I decided to spin off my photography articles to a dedicated photography blog,
Lens4anEye is at https://lens4aneye.blogspot.com/
The photos are hosted on ClickaSnap.com and can be visited by everyone.
Look for my narratives which accompany the photos on the blogspot blog.
Photos by Robert Carlson
By Robert Carlson [Lens4anEye]
I was in Charleston to get photographs of the city and its culture. I had driven there and had Savannah, GA as my next way-point on a circuit. I checked into a motel and went out to peruse the area and decide what my subject for the next day would be.
The sign said "Circular Church" so I stopped and looked around. The establishment was quite old and included a cemetery with equally old grave markers. They were tall and thin mostly gray stone tablets with archaic spelling and skeleton figures. View the entire Album at this link.
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The church yard was full of similar markers and the location quite placid. It was the architecture of the church itself which caught my eye. The round sections all clustered into one larger composition made for a unique (to my eye) view.
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| The Circular Church in Charleston |
I spent the afternoon of the first day there and returned the morning of the next to get a variety of exposures. Then I moved on to explore more of the famous city with the Battery and parks.
Images by Robert Carlson -- Copyright 2008-2023 -- Pictures hosted at ClickaSnap.com
Profile name: Len4anEye
The Crossings Trilogy
Internal Crossing is a book like no other. It is a Science Fiction tale which keeps changing. We all learn that the Future is an unknown and the Past is immutable. But this story proposes that the Past is indeed changing "all the time" but most of us have no realization of it. What could accomplish such a task? No spoilers here. The protagonist, Robert3 Corbin realizes he is not singular in this reality and that many versions of himself are out there "coming and going" with the changing past.
The term Internal Crossing is also stock market jargon. This is not that. At least not the same the last time I looked.
The characters in this book are multidimensional and as real as they can be. Their actions shape whether the changing past is a good thing or bad. It's time to order the eBook and find out what is happening.
In book 2, The continued story of a man who discovers there are many versions of himself entering and exiting his reality on a fluid basis. In the process of discovery he realized something is modifying the Past of a nearly continual basis.
In Book 3, Robert Corbin continues to meet versions of himself in this 3rd part of the Crossing Series. He has learned what is happening to the Past and that there are people and entities which seek to control the process. Nothing you can know is for certain any longer.
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Click the covers above to go to Amazon to purchase these eBooks.
Is it Quantity or Quality which should prevail? One one hand the quality is essential, but one must have a sufficient quantity in order to engage the largest audience. Quantity doesn’t mean you as the photographer don’t need to maintain your level of quality. You can have both. The trouble is when you have a high number of images in your online collection the audience must scroll through many pages of pictures and the ones “below the fold” may never be seen.
Putting the images in some topically random order assures the audience doesn’t come to think the you only do photographs of one thing. Too many pictures of your cat or dog, or lots of pictures of different cats and dogs may interest the pet lovers, but it will turn off the landscape and architecture audience.
Recently I subscribed to the ClickASnap.com platform to facilitate my collections. They provide a token View Fee for when someone clicks on and views an image for 5 seconds or longer. This fee is derived from their paid subscriptions not from the person viewing the images. The second value they provide is printing and shipping of products which include the images their subscribers post.
It is the responsibility of the photographer to develop the customer=base for the products. This is why I have written this Medium article and you are reading it. I want you to see my photography and possibly buy a print of one type or another.
The Front Porch Collection is an ongoing project where I attempt to present a wide variety of examples from mere stoops to wraparound verandas. Some houses are abandoned and dilapidated while others remain occupied (even if dilapidated). Still others are well maintained and grand.
The Black and White Collection is another niche album for the aficionados of the monochrome presentation style. B&W is not favored by everyone so if B&W is what one wants to see, clicking on the specific link saves a lot of time. As the photographer I would rather the audience look at everything, but that is not realistic in this fast paced world.
With 14 topical album from which to choose one needs a shortcut to get to the list of albums. Viola! Click Here to see the album list.
Trying to get attention in the world of millions of photographers and billions of images is not for the faint of heart. All one can do is keep the effort going.
In January of 2023 I learned of the existence of the photo sharing platform "ClickASnap.com". It promised to generate revenues from user views of my photos. While it does what it claims to do, the ROI for the effort incurred is very low. At 7/10ths of a cent per "Authentic View" one needs needs 14,285 of them to earn $100. An Authentic View is one where the user views the photo for at least 5 seconds.
With the Free account, the $100 needs 100,000 authentic Views. even at the Pro level the $100 needs 11,111 Authentic views. Obviously, the more photos uploaded the more opportunities there are to garner the requisite number of views. The ratio of ordinary views to Authentic Views in my experience is about 25%. That is a lot of work for the revenues.
Maybe as time moves on, the number of Authentic Views might approach 14k per month, i.e. $100, when more users discover my account. Meanwhile, the jury is still out on whether this platform and its revenue policy is worthwhile.
Please visit my ClickASnap.com gallery at Clickasnap.com/Lens4anEye
Outer Crossing
The 3rd Book in the Crossing Series
by Robert3 Carlson
"Robert Corbin continues to meet versions of himself in this 3rd part of the Crossing Series. He has learned what is happening to the Past and that there are people and entities which seek to control the process. Nothing you can know is for certain any longer."
