growing. I have some wonderful artists planned for the coming year, but there are always openings, so please do not be shy, contact me and join these talented artists on the IR Buzz.

And Finally, on Dec 14th the IR Buzz received the Best Blog of the Day Award.

2007 was a great year for the IR Buzz, and ultimately it's all due to it's readership...You! So, thank you very, very much, and join me in anticipation of even better and greater things in 2008.

-=- Jerry -=-

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