My first attempts at publishing resulted in nothing published but then eBooks and the Internets came along and some of that here-to-fore unpublished material found a new outlet.
My books cover existential fiction blended with a lot of true story. The first three volumes represent just the beginning. The backlog of material extends back in time 50 years. Readers will be spared most of that early "stuff" except as accents and punctuation in a larger more contemporary writing.
Along with my Left Brain language dominant thinking I also have a Right Brain image dominant thinking that is expressed in a prolific photography legacy. I hope to be able to properly format an eBook of some of the photographic themes that I have covered since 1971.
Along with the flights of fancy in the fiction, I also have a penchant for observation and the connecting of dots that reveal "The Principle of Imminent Collapse" and "It's All Tuna!" Both are books that are yet to be made ready for publishing.
Meanwhile... enjoy the books that are available.
1st Book in the Series Internal Crossing
The virtual world inside a metaverse is a vulnerable thing. It depends on the continuation of interest in the the cyberspace which is created and maintained by the SysAdmin. Recently the Facebook Corporation made the move to forward the development of a Metaverse in which is billions of subscribers could interact as avatars walking around in a virtual world free of physical contact between biological bodies.
The idea that a single entity could own and control an entire existence runs afoul of the degrees of freedom people have come to expect in that realm. The real world is governed by powerful cadres of people who own everything even the water and air. They have monetized every aspect of the experience one can have. The same situation is developing in the metaverse. Actually, it is metaverses, plural, since the rush is on to create the next and best place for subscribers to come and play. Every video game is itself a micro metaverse, a bubble existence, where noting else outside the server exists.
In the same way a mining town in western states once grew up to be the place to be and get rich, the metaverses are on the same track. That track ends with the boom town becoming a ghost town where no one cares to be anymore. Company towns all across the nation are dilapidated remnants of their former selves. Few hangers-on remain to haunt the town but no one is maintaining them as they fall further into decay.
Every human settlement, i.e. town, villages and cities all need a reason to exist. Metaverses are no different. Styles change. Technologies improve and evolve. What was once state of the art is now yesterday's glory. The only way to assure continuation of human interest is the continual creation-destruction process. Hush Puppies were once THE SHOE to wear. No Longer. They did have a short lived revival, but they are once again passe. DOOM once was THE GAME to play on a computer. Pockets of enthusiasts strive to keep alive their favorite games just like their grand and great-grand-fathers keep alive their recollections of past wars and their part in them.
"Metaverses come and metaverses go, but the Megaverse abides."
The Megaverse is the universal set of all possible metaverses. No one person or corporation controls that space. A nation controls its currency by fiat, that is merely declaring its currency is a medium of exchange. In that manner, Bitcoin, Ethereum and a 1000 other cryptocurrencies are fiat if an authority says it is. One government can declare its currency Legal Tender but so can a hundred million (or more) holders of Zagnut candy bars. The utility of Zagnut bars may be limited to transactions sanctions by its holders, but they can be a medium of exchange nonetheless. The difference with cryptocurrencies is there is no central bank. Tens or hundreds of thousands (even millions) of computers all over the world process transactions and every owner of that currency agrees it has value by buying, selling and exchanging the currencies one for another and for assets either digital or physical.
One must keep in mind that ALL money is a medium of exchange for items a group of buyers and sellers which to exchange. Currencies collapse too. Only when they are stable and the holders keep faith in them, are they of any value.
Visiting and existing in a metaverse takes a leap of faith that being there will continue to satisfy the populace who reside there. If there is no reason to exist, it will cease to be of value and will eventually disappear into the dusty back roads of history. A metaverse has value if people say it does and go there to share their experiences with others who are there.
Metaverses need objects and developed spaces. Developers will create those digital assets when users demand them. Say you are a James Bond wannabee. You create an avatar who is handsome and svelte. Standing there in your BVDs won't make much of a positive impression. You'll want a tuxedo to impress the ladies. The easiest way to get a tux is to buy one from a clothing developer. Those people will digitize the articles of clothing and sell it to you as a non-fungible token (NFT) and you can wear it to the MetaCasino where you can sit at the Baccarat table and gamble your ETH and BTC. There you may see a beautiful woman avatar wearing the finest Halston NFT-Dress. She had to buy that one too. You want to impress her and send virtual drinks to her, shaken not stirred. Conversely, you might be the woman dressed to the Nines to meet a dashing man-about-town who has Double-O status. Maybe, just maybe you'll need a virtual room for additional activities.
For a limited time you are entertained by the notion you are suave and debonair or glamorous and dazzling, and it will cost you. Probably not as much as actually dressing up for the evening and going to a classy casino and meeting someone to pass the time with. This is the promise of a metaverse. Tomorrow when you try to go back to that MetaCasino it is nowhere to be found. Its developer has lost interest in it or was forced out by other developers. Like a dream, it is gone, collapsed into the reverie of your memory. The side benefit is with your gambling skills your crypto wallet may be fatter and the evening cost you nothing at all.